Common Mistakes, Pizza Disasters

[nissanneill]

Cooking the pizza on aluminium foil.
Talk about the pizza sticking to the peel, it is not much fun trying to peel of the foil that is stuck well to the underside of your 'special' very hot and fresh pizza from holding it over your head.
I found out that probably too much topping tends to slide off, but I prefer more rather than less toppings.
It is a good way to learn how to overcome the problem. Now I sprinkle the peel with a little salt and it works wonders. No more sticking to the peel.

Neill

[Richard]

Salt - that's something new?

Doesn't it cook into the dough giving it a salty taste?

[Unofornaio]

Originally Posted by nissanneill

Cooking the pizza on aluminium foil.
Talk about the pizza sticking to the peel, it is not much fun trying to peel of the foil that is stuck well to the underside of your 'special' very hot and fresh pizza from holding it over your head.
I found out that probably too much topping tends to slide off, but I prefer more rather than less toppings.
It is a good way to learn how to overcome the problem. Now I sprinkle the peel with a little salt and it works wonders. No more sticking to the peel.

Neill

Get out the blood pressure cuff..
I think you will find that either coarse ground corneal (white or yellow) or regular ground will solve all your sticking problems. It also make the pizza kinda "float" on the hearth making it very easy to rotate and retrieve with the peel.

[james]

Here is the link to our poll on what to use to keep your pizza from sticking:

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f10/...meal-1715.html (Flour or Cornmeal)

[nissanneill]

Salt!!!
it merely acts like the pizza is on ball bearings and slides very easily off the peel. Try it, I don't normally eat salt but cannot taste it at all. Try it once for youself before you become too critical.

Neill

[Richard]

OK - just questioning, not being critical, we all try to help on this forum.

Do you use iodized table salt , kosher salt , or sea salt

[nissanneill]

Hi Richard,
common old table salt is all that is used. A rather small pinch very lightly sprinkled over the front edge of the peel is all that I use, less seems to work fine without adding to the flavour. Try it and reply if you find it taints your pizza.

Neill

[Pizza Man]

If you want to put a lot of toppings on your pizza, cook the crust first just until it firms up a little and them take it out and put the toppings on. It will come off the peel fine.

[oventhusiast]

Hey Jan,
I loved the 'Murphy's Law' explanation ! Very funny! I can't wait to light this thing and start the 'burning curve'! Oops! I mean the 'Learning Curve'!!! (I think my first 'newspaper' fire will be tomorrow!)
Rick

[oventhusiast]

Well it's been 3 weeks or so and this is the third time we had pizza. I'm feeling like a terrible flop. My pizza is getting WORSE! The first one was awesome! And it was just an experiment! The oven was at it's last curing stage and I ran to the local pizza shop and got a nice fresh piece of dough, spread it out , added the tomato, cheese and spices (and EVOO) and Viola! a Great pie! The next week we had a couple of neighbors over and it was like eating a tasty rubber frisbee. I blamed that on the cold store bought dough. Tonight (this afternoon) we got really good fresh dough and I let it sit to rise and we made five pizzas. I really didn't let the oven go white because the wood I just bought (1/2 CORD) is 'wet'. The oven wasn't getting hot enough so I ran down to the store and bought a $6. bundle of dry hard oak. It lit up like a dry christmas tree! I figured I could start cooking the pizza but the floor never got hot enough. The pizza burnt on top and the bottom was limp ! I guess I really need to get some dry wood (lots of it) and let the oven go white all over, let it come down a bit and then start cooking. I hope so because this is going to be a really expensive paper weight if this keeps up !
Feeling lousy,
Rick