Pizza prep surface

[gjbingham]

James,
I never paid attention to the pizzaiolos loading pizzas on their peels. How do they do that without deforming the pizza? Does the semolina or whatever flour they use on the prep surface keep the pizza from sticking to the peel?

[james]

Hey George,

It really does work. You can make a nice, thin pizza on a marble or granite top, and using just flour, you grab one edge of the pizza with your thumb and index finger to slightly lift and pull -- while you shoot your peel under the pizza. Your peel has to be clean and dry, perhaps with a little flour on it, and the pizza stays perfectly round.

You have to make sure you have enough flour for the pizza to not stick, and not so much that it burns, or leaves a singed flour taste on the bottom of your pizza.

Really!

It definitely is time to kick start the FB Video series. We need to capture this -- and a handful of other things, on video.

James

[DaveHI]

Our main kitchen has granite counters which work great for dough prep. I was using the stove top cutout remnant for the final outdoor pizza base shaping, but when we got cabinets out there, we broke down and paid up for granite tops on the teak as well. I feel pretty silly whining about the cost of shipping in bricks/mortars/etc when we paid what we paid for granite over teak but I guess that's human nature.

I do have to keep the granite in shade or it gets way too hot in our sun. I use another remnant as a cutting block for the finished pies. Get a bit of heat retention if that's left in the sun.

I haven't tried actually making the pizza on the counters. I just shape the dough then put it on a wooden peel for the toppings. They get out of round but I've no pride about shape. People only seem to care about the taste when it comes right down to it. It's so humid that everything has to be done pretty fast or the dough gets damp and sticks to anything. Luckily the last time I really stuck one it was just a 4 cheese so we could make a new base and just scrape the cheese off the ruined one.

Our granite guy throws his sink cutouts away (In fact they threw mine away by error. It was was supposed to be cut into my entry hearth, but they made me a beautiful replacement so no harm). He sells finished 3 X 5 bath vanity tops for about $500 but smallish pieces 2X3 really don't have much value. Even the most expensive stone is only about $85/ft2

Marble really does stain, but you can seal them stone sealer (HD has it) and it's not as big a problem. I'd stay with granite as it's much more forgiving. marble also hates acids.

[gjbingham]

Good answer James. Thanks! I guess I have to wash my peel, huh? I'll give your technique a try!

BTW, I made pizzas last weekend with Montery Jack vs. Mozzarella. I was only making two pizzas and didn't want to break open my good Mozzarella. I think they were tastier. Have anyone else ever tried that?

[thebadger]

I think I lucked out. I found a 2x5 ft piece of granite (remnant) with a beveled front egde for only $100!

My plan is to make a counter area with storage, electric and maybe a fridge to the right of my oven.

Dick

[james]

That's what we want to hear. :-)

I think using a remnant on top of another counter is a good option. One more thing -- our remnant is 36" wide, which is really tight for making two pizzas at a time. OK for the kids, but not really enough elbow room for two adults.

James

[cvdukes]

The day after Christmas, we picked up a lot of ceramic tile on clearance at Lowes...the master bath shower ended up taking about 6 weeks (replacing subfloor and all that) but when finished, I still had about 350 square feet of tile left. Most of its 12" (but only 11 cents each!) but there are still 4-5 boxes of the 18" inch size (94 cents on sale, regular price $4 each) so the plan is to cover all the concrete counters out by the ovens with it.
The last couple of parties, I just put a few of the big tiles out on the countertops... mostly we make the pizzas directly on the peels but some of the tiles get used for prep work. Also great for dumping pizzas back on out of the oven...keeps the peels in use for others to assemble their pizzas on.
I think that once I tile the counters, I'll keep at least 6 of the big ones free for use during parties. They're big enough to work on but can be moved around on the counters to get more elbow room if needed. Also, if someone makes a royal mess on one, its easy to pop over to the sink for a quick rinse off and dry. And as we found out last week, big tiles with dough or finished pizzas can quickly be grabbed up to shove under shelter when the sky opens up.

[david s]

A friend of mine "came by" some stainless steel sheet about 1mm thick. After a good sanding with fine sandpaper using a big angle grinder, it polished up well. We just lug it around and put it where we need it each time. It's about 4ftx 2ft Pizza peel slides under beautifully