Two pizzas

[rlf5]

I actually got the camera out this time before everything had been eaten! The first one has tomato based sauce, a mix of mozzarella, fontina, and parmesan cheeses, and is topped with pepperoni, prosciutto, and fresh basil. The other has gorgonzola cheese, sliced onions, and portabella mushrooms...no sauce, just olive oil. The first came out great, the second was good but next time I'll caramelize the onions first. I thought the heat of the oven would do that, but I was wrong...lol.

[rlf5]

The rest....

[telehort]

thanks for the pictures, they look fantastic!..it is 8:51am and I am now dying for pizza :-) Good thing I have a couple doughs in the fridge for tonight.

[james]

Great looking pizzas - brings back fond memories. :-) Don't you love the way the cornicione puffs up. You don't get that in a conventional oven.

One thought on the fire. How high was your flame? It almost looks like you are cooking with hot embers and less with a good fire. I think the flame really helps bake the top ingredients.

If you have a good bouncing flame, then you only need the fire on one side, and not the back. It's a little easier to keep you pizza away from the ash that way - and you get a little more cooking space.

Reasonable?
James

[james]

One last thought. If you don't want the cornicione to get too big, you can push your sauce right out to the rim. Tomatoes, olive oil, pesto, etc. If there is sauce, it stays low; if there is no sauce it puffs!
James

[rlf5]

Thanks for the advice! The flames were pretty high right before I pushed everything to the side. I didn't put a new log on the embers b/c I was only cooking those two pizzas and didn't want to use up any more wood (not that one log would have hurt...lol). There were a few embers in the back that I tried to get, but it was too damn hot so I just left them there. Most of the embers and some low flames were pushed over to the right (not shown). Everything still came out well though. I'll be sure to have a nice high flame going next time b/c I've noticed the bottom suffers from those extra few seconds it takes to cook the top.

Originally Posted by james

Great looking pizzas - brings back fond memories. :-) Don't you love the way the cornicione puffs up. You don't get that in a conventional oven.

One thought on the fire. How high was your flame? It almost looks like you are cooking with hot embers and less with a good fire. I think the flame really helps bake the top ingredients.

If you have a good bouncing flame, then you only need the fire on one side, and not the back. It's a little easier to keep you pizza away from the ash that way - and you get a little more cooking space.

Reasonable?
James

[james]

I've been splitting nice little 1 1/2 - 2" pieces to "keep the flaming going." Hah had. I stack them up ready to go before I start baking my pizzas.
James