flour or cornmeal

[tommy5]

i am trying to be truly authentic with my pizza, does anybody know if they use flour or cornmeal in italy on the peel?

[james]

Flour!!!!

Professional pizza chefs also say you should pull your pizza toward the peel, rather than pushing the peel under the pizza so you don't pick up too much flour. I think that's pretty difficult to do, but the pro's can do it.
James

[Xabia Jim]

Hate to argue with the boss but we liked the cornmeal better.

Maybe we had too much flour? It was a bit pasty.

We also found a rice meal, like cornmeal that I'm going to try.

I think it's worth trying different things to see what you like. They both performed about the same.

I wonder what types of things Canuck Jim has used under his breads??

Jim

[sssmasi]

omg don't cornmeal... i know i don't post much... but for god's sake DO NOT USE CORNMEAL!


i swear if i ever walked into someones house where they served me pizza with cornmeal on the bottom of it i would slap them and leave in a fit of absolute rage

[redbricknick]

What if you walked into their house after being lost in the desert for weeks, and hadn't eaten anything but the leather from your shoes, and your hiking partner? What then sssmasi?

[CanuckJim]

XJim,

I've tried lots of things to make my peels work better. All I'm after is slip, not taste or addition, with the exception of bagels and some rolls. After a lot of experimentation, I've settled on stone ground brown rice flour for my breads. It's a bit coarser than finely milled flour and does not burn as easily. Gives plenty of slip, even for high hydration breads like Pain a l'Ancienne (Peter Reinhart). I find that what's left on the bottoms of the breads is easily brushed off after baking.

As an aside, I baked a bunch of those baguette yesterday. The hearth was hot (610), but my schedule demanded I get moving. Took 8 minutes to reach an internal temp of 205 F. No scorching or burning, well caramelized, great spring.

Jim

[Versachi]

I don't know if it's my place to say something but I think sssmasi's last post was the kind of post that is not needed on this forum. When I look at the posts each day on the forum I hope that I find some cooking posts with pics to match so I can see the variety of different styles of cooking in a brick oven. I think I can speak for most that we are jealous yet impressed by the amount and variety of cooking Xabia Jim in the past month. If he wants to cook tofu in his oven, I want to see and hear about it! My worry is that negative posts will make those that do cook and post about, Leary to do so. Imo the thing that hooks people into building one of these things is seeing the pictures of what can be cooked in one and how good it tastes. We need to encourage each others oven building/baking and offer help and direction if needed.

Cheers, Versachi

[maver]

Where to draw the line? I'll take smashey's post in jest - tough to get the intent from text, especially in one of the first few posts - not a lot of history. I agree with the versachi though that one of the appeals of this forum is the overall openness and evenhanded approach - it's a forum for ideas rather than opinions.

[sssmasi]

Originally Posted by redbricknick

What if you walked into their house after being lost in the desert for weeks, and hadn't eaten anything but the leather from your shoes, and your hiking partner? What then sssmasi?

I would ask for my nonna's forgiveness and shamefully eat the pizza.

[sssmasi]

Originally Posted by maver

Where to draw the line? I'll take smashey's post in jest - tough to get the intent from text, especially in one of the first few posts - not a lot of history. I agree with the versachi though that one of the appeals of this forum is the overall openness and evenhanded approach - it's a forum for ideas rather than opinions.

Yes of course it was in jest. My lord! Basically it was James' "Flour!!!" response hyperbolized!