Pizza Sticking to Oven Floor Heat Management Discuss Pizza Sticking to Oven Floor in the Oven Management forums; I'm having a terrible problem with pizza sticking to my relatively new Primavera 60 oven. I first thought it was ...

[jdc]

I'm having a terrible problem with pizza sticking to my relatively new Primavera 60 oven. I first thought it was a new dough recipe I was using, but I've returned to the old one and the problem hasn't gone away. I was making pizzas fine for two months and now I can't seem to make one without it sticking.

The first pizza comes out okay, but then the sticking gets progressively worse. Attached is a photo of the residue left afterward -- not even the worst of it.

Any suggestions? If anything, I'd say my heat management has gotten better as I'm able to keep a good flame going throughout the baking process and hearth temperatures are between 800-900 degrees consistently.

[dmun]

Are your pizzas leaking? This one has me stumped. Unless it's glued down with cheese, I can't think of anything that would make a pizza stick to a hot floor.

[biondoli]

This is one explanation...:
when you have the balls ready for the second raise generally there is flour on top and under them to avoid that the balls will stick on the floor where they rest.
Now if you raise the balls without covering them with film paper or wet cloths, they will form some crust.
The crust is the result of the ball absorbing part of the flour on the bottom/top. Once in the oven these crusts will burn immediately and will try to absorb moisture from the ball which at this point will stick on the oven floor because the crust is already part of it. Hope this is clear...not easy to explain....ciao Carlo

[Mitchamus]

are you making really thin pizza's?
could there be a tear in the bottom where toppings are leaking through?

Are you letting the prepared pizza's sit for a long time before they go in the oven?

Is your sauce very watery or thin?

Try one on a price of wax paper, and examine the paper after cooking to see if there is any leakage... Unless the paper sticks that is

[MK1]

My experience says biondoli nailed it, if you wait a little longer to slide the turning peel under, the drier flour has separated and the crust won't tear.

Mark

[proprio italiano]

it looks to me as if your dough is too wet. this, coupled with very high heat can cause the dough to stick and burn. i have had this problem on occasion. i have dealt with it best by flouring the side of the dough that i will place down and then spinning it from hand to hand just before placing it on the peel to get any excess flour off. you should try using cornmeal on the peel before you place the dough on it. if you can't solve it that way, you could try placing parchment paper on the peel and then placing the dough on the parchment paper. then slide the dough and parchment paper into the oven. hope some of this drivel helps you slve your problem sincerely, joe

[james]

Is there something burned on the floor that you have not quite gotten clean with the brush? Burned attracts burned on the floor.

I don't think it is wet dough, but sauce or cheese that spills over the side of the pizza and gets caught on the cooking floor can burn and stick. Do you have enough flour? Personally, I don't like corn meal.

At 800ºF, your pizza should not stick. :-)

James

[jdc]

Thanks everyone for your ideas! The one that resonates most is that I'm using the turning peel too early. I say that because it's really the only change in conditions/methods that may have occurred between my early successful pizzas and my current unsuccessful ones... there aren't tears at all and I've made pizzas of various thicknesses and topping weights with no change in the problem... I've been making pizzas for a long time and on occasion have created the premature outside crust on my dough balls and so I know that's not it either.

If it is the early peel use, it makes some sense because when I had the problem once, I kept getting curious about whether it was happening with subsequent pizzas and so I'd peek early -- which would of course make the problem worse.

Thanks again to everyone and to Forno Bravo for this amazing forum! I'll be sure to report back either way.

[proprio italiano]

i'll be interested to hear if using the pallino later rather than earlier solves the problem. from your picture, i dont think it will as i presume the burn marks you show are from your first placement of the pizza. i made pizzas for years in my father's restaurant in a commercial Baker's Pride oven which was gas fired and had a stone floor. we would keep the oven temp around 550 to 600 degrees F. often, the first pizzas of the night would burn on the bottom, similar to your picture. my father always said it was that the stone was too hot initially and had to cool down after its first pizza or two in a given area and he always suggested that i flour the first pizzas more heavily. now that i am working with a wood burning oven, i, too, am having some trouble with the bottom charring when the floor temps are high. so, you could consider this in your experiments to solve your problem. joe

[jdc]

Thanks Joe, I will definitely report back. Based on your description though, the problem should get better, not worse over the course of the night and I've been having the opposite problem. The first one is the best and the last one is the worst... However, I do move the coals from one side to the other in between each pizza, so perhaps that recharging of the floor just keeps it too hot? Jeff