Pizza Baking Tip

[albacore]

When you fire up your oven, when is it ready to cook pizza?

Generally speaking we get the oven nice and hot and then rake the coals to one side; let the floor cool a bit and check it with an IR thermometer, looking for around 350C. Or we do some kind of witch's trick and scatter a handful of flour in and see how long it takes to burn - a "rule of thumb", but I'm never quite sure what the rule is!

And I've had plenty of burnt pizzas by putting them in the oven too soon!

So, in an inspirational moment, I came up with a brilliant, if blindingly obvious, idea: when balling up your bulk dough, make a couple of 50g balls alongside your 200 or 250g balls, or whatever you use.

Then when you think your oven is good to go as determined by your IR thermom or the hairs on the back of your hand or whatever, just make an unadorned pizzetta with one of your 50g dough balls and dob it in the oven to confirm the oven is ready - without putting delicious charcoal bases on your first load of pizzas.

Lance

[downunderdave]

Aug 26, 2018 22:19:49 GMT albacore said:

When you fire up your oven, when is it ready to cook pizza?

Generally speaking we get the oven nice and hot and then rake the coals to one side; let the floor cool a bit and check it with an IR thermometer, looking for around 350C. Or we do some kind of witch's trick and scatter a handful of flour in and see how long it takes to burn - a "rule of thumb", but I'm never quite sure what the rule is!

And I've had plenty of burnt pizzas by putting them in the oven too soon!

So, in an inspirational moment, I came up with a brilliant, if blindingly obvious, idea: when balling up your bulk dough, make a couple of 50g balls alongside your 200 or 250g balls, or whatever you use.

Then when you think your oven is good to go as determined by your IR thermom or the hairs on the back of your hand or whatever, just make an unadorned pizzetta with one of your 50g dough balls and dob it in the oven to confirm the oven is ready - without putting delicious charcoal bases on your first load of pizzas.

Lance

Every oven is different and a a lot can depend on how thick the floor and walls are as well as how well insulated the oven has been built, but generally most oven interiors will have the black soot inside completely burnt off after around an hour. Another half hour of firing after this point is generally sufficient to take it to pizza temperature. I usually give mine two hours of firing before raking the coals to the back and one side, then blowing the ash aside with a blowpipe (blow don’t suck): The semolina trick, (a party trick really to demonstrate that you’re a pizza master) is to cast about 1/2 tsp onto the floor and count how long it takes to turn black. 4 secs= not hot enough, 3 secs= just right, 2 secs = too hot. It is always too hot ie takes 2 secs to turn black. My remedy is to place the first pizza 1/2 in the oven and 1/2 in the entry and turn it frequently. Subsequent pizzas can be progressively pushed deeper into the oven so by about pizza 3 or 4 it hits it’s sweet spot and you can cook maybe 20 or 30 provided you maintain a small fire on the side,  before having to rake the coals over the floor to recharge it.

[devontiger]

albacore, " scatter a handful of flour in and see how long it takes to burn "

At this stage, are you cleaning the floor surface properly of the burnt flour.
I will normally Brush with my soft brush & also scrap with metal shovel peel to make sure floor is clean..

PS. I no longer have hair on the back front or sides of my hands. 
I have found that one does really need a clean floor.
Otherwise the pizza tends to pick up all whats on the floor.

[simonh]

I only ever give the floor a quick blow with my blowpipe to clear the flour off, seems to work well enough

[oblertone]

I normally do two garlic bread 'pizza' before stating to cook, excellent way of judging the floor temp and taking the sting out of it.