Pizza Steel, 1st attempt

Carolina Q

Wow! Just WOW!! Bought a piece of scrap steel a while back. Intended to use it for pizza, but somehow need did. Tonight was the night. Oven though. It won't fit the egg and anyway, I haven't done a pie in the egg in a couple of years.

Grocery store dough, made on March 30, so a two day cold rise. Divided the 1 lb dough into two (yesterday) and shaped into balls. Today, I heated the oven to about 700° (too hot for this dough as it turned out), let the steel heat up and then turned off the oven and switched to the broiler. Bottom was a bit too charred. but the top was AWESOME!!! I think next time I'll keep that particular dough at 5-550° and see what happens. Or make my own dough.

Anyway, canned crushed tomatoes, seasonings, mozz, leftover egged pork butt, fresh basil and a drizzle of evoo. Best pie I've had in quite a while!

grege345

That is a 10!

Lmidkiff

Looks awesome! 

Carolina Q

Thanks, guys. I need to work on oven temp vs dough type, but I LOVE all the leopard spotting in the top of the pie. The broiler did a great job with that! The steel was just too hot for the underside of that particular dough, but hopefully with a bit of experimenting...

Little Steven

Very nice Michael. I use my incredibly overpriced ones in the egg and in the oven. The best thing on the egg is burgers, no wait, you can't have them. Turkey burgers I mean

Carolina Q

Little Steven said:

Very nice Michael. I use my incredibly overpriced ones in the egg and in the oven. The best thing on the egg is burgers, no wait, you can't have them. Turkey burgers I mean

Haha, thanks bud. I still eat burgers. And pizza. Just not as often. My steel cost $12 as I recall.

I intended to cut the steel down to fit the egg, but I can use it as a flat top in  the Weber. And I do all my pizza in the oven anyway. So I doubt I'll ever cut t down to size.

Nanook

Nice work!

mahenryak

I don't know if I'm more impressed with the pizza, which looks awesome, or the fact that your oven heats to 700 degrees. 

Carolina Q

mahenryak said:

I don't know if I'm more impressed with the pizza, which looks awesome, or the fact that your oven heats to 700 degrees. 

Actually, I've had it to 735° a couple of times. It's not supposed to as the dial says a max of 550°. Was a fluke I found out how hot it really gets. According to my Thermoworks IR anyway. And the look of the pizza. I figure since it was designed for self cleaning, it probably gets at least that hot then.

It's an old stove. I'm gonna be bummed when it finally dies. 

mahenryak

Carolina Q said:

It's an old stove. I'm gonna be bummed when it finally dies. 

No kidding.  I would be too. 

SkinnyV

Pro indoor pizza here well done. I love my stone though , the last 3-4 min I put the pie on the bottom rack for crisp crust. Works perfect not sure I am changing anytime soon.

Carolina Q

LOL, mine didn't TAKE 3-4 minutes! Actually, I didn't time it, but it couldn't have been any longer than that when I discovered the bottom was beginning to char a bit too much. 

I still have some tinkering to do, but I definitely like the steel / broiler idea!

caliking

Nice looking pie!

I did some experiments in the past, and it may be more the steel than the dough. The steel seems to work best at temps of about 500-550°F

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1151296/naan-and-pide-experiments-on-steel

Carolina Q

Thanks! That was gonna be my next attempt. Maybe 600°, but no higher. Gotta figure it out though. The top is too good to give up on!!!

Canugghead

Hey Michael, that pie looks amazing. As you'll recall I followed your advice and got two pieces of 44w (canuck equivalent of A36) scrap steels a while back. Have used them with egg, lodge sportsman grill, butane stove or portable induction cooktop for burger, steak, sous vide searing, etc. except pizza, and very happy.  Have been meaning to try pizza in the oven but never gotten around to it, thanks for another push.

MCAH has a page on how they explored cooking more than 100 pies using different media (stone, CI pan, CI griddle, baking steels) and processes, they concluded baking steels in oven is best... didn't specify temp settings but they preheat the steel at least an hour, I think that may be overboard?

Few weeks ago I almost pulled the trigger on a demo (with few missing non-essential parts) Blackstone at Lowes ... but walked away thinking I don't cook pizza that often, and I really wanted to try with steel in oven.

Carolina Q

Sounds like you're getting far more use out of your steel than I am. I need to get a smaller piece and try it as a flat top in the large egg. This one will fit in my Weber and works pretty well, but I never seem to use it there.

I thought about the Lowe's Blackstone deal too, and a couple of years ago, I would have done it. These days, I don't do pizza nearly as often so I don't plan on a dedicated oven. Especially when a $12 chunk of steel and a broiler shows such promise!

A while ago, I considered building an earth oven. Clay, sand, water, straw. Like the Blackstone, I certainly don't need one and it wi, but it might be a fun project. 

Canugghead

I notched the corners with a grinder. The larger one fits Large and XL; the smaller one fits the spider for crazy sizzle.

Carolina Q

I like the spider idea! Finally, a use for mine!! Need to buy a smaller steel.

Eggcelsior

Michael, Have you read up on Kenji's process with the baking steel and the broiler? 

Skiddymarker

Carolina Q said:

I like the spider idea! Finally, a use for mine!! Need to buy a smaller steel.

Enjoy your trip to the scrap yard! Awesome looking pie.
Last couple of pies on the egg have cheated and browned the top with a torch, worked pretty good. 

Carolina Q

Eggcelsior said:

Michael, Have you read up on Kenji's process with the baking steel and the broiler? 

Yes, I've read it. Thanks. Decided to try a higher temp anyway. Just because I could. And even though there was too much char (on the bottom), it was still excellent. I'll lower the temp next time and see what happens. Oven spring at 700° was awesome though! 

Carolina Q

Well, I had enough dough for two pizzas, so I tried again. Added some red onion, but otherwise, the same toppings. 

About 600° this time. Bottom was nicely charred with no burning at all. Funny thing was, I think this one looked better, but the first one actually tasted better! 

I like the steel so far and I like the fresh dough I can get at one of the local grocery stores. Will do again! Thanks for looking!

Legume

Fantastic looking pizzas.

Canugghead

Please stop the tease man!  btw, is it gas or electric oven, how close was the pie to the broiler flame/element?

Carolina Q

Thanks guys!

Electric oven. The steel was 6" below the broiler element. I screwed up here though. I heated the oven with the normal bottom element, but forgot to turn on the broiler before I launched the pie! Duh!! Realized that after about 30-40 seconds and decided to take the pie out until the broiler heated up (2-3 minutes). I assume that's why this one didn't have as nice a crumb/texture... I interrupted its oven spring process. Too much on my mind. Next time I'll pay attention!  

cookn biker

Is that in your diet Michael?

Carolina Q

cookn biker said:

Is that in your diet Michael?

Molly, my dear, the way I look at it is, I have a daily sodium and sat fat limit. I try very hard not to exceed those limits. The pizza in that pic was a 10" pie. It had a couple of oz of lightly salted pork butt and 2-3 oz of mozz on it. Total. I ate HALF of it last night. NOTHING else. All day.  I know, I know... but it was PIZZA!

Pizza, cheese, pork butt, fries and burgers are occasional treats for me. I eat unsalted (or barely salted) chicken and veggies often! I mix my own seasonings and leave out or seriously reduce the salt. I have one creole seasoning recipe that calls for SIX TBLS of salt!! I use 1/2 tsp. in the whole recipe! I make pizza a few times a year! Virtually never two days in a row. Not any more anyway. I would KILL for a slice of ham, but at 750-900 mg of sodium for a lousy 3 oz "serving", I haven't had a single bite of it in over a year and a half!

Bottom line, anything I want is in my diet. As long as it's not in my diet all that often. Or in large quantities. 

Yeah, it sucks, but I ain't dead. Sorry. Didn't mean to rant. LOL