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Pizza Help for a newbie - pretty please?

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Volfo
Volfo Posts: 39
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
Love my egg. But I keep hearing about the great pizzas and I keep failing - miserably.

Here is the problem. I get a beautiful pizza made on fresh dough (bought from publix or whole foods) and I can't slide it onto the pizza stone. I have seen videos of people sliding them on. I have read to preheat your pizza stone. so what gives? How in the world do I get the pizza onto the stone to cook.

I had a beautiful pizza made that just went on the egg and it is a horrible looking poor man's attempt at a calzone now. and I won't even be able to flip it because of all the tears in the top. Would love to know the answer to this - and I assume I don't have to prepare it on the stone, thus having to buy multiiple pizza stones if I want two different pizzas - do I?
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  • Austin Egger
    Austin Egger Posts: 256
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    You need to buy a pizza peel. Use parchment paper under the pizza. That's how I do it and I have never had a problem. Others use cornmeal or flour to put on the stone, but I have my best pizzas using parchment paper. I make my own dough, so I usually use it for the first 2 minutes of cooking the dough only. I then load it up with topping and put it on for about 6 minutes at 550 w/o the paper. I have used the parchment paper for the full cook and it has been just as good.
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  • brisket30
    brisket30 Posts: 122
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    Heavily corn starched pizza Peel is how I do it. If there is too much moisture causing it to stick you cannot slide it off
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  • Volfo
    Volfo Posts: 39
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    I've used lots of flour and it doesn't seem to help at all. So you make your pizza on parchment paper? Then you slide the paper with the pizza on top onto the stone and let it cook for 2 minutes wiht the parchment paper under the pizza and on top of the stone? Then you slide the pizza and paper off the stone, put on your sauce and topping, and then there is enough cooked crust to slide it onto the stone to finish with no paper? Just trying to figure this out. I'm not a cook - but I have made some great bbq with this egg!
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  • Austin Egger
    Austin Egger Posts: 256
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    Yes, you got it. That's how I do it and it is my preferred method. Definitely other methods out there. Are you using a pizza peel???
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  • Volfo
    Volfo Posts: 39
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    Also, is parchment paper the same as wax paper? I have the feeling this shouldn't be this hard!

    About to go get the calzone off!
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  • Austin Egger
    Austin Egger Posts: 256
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    No, it isn't, Parchment paper is high temperature paper. I always put it under my pizza and tear off the extra pieces (on the corners), except for 1, so that I can pull it on the peel.
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  • Volfo
    Volfo Posts: 39
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    I don't know what a pizza peel is!

    Thanks so much for the help here. I have to say that this forum is great. I have read the posts that it could get shut down and if it did, it would really diminish the brand value of an egg in my opinion. There are other ceramic cookers but there is something about an egg that it makes it "the" cooker. I think it is the community and the support. If the community goes away for lack of support - what's to distinguish the egg from teh round primo or kamado joe!
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  • Judy Mayberry
    Judy Mayberry Posts: 2,015
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    That is such good advice that I won't even attempt to give alternate methods here.
    Judy in San Diego
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  • PhilsGrill
    PhilsGrill Posts: 2,256
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    You have seen those big wooden spatula's right at Pizza restaurants? That is a pizza peel. I have two, one wooden to put the pizza on, one metal to take it off. Use corn meal (or parchment paper like other have said) on the peel. Now make your dough and put it on the peel and make your pizza. Check every once in a while by shaking the peel to see if the pizza moves. If not, add more corn meal.
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  • Volfo
    Volfo Posts: 39
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    THANK YOU to everyone who helped. I will try it next time! (and the "calzone" didn't look pretty but it tasted pretty good!)
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  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0
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    piling on here.

    cornmeal acts like ballbearnings under your pizza. put it on the peel and build your pizza on the peel. (BTW- if the pizza sits on your peel a long time before cooking, it will be more difficult to move) then put cornmeal on your stone before you put the pizza on it.

    flour does something else. it's part of the dough but doesn't help the pizza slide on and off the peel or stone.

    I use Parchment paper now. Build the Pizza on the parchment (available in any grocery store near the aluminum foil, waxed paper, etc). when ready to cook, slide the peel under the parchment, transfer it to the stone and cook till done. then take it all off. I leave the parchment in place during the whole cook. it's a short cook. the paper may get charred around the edges but it doesn't affect the flavor.
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  • Zippylip
    Zippylip Posts: 4,768
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    Flashback Bob wrote:
    then put cornmeal on your stone before you put the pizza on it.

    Bob, why cornmeal on the stone? Once you’ve successfully slid the pie onto the stone, hasn’t the cornmeal already served its sole purpose?
    happy in the hut
    West Chester Pennsylvania
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  • Ohio48
    Ohio48 Posts: 20
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    Zippylip wrote:
    Flashback Bob wrote:
    then put cornmeal on your stone before you put the pizza on it.

    Bob, why cornmeal on the stone? Once you’ve successfully slid the pie onto the stone, hasn’t the cornmeal already served its sole purpose?

    You got it on the stone with cornmeal, and it helps getting it off also.
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  • Zippylip
    Zippylip Posts: 4,768
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    "You got it on the stone with cornmeal, and it helps getting it off also"
    when the pizza is done, the bottom crust is (or should be) a crispy & dry surface that has pulled away from the stone, it will slide around the stone easily. By then it has lost all or most of its moisture which was initially the enemy of easy movement off the peel. The cornmeal doesn't keep the cooked pie suspended/separated from the hot stone, it's merely a vehicle to get the pie to the stone.
    happy in the hut
    West Chester Pennsylvania
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  • PhilsGrill
    PhilsGrill Posts: 2,256
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    This is true.
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  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0
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    This is the way I learned and no one ever said otherwise (till now). maybe as a newbie if you don't plop the pie down right it offers you the ability to adjust? I dunno.

    Honestly, I switched to parchment and never looked back.

    If I was to use cornmeal again I'd try it without on the stone as you said.
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  • OMG Eggs
    OMG Eggs Posts: 118
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    Go to a restaurant supply store, they'll have plenty of pizza peel options. It takes a little practice, but once you get, it's pretty easy.

    On of the biggest challenges is time. You don't want the dough sitting on the peel for very long. I always have all the toppings ready to go, stretch the dough, toss it on the peel, dress the pizza and give the dough one final gental tug to stretch it just a bit more.

    I'm violently opposed to corn meal and parchment paper. You don't need either. Just rub some high temp flour into your peel and gently shake it off, onto the stone.
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  • Jolly Bill Barker
    Jolly Bill Barker Posts: 119
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    Once you have purchased a paddle...

    I use a mix of 00 flour and semolina flour on the peel. There are tricks to how to do this.

    First off you have to keep the dough sliding on the peel. So you put the flour on the peel and don't be shy. Put your tossed or rolled dough onto the dusted peel. Immediately shake it back and forth. If it sticks lift it up and throw some more mixed flour under it. Repeat until it moves well. Start adding your topping quickly and keep shaking to keep it from sticking. Move it to the egg and keep shaking.

    Once egg is open shake it forward so that it is hanging over the end of the peel a little bit. About an inch. Set the edge on the stone and let it stick to the stone a little bit and then slide the pizza off of the peel.

    I like flour because it burns a little bit and gives that blackened bottom to my DOC Napoletana.
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