Actually getting pizza on egg and off the pizza peel????

Grillmagic

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Focker said:

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Sit down?

Focker

Yes, please.

Grillmagic

Focker said:

Yes, please.

Don't count on it!

Lit

You can't tell the difference at all between a pizza made on parchment then put in the egg for a minute then the parchment slid out and a pizza that goes straight to the stone. The difference in Fockers pizza is good dough. This thread got me wanting some pizza think I'm gonna start some dough tomorrow for Sunday. 

Focker

Lit said:

You can't tell the difference at all between a pizza made on parchment then put in the egg for a minute then the parchment slid out and a pizza that goes straight to the stone. The difference in Fockers pizza is good dough. This thread got me wanting some pizza think I'm gonna start some dough tomorrow for Sunday. 

Same here, but I want to focus on my small.
Have hit the long ball a couple of times, but struggle in different setups with NYer and that size egg.  Want to find a simple recipe, to replicate while on the move.

Seasoning a Wagner 1891 Anniversary griddle, the lip should be just enough.  I will hack the handle off to fit, placing a 12" BGE stone underneath.  The no knead, heavy oil, lower temp, hopefully works in my favor.

Very fond memories of table top arcades, and pizza that soaked up a napkin underneath it, a cheese crisped crust, requiring a judo chop to break the cheese from the pie at the middle of the table.  Even the Coke tasted better, in those red cups.  Off the chain, chain pizza back in the day.
https://youtu.be/bbWM_NJacOE

Easy no knead, heavy toppings, right up my QC alley.  I will try, to bring it back to life, in the small soon.

bobroo

I use a SuperPeel to put them on and a aluminum peel to take them off.

Super Peels are made well and totally awesome! I am thankful I bought it with every pizza; well worth the $.

Lit

I used parchment on the 6 panzie pizzas I cooked on the MM tonight. It sucks I didn't have to worry about spreading crap on a peel and working fast and shaking it I just built them on parchment paper and put them on the egg and after a minute slid the paper out. The crust even had bubbles. This one was saluted onions and hanger steak that I egged and diced. 

Focker

Lit said:

I used parchment on the 6 panzie pizzas I cooked on the MM tonight. It sucks I didn't have to worry about spreading crap on a peel and working fast and shaking it I just built them on parchment paper and put them on the egg and after a minute slid the paper out. The crust even had bubbles. This one was saluted onions and hanger steak that I egged and diced. 

Is that burnt parchment under there?

Hey man, if it looks and tastes good to you, right on.

With that being said, and all due respect, it looks rather elementary...like focaccia with toppings.  For starters, the doughball is too big.  Two, it wasn't opened right, too thick.  Three, the top is unevenly browned.  Four, your steak looks like boot leather(poor choice in topping), overcooked..should've ate it the first time it was cooked.

A couple of the guys that have recommended no parchment, could each put out a friggin' highlight reel of Zas.  The last pizza throwdown here was weak, at best, from what I recall.

Lit your pie shows, it's more than just good dough..and parchment. 

Zippylip

I’ve settled on a version of NY pie, prefer it to Neapolitan; I get a perfect combination of crisp and chew at around 750ish, dough can be cold or warm rise without too much effect, also settled on KA bread flour, yeast & salt.  Also, after years of listening to Michael whining about the virtues of semolina vs. cornmeal I made the switch a couple years ago, actually a 50/50 mix of semolina/flour, just a pinch rubbed into the peel does the trick, virtually zero transfer onto the stone, that goofy bastard actually had a point.  Haven’t really been photographing much lately but this one was a couple months ago, a pretty good representation of what I’m talking about, look closely at the peel & you won’t see much on there but that thing slides around beautifully.  I don't use any kind of peel for removal, rather I pull them with tongs onto a screen which is elevated (usually on top of the chimney starter) to cool/avoid steaming the bottom

Lit

Focker said:

show previous quotes

Lit said:

I used parchment on the 6 panzie pizzas I cooked on the MM tonight. It sucks I didn't have to worry about spreading crap on a peel and working fast and shaking it I just built them on parchment paper and put them on the egg and after a minute slid the paper out. The crust even had bubbles. This one was saluted onions and hanger steak that I egged and diced. 

Is that burnt parchment under there?

Hey man, if it looks and tastes good to you, right on.

With that being said, and all due respect, it looks rather elementary...like focaccia with toppings.  For starters, the doughball is too big.  Two, it wasn't opened right, too thick.  Three, the top is unevenly browned.  Four, your steak looks like boot leather(poor choice in topping), overcooked..should've ate it the first time it was cooked.

A couple of the guys that have recommended no parchment, could each put out a friggin' highlight reel of Zas.  The last pizza throwdown here was weak, at best, from what I recall.

Lit your pie shows, it's more than just good dough..and parchment. 

It is elementary I didn't have time to make dough so I let a store bought one get to room temp and folded into smaller balls and let rise. The point here was dough cooks good with parchment and it does even with store bought dough it's nice and crisp on the outside and browned up nice. The steak was really good actually I just used a left over piece after people had left to take the picture you can see even the cheese doesn't look good. The crust was pretty thin though if you look in the middle of the pic I just had 3 times the amount of toppings I should have.

Zippylip

when you open the egg to pull the parchment you impede the radiant heat properties, the egg takes a while to get going again in terms of top down cooking.  This likely explains why the top of you pie is uncooked.  To continue arguing that parchment doesn't hurt the process is misguided, as depicted in your own photos.  Why so reluctant to learn how to use a peel?

Lit

Zippylip said:

when you open the egg to pull the parchment you impede the radiant heat properties, the egg takes a while to get going again in terms of top down cooking.  This likely explains why the top of you pie is uncooked.  To continue arguing that parchment doesn't hurt the process is misguided, as depicted in your own photos.  Why so reluctant to learn how to use a peel?

I have used a peel plenty of times and didn't notice a difference. The toppings didn't brown because I had too much toppings and I was using the MM which isn't a great pizza cooker IMO but it's my only option that I can watch the game and cook. 

Zippylip

well I can't comment on the mini max having never cooked on one, but I can say that browning of cheese is a function of radiant heat.  A properly preheated cooker will brown cheese regardless of what's under it, in fact if you were to pile 6 inches of meat under it it would brown even faster as it would be that much closer to the heat source; center might be uncooked but the cheese won't be.  I don't know how you remove the parchment but I'd recommend opening the dome only an inch, or enough to slide tongs in to pull it out thereby keeping as much heat in there as possible.

Lit

Zippylip said:

when you open the egg to pull the parchment you impede the radiant heat properties, the egg takes a while to get going again in terms of top down cooking.  This likely explains why the top of you pie is uncooked.  To continue arguing that parchment doesn't hurt the process is misguided, as depicted in your own photos.  Why so reluctant to learn how to use a peel?

So you don't even lift the lid to rotate during the cook? I have seen hot spots cook one side faster many times. I do like the idea about pulling onto a screen though. 

Zippylip

Lit said:

So you don't even lift the lid to rotate during the cook? I have seen hot spots cook one side faster many times. I do like the idea about pulling onto a screen though. 

I avoid opening for rotation for the above reasons. I know some eggs seem to have hot spots worse than others & mine does too (back right corner for some reason).  I made the switch to a blackstone for regular pies which of course has no hot spot issue given its constant rotation.  I still do cast iron pies on the egg, 25 minutes at 400 & no hot spot issues, likely due to the low temp plus I try and put the pie as far from the back right as possible, that's usually where the handle ends up & they always come out perfect. 

And yea, pulling to a screen is one of the best things you can do to assure preservation of the bottom of the pie, putting it directly onto a solid surface steams it, kills it, this is why pizza that arrives at your door in a box always sucks, the 'what-might-have-been' great crust has been steamed into a more bread-like product than a crisp pizza dough you were hoping to get

GATraveller

Also helps to actually rub the flour on the peel......don't just sprinkle.

thetrim

I suck at making pizza on the egg.  This was a good read, and I learned alot to try it again.  I've done fine with premade dough, but that's not nearly as good as making your own or buying some from a reputable local pizza place.  With that being said, I prefer thin pizza huge slices bought at late night pizza joints in a major American city after a long night of drinking lots of beer.

smokeybreeze

All this talk about pizzas had an impact on me this past weekend too.

My son and his girlfriend came over on Sunday for a pizza party. They wanted left-overs to take home to eat for lunches this week, so I did a double batch of my dough. We ended up with 8 12-14" pizzas. I was doing the rolling, peel work and pitmaster work so I didn't get any pictures, but here's some of what we used.

Pizza dough (~3 17" or ~4 12-14" pies):
855g Caputo 00 flour
544g room temp tap water (do not use reverse osmosis or softened)
1.5t yeast
15g non-iodized salt (I used Himalayan pink)
25g neutral flavor oil (I used grapeseed)
9g sugar

Mix and knead well, place in large bowl or plastic container, lightly oil. Cover, refrigerate 1 day. Reball. Ensure lightly oiled. Refrigerate 1 more day. Remove from refrigerator at least 6 hours prior to use. Punch down as necessary.

Our ingredients were all fresh and included the following:
extremely thin red, yellow, and orange bell pepper slices
black olive slices
bacon (pre-cooked to just past rubbery)
pulled chicken breast (pre-cooked to ~150 and shredded with forks)
feta cheese crumbles
greek vinaigrette dressing
fresh garlic - both minced and extremely thin slices
pepperoni sliced very thin
fresh sauerkraut (no cans, jars, or bags)
Italian sausage (par-cooked)
white roux sauce (browned butter, garlic, flour, milk/half-n-half, pepper, cayenne)
tomato sauce (homemade)
finely diced onion
large grade A eggs
mozzarella, gruyere, parmesan reggiano mix

I rolled the dough and had the others add sauce and ingredient combinations they wanted.
When they were done I took the peel to the LBGE (preheated to ~600 for an hour prior to the first pie) and on this cook I used the LBGE pizza stone.

The fresh egg and the sauerkraut were the big hits - these ingredients took the ingredient combinations to the next level, though they were never used on the same pizza.

I had a variety of about 8 or 9 different craft beers and some Pinot Noir to wash it down with.

kjs

Wow. Thanks to everyone for the tips and advice.

Zippylip

thetrim said:

I prefer thin pizza huge slices bought at late night pizza joints in a major American city after a long night of drinking lots of beer.

last night, Philadelphia's "Lorenzo's Pizza", West Chester outpost, one slice off of a 28 inch pie, stuff is not only circus big but it's damn good:

JustineCaseyFeldown

Look. we all know zippy is a hateful spiteful horrible person, with zero redeeming value as a human, violent BO, and beady little eyes, but he's probably cooked more pizza on and off a BGE, formulated and tested more dough recipes, and tried to answer and help more people about this stuff than anyone else, on any number of these BGE forums (with perpetually rotating memberships, where experienced users drop off one end of the conveyor belt and an equal number of new users get on the other end).

You *might* wanna pay attention and instead of quickly telling him he's wrong, actually take a moment and try what he suggests. 

Ah forget it. What the hell does he know

i am always amazed when a question is  asked here, and someone with vast experience answers in a way that is trying to cut to the chase and help as much as possible, explaining options and experience, and is then picked apart by a bunch of people telling him he is completely wrong 

shrug

fishlessman

all those pies look horrible
pizza 101
use the best ingredients



store bought dough, the store has alot of practice getting this right



cook it in a tray in the oven



serve in the best china you can afford



if you like meat, put some meat on it



i have to admit that even i would not use parchment

fishlessman

to the op, the peel takes a little work, wrist action, and no hesitating, you need to go all in with the slide onto the stone. i use flour on a wooden peel, the cheap raw wood type peel. i go light with toppings on this type of pie but more importantly light on the sauce so it does not soak thru the dough and stick it solid to the peel. probably took me 5 or 6 pies to get it right

Zippylip

JustineCaseyFeldown said:

i am always amazed when a question is  asked here, and someone with vast experience answers in a way that is trying to cut to the chase and help as much as possible, explaining options and experience, and is then picked apart by a bunch of people telling him he is completely wrong 

shrug

I can sympathize though, I rarely listen to anybody either, you'd think it's just because I'm an **** but mostly it's driven by end stage ADD, have to suffer through f'ing it up 100 times before I figure it out

fishlessman said:

to the op, the peel takes a little work, wrist action, and no hesitating, you need to go all in with the slide onto the stone. i use flour on a wooden peel, the cheap raw wood type peel. i go light with toppings on this type of pie but more importantly light on the sauce so it does not soak thru the dough and stick it solid to the peel. probably took me 5 or 6 pies to get it right

spot on with the soak through issue, I suspect that's why so many complain of turning pizzas into strombolis on transfer.

Along those lines & worth mentioning particularly for those that rise their dough in oiled containers rather than floured, that thin layer of oil that remains on the dough can wreak havoc on slide-ability, a light dusting of flour on your work surface will counter that but you have to pay attention to the entire piece as there may be one tiny spot that's still tacky from the oil & that alone will cause issues.  Takes 2 seconds to inspect the bottom of the dough to prevent this from being an issue 

jeponline

This thread inspired me to order a wood pizza peel.  I love my pizzas off the egg, but have to use a ton of corn meal or semolina to get them slide off the metal peel.  Hopefully the wood peel will improve that.

bigalsworth

Zippylip said:

show previous quotes

JustineCaseyFeldown said:

i am always amazed when a question is  asked here, and someone with vast experience answers in a way that is trying to cut to the chase and help as much as possible, explaining options and experience, and is then picked apart by a bunch of people telling him he is completely wrong 

shrug

I can sympathize though, I rarely listen to anybody either, you'd think it's just because I'm an **** but mostly it's driven by end stage ADD, have to suffer through f'ing it up 100 times before I figure it out

show previous quotes

fishlessman said:

to the op, the peel takes a little work, wrist action, and no hesitating, you need to go all in with the slide onto the stone. i use flour on a wooden peel, the cheap raw wood type peel. i go light with toppings on this type of pie but more importantly light on the sauce so it does not soak thru the dough and stick it solid to the peel. probably took me 5 or 6 pies to get it right

spot on with the soak through issue, I suspect that's why so many complain of turning pizzas into strombolis on transfer.

Along those lines & worth mentioning particularly for those that rise their dough in oiled containers rather than floured, that thin layer of oil that remains on the dough can wreak havoc on slide-ability, a light dusting of flour on your work surface will counter that but you have to pay attention to the entire piece as there may be one tiny spot that's still tacky from the oil & that alone will cause issues.  Takes 2 seconds to inspect the bottom of the dough to prevent this from being an issue 

question on the oil rise vs the dusting of flour rise, is there a trick to not use oil and still keep the dough from creating a crust on it?  I cold rise with a very damp towel over the container but I still get a hard crust formed.  I have resorted to putting a light layer of oil to help fend this off but if there is another way I'd like to give it a shot.

Carolina Q

bigalsworth said:
question on the oil rise vs the dusting of flour rise, is there a trick to not use oil and still keep the dough from creating a crust on it?  I cold rise with a very damp towel over the container but I still get a hard crust formed.  I have resorted to putting a light layer of oil to help fend this off but if there is another way I'd like to give it a shot.

I place dough balls in individual lidded Glad containers. No oil, no flour, no wet towel. 3-4 days in the fridge with no problem. 48 oz size, stackable.

KiterTodd

Grillmagic said:

....You can tell your  a pro turning out product like this and no pansie. Love the pie shaped plates.

You were right until you brought up the pie shaped plates.  I mean honestly...a little pansie there.  

KiterTodd

fishlessman said:

....

store bought dough, the store has alot of practice getting this right

serve in the best china you can afford

i have to admit that even i would not use parchment

Reminds me of the western Pennsylvania pies I grew up eating as a kid when visiting my grandmother.   The local fire house would sell pizza one night a week and it looked just like yours.  The old ladies in town would make the pies with a sweet tomato sauce and the only cheese was probably the same cheap grated variety you used.  Growing up eating NY/NJ pizza, it was a whole different thing...but we enjoyed it.  Thanks for the share. 

KiterTodd

Zippylip said:last night, Philadelphia's "Lorenzo's Pizza", West Chester outpost, one slice off of a 28 inch pie, stuff is not only circus big but it's damn good:

Man, it just breaks my heart that kids today are growing up thinking that a 16" pie is considered "large."   That used to be called a personal pizza.   The big ones...you'd eat a slice or two and be fine.  

That slice looks great!