Pizza disaster. . .

Unknown

Well, I guess it had to happen sometime. I've been coming here for a couple years now for help and I've yet to have a disaster. I did about an 18 hour cook on a pork shoulder and the darn thing turned out so good that I instructed my wife to start calling me Master Q. So we fast forward to Saturday night. After spending several hours preparing the pizza sauce, grating cheese, rolling dough it was time for ole master q to fire up the egg and prepare the pizza. I got out my newly purchased pizza peel, I'd also informed my wife that Master Q was tired of working with inferior cooking untensils, lightly dusted it with corn meal and placed the pizza dough on the peel after forming it like in the video. I had decided to Canadian Baccon w/ pineapple. After building the pizza on my prized peel, a take the next masterpiece out to the egg and attempted to slide the pizza from the egg onto the pizza stones. Only problem was pizza was stuck to the peel. As I tried to take the pizza off but the dough began to rip apart. So I took the pizza back in on my piece of crap pizza peel, and to make a long story short, I did try and make a second pizza building it directly on a pizza stone. I cooked it for 12 minutes at about 550 and I checked it and noticed the dough was sticking to the stone. So I ended up peeling it off, putting the falling apart mess on a pizza pan and finished it off in our oven. When my head clears, I'll post my exact steps so that the real Q Masters can tell me where I went wrong. It is certaninly right in the book of Proverbs when it says Pride cometh before the fall. By the way, my wife came up with my new handle

Tim M

MasterQnot (Formerly Washong),[p]I am guessing the video you refer to is the one linked here:[p]http://www.taunton.com/finecooking/pages/cvt033.asp[p]I don't build my pies on the peel. I do them and then slide them on the peel with some cornmeal under it to aid sliding. The pie must be able to slide on the peel or you won't get it off onto the stone.[p]Give 'er another go there Master Q-yes[p]Tim

Mike Oelrich

MasterQnot (Formerly Washong),[p] Hey, it happens to everyone at least once! First, rub some flour into the peel (it's a wooden one, right?) before doing anything, just to be on the safe side. Second, a light dusting of cornmeal might not be enough, try a little more next time. Thirdly, did you build the second pizza on a cold stone or a preheated one? If you throw a cold stone into the BGE with the pizza on it, the dough will probably stick -- you need to slide the pizza onto a hot stone![p]MikeO

Chef Arnoldi

always put the pizza on a hot pizza stone ( with quite a bit of med. sized corn meal).
The same is always true in frying anything in a metal frying
pan: "hot pan, cold oil" and your food wan't stick.

Puj

MasterQnot (Formerly Washong),[p]Don't sell yourself short ... you'll get there. First of all you can build the pizza right on the peel as long as you do the following:[p]1) thoroughly sprinkle cornmeal or semolina flour on the peel. Don't skimp! The cornmeal or semolina flour acts as the ball bearings for an easy transfer of the pie to the stone.
2) after placing the shaped pie on the peel, give the peel a little shake to make sure that the dough is not sticking to the peel and will easily slide off onto the stone.
3) make sure that the dough has no holes to where the sauce can leak through onto the peel.
4) after the pie is made, once again shake the peel to make sure that dough is not sticking.[p]You do these four steps and you're pie will have been appropriately prepared for the Egg. Then it's all about controlling temperature and time![p]Good luck,
Puj[p]

Jim R.

MasterQnot (Formerly Washong),
One thing that helps the peel is to coat it with mineral oil and let dry before using.

Unknown

MasterQnot (Formerly Washong),
This'll make the purists (like me...) cringe, but I find it works every time.[p]I picked up a couple of medium sized pizza pans at my local restaurant supply store. Originally I'd thought they would be for serving only, but after a couple of sticky bottom pizza eggsperiences of my own, I've put them to another use.[p]We toss plenty of cornmeal on the pan, then build the pizza right on the pan. When it's time to toss it in the "Wood fired clay oven" (It's not a smoker when yer doing 'za!) I actually toss the whole thing in, pan and all on our pre-warmed stone.[p]After just about 5 minutes at 450 or so I'll go quickly pick up the pan with gloves on, and give it a quick slide on to the stone. I find that giving the crust just a few minutes of heat to set makes a huge difference in its lubricity (That's my big word of the day).[p]The only bummer about this whole setup is that I find that with my pans, and some gloves, I don't really need my huge pizza peel for anything![p]BTW: I'm homing in on my "no added yeast" original sourdough crust recipe. Made two almost perfect pies a couple of days ago. I'll share with everybody, once I get it nailed down.[p]Buongiorno,
bc

Unknown

bc,
I should make clear that after about 5 minutes I slide the pie directly onto the stone, and remove the pan until its time to serve.[p]Le domando scusa,
bc

Unknown

Pre-bake the crust in the oven for just a couple of minutes (just long enough so it isn't sticky on the bottom), then assemble the pizza and put it in the egg. It slides on and off the stone easily.[p]

Bamabob

MasterQnot (Formerly Washong),
My Friend,I can really relate!!! If the link works,heres a look at my first go at pizza building,about a year ago;-( Bob
http://biggreenegg.com/archives/2000/messages/59200.htm

Bamabob

Bamabob,
Lemmy try again on the link.Bob
[ul][li]pizza disaster[/ul]

Jeff

MasterQnot (Formerly Washong),[p]I got a hint from a friend of mine who owns a pizza joint. Before you try to slide the pie off the peel, gently rotate the pie (with your hands) around on the peel 1/4 to 1/2 turn. Then slide it off onto your stone. It works great for me.[p]Jeff

sdbelt

MasterQnot (Formerly Washong),[p]This sounds so close to the description of my first pizza (right down to the toppings!).[p]I read all of the other posts, and still didn't quite see the entire list of the many mistakes I made in my first pizza (though it was an oven pizza). I'll give you my entire list:[p] o The pizza dough should be fresh out of the fridge, where is was kept to rise. It shouldn't be room temperature when you begin to form the shape.
o If the dough is sticky to touch on your fingers, it's going to stick to the peel.
o The sauce should also be fresh out of the fridge. It should not be room temperature or worse, it shouldn't be boiling on the stove. (Duh!)
o Making the pizza on the peel is a great approach. I do this myself. But the peel should be properly prepared. Cornmeal works well, but so will flour. I have the world's worst peel. It's made from pine, it isn't flat, and I still make great pizzas (now, anyway). Preparing the pizza complete on a cutting board or the counter will likely yield a complete disaster (read: mess) when you attempt to transfer it to the peel...at least it does for me.
o The pizza stone needs to be in the Egg, and at dome temperature when you start to cook the pizza. A cold stone will probably yield an improperly cooked pizza. This mistake I've never made, but it looks like you have...between us, we are quite the awesome cook![p]Last, when you get the above working well, I'd recommend experimenting with dome temps. I like my BGE pizzas cooked at 650. At 700 the crust burns before the toppings are done, and at 600 the crust isn't as crispy as I'd like it to be when the crust finishes. At 650 everything gels and finishes together...at least for me, my dough recipe, and my cheese/topping choices. I think a thicker dough would appreciate a lower temp, but you'll want to do some experimenting with dome temps to know.[p]Enjoy![p]--sdb