The Homemade Pizza Thread

[will4009]

How do those pizza stones fare on the Webber bbq?

My friend had one of the Weber ones, and said it wasn't worth the hassle.

His biggest issue was getting an even cook. In an Ooni or a standard home oven, the heat is more evenly distributed. With the Weber, he could get it really hot, but the stone would cremate the base leaving the topping underdone. To combat this, you obviously can run the Weber at a lower temp, but then you may as well use an oven. I did look at getting a stone, as my Weber kettle is genuinely one of the best things I have purchased in the last few years, but after seeing (and tasting) the results, I decided to go a different way.

But, that's just one persons opinion. Maybe with a bit of experimentation, you could get a better end product.

 

[Clint]

Thanks...I really like real user reviews!

 

[DavidDetroit]

How do those pizza stones fare on the Webber bbq?

I skip the stone when cooking outside because you can put the pizza on, off or near direct heat. That's something which you can't control in a regular oven. Having a lid is important to cook the top. Squares/deep dish work quite well.

 

[DeanRIowa]

I like doing my pizza in cast iron skillets as the crust turns out nice and crunchy, this one is a 15" skillet.

 

[will4009]

Tonight's efforts. Pepperoni was really nice. This was the first (and probably the worst) out of 5 I cooked. Getting the temp right takes a bit of practice, but I got it about right. They tasted great.

 

[DavidDetroit]

Tonight's efforts

Just beautiful. Personally, I like pepperoni (sausage) that is a little greasy. Cheese looks great. I bet that crust is nice too.
Edit: I could eat about four of those, no kidding.

 

[will4009]

Just beautiful. Personally, I like pepperoni (sausage) that is a little greasy. Cheese looks great. I bet that crust is nice too.
Edit: I could eat about four of those, no kidding.

Thanks, crust was really nice. Very light and airy. Cheese was filor Di Latte, its made a difference having a good low moisture mozzarella.

 

[chillipickle]

A friend has an ooni oven and gets all his base mix from these guys, either fresh or frozen.His pizza's are amazing will try and grab a few pics next time im over his house.
https://www.italiancont.co.uk/

 

[DavidDetroit]

Thanks, crust was really nice. Very light and airy. Cheese was filor Di Latte, its made a difference having a good low moisture mozzarella.

That crust totally does. I'll check out that cheese. Sometimes I'm surprised what I can get here in the US when I take a hard look.
I generally make the Detroit style (deep dish square) and the NY style (significantly different than Neapolitan). I'm finding that Neapolitan is far more popular or favored for home cooking than the other styles.
I make an acceptable NY and Detroit. I don't have the equipment to make a Neapolitan. That's okay since we have a place that blows our socks off when we want one.
Another style I might attempt is Chicago. It would be just for fun. We have a place here in Detroit that makes Chicago style and is well-received, but I would really want to get it from Chicago before I make a comment.

 

[peebee]

Thanks, crust was really nice. Very light and airy. Cheese was filor Di Latte, its made a difference having a good low moisture mozzarella.

There is no such thing as "low moisture mozzarella". But there is "very wet" pretend mozzarella from the supermarket (sold in little plastic bags). Confused me for ages trying to make homemade mozzarella but using the supermarket pretend stuff as a target. Eventually sorted out that the supermarket stuff has been designed for mass production methods and "real" mozzarella is very different (more like the homemade stuff).


For those thinking of making their own (it is fairly easy, takes a couple of hours but little effort in that time, and it is quite feasible on the same day as making the pizza): I use 4-5 drops of rennet in 1L whole milk. But had been making the mistake of using vegetarian rennet for junket. I never realised when I got it there are different grades and "for junket" is the weakest. Works okay with rich Tesco Channel Island (Jersey cow) milk (yummy) but fails with most ordinary cow milk. Be careful of some on-line instructions that suggest using a teaspoonful of rennet in 1 quart of milk: Good to get started, otherwise good for resoling your shoes.

[EDIT: The other thing to watch out for is "high temperature pasteurised milk". Many of the on-line instructions are American, and this one again took me a while to figure out. They mean UHT (in the UK) and it doesn't work. Our 75°C flash pasteurised milk is fine.]

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Here's a seasonal pizza with Brussel Sprouts

 

[peebee]

My new "Effeuno" oven is up a running and starting to churn out pizzas. It's the oven @Hanglow suggested earlier:

Look into an effeuno oven if you want a great pizza oven for a flat ...

And undoubtable it seems to be a great bit of kit. But I did overlook the bit of information in the suggestion; "for a flat".

It is quite large (including the 150mm you should leave around it), and for a space-limited flat might be best approached as a replacement for a conventional oven (and grill), provided you are not going to feed too many mouths (using it as an oven replacement is perhaps limiting cooking output to two people, and careful people too that wont continually burn themselves due to the limited space).

It's also a "rich kid" toy. Cost me over £750 including extortionate delivery. I'm not a "rich kid" - survive on benefits to be honest - but I'm also not in the position to spend what meagre income I do get. So spending it on beer brewing and pizza making has to be worth doing! There are some newer "clam-shell" designs that can get up to 500°C that might be better suited to the space-strapped (or cash-strapped!) pizza lover.

It'll take me a bit of work to get the adjustments right (it has controls for both the base "stone" and the top "grill/broiler" element) so no piccies yet. But the results for my bases look promising (if a bit burnt in places at the moment!).

 

[Hanglow]

Nice one peebee! Looking forward to see what you think of it once you've used it a fair bit. I was thinking of its size compared to commercial pizza ovens ! Or if someone didn't have space outside for a wood or gas pizza oven

 

[Alastair70]

What to do with the last of the Christmas dinner

 

[SilverShadow]

It's not even 8am, and already I'm hungry after staring at those pics!

Great pizzas guys

Just a couple of quick questions if I may please.

1) Does anyone have a good recipe for pizza base dough? I love airy stretchy/elastic bread, rather than anything too loaf-like in consistency

2) Have you found reasonable success using a conventional oven? Until we move we're kinda stuck with just gas for now

3) does anyone use semolina/other, to give their pizza bases a nice bit of crunch?

 

[Alastair70]

1) I use the PizzaApp for quantities and timings. I usually do 24hr doughs somewhere between 60 and 65% hydration. It has settings for Poolish and Biga too, it’s well worth a look.

2) Neapolitan pizza at 220C needs at least 70% hydration, which is very difficult to work with. Roman style dough in dish will work well and you can really push the hydration. (PizzaApp has a Roman dough setting too)

3) I use semolina when shaping and to dust the peel, but it’s to facilitate stretching and launching. My early attempts were dogged by bases sticking to the peel and a load of toppings ending up on the oven floor.

 

[DavidDetroit]

2) Have you found reasonable success using a conventional oven?

Use the dough ratio mentioned above at the hottest temp in your oven. It will be surprisingly good. Get the bottom and the crust to golden brown and use a hard mozzarella cheese.
You can make a steel skillet pizza too.

 

[SilverShadow]

Many thanks guys.

As regards PizzaApp, I presume they all use the same calls, but are you referring to any in particular here?

 

[Alastair70]

 

[SilverShadow]

Brilliant, many thanks