Too many pizzas

by Jon Sullivan - 2019-12-26 - Food

<<<<< previous blog         next blog >>>>>

After posting my pizza dough recipe I decided I really wanted to get the baking method dialed in. So dinner has been mostly pizza the last few weeks.

I'm not sure eating pizza (even homemade) most nights is the best diet. But it certainly has been delicious. I think I need more healthy food for a few days though. Maybe some salmon curry with mint chutney. Or more pizza.

The pizza cooking method perfection is eluding me. I prefer a pan style pizza, and enjoy American style over Neapolitan. I'm using a convection over which doesn't really get hot enough for a crispy pan style. My regular gas oven is crap, leaving the convection as what I have for baking. So I need to figure out how to get a perfect crust at 450 degrees. Which may literally be impossible. The breakpoint seems to actually be minimum 500 degrees which is just out of reach.

I've considered getting on of those pricey baking steel things, which would probably be very close. But they won't fit in my oven. The best I've come up with so far is (obviously) a pizza stone, but that still only works if I preheat it for an hour or more. I've tried lots of other methods as well. I've toyed with the obviously dumb idea of getting an $800 counter-top pizza oven. Just no. I've read about building the pizza in a screaming hot cast iron pan, but I already have enough holes burned through my skin, so again, no.

As a scientist I know the perfect solution : Preheated 1/2' steel sheet, cook in steel pan, 7 minute convection cook time. But all steel sheets I can find are too big.

The stone makes delicious pizza, but I want to do better. To be clear, I'm getting way too picky about this. I'm getting 9/10 already, and complaining it's not 10/10. And I'm not setting the bar by what I'd get out of a real commercial or wood fired pizza oven. I know that's just not a realistic goal. But if there is a way, I'll find it. Options I'm looking at :

  • - Thicker pizza stone, and more preheat time. I suspect this is how it will end up.
  • - Going halvies with the landlord on a really good oven. This seems stupid to me. And I'm sure the landlord will think it's stupid too. Because it's stupid.
  • - Finding a baking steel that fits. Surely someone will sell me a quarter inch piece of stainless steel, 12.5' x 14'.
  • - Hybrid method. Build pie in a pan. Put the pan on a full-on gas stove-top burner for a few minutes. Then transfer to convection oven. So crazy it might work.
  • - Pre-bake in a pan without toppings, add toppings, finish in the oven. Which is obviously a pain in the ass. And seems prone to burning.

Buy prints

<<<<< previous blog         next blog >>>>>
News
Eugene weather
39.78 degrees F, Clouds (broken clouds)
Min: 36.86 ,Max: 41.11 ,Humidity: 95, Wind: 10.36
Eugene, OR - Best Restaurants
Eugene, OR - Things to do
Eugene, OR - Fish reports
Oregon road conditions
Recent Posts
- The happiness problem
    For a couple years being happy 24/7 was great. As 2025 unfolds, happiness seems misplaced.
- Virtue vs
    A good test of your faith is to see how it holds up to a world filled with suffering and evil and injustice.
- Eat the rich
    Elon Musk is accused of cheating on video games. Luckily I am an expert in these sorts of things. Here's my take.
- 2025 - The year of recipes
    Obviously I need to post more recipes. Let's make it count for something. Taking requests.
- 2024 best photos
    I didn't get as many photos this year. More inner journey than camera adventure. But it was a year.
- Grey
    I don't remember the last two winters being this grey and cloudy, rainy, wet. This winter has felt proverb level wet.
- Snowflake
    I am what the ruling class thinks I am - Woke, socialist, liberal, hippie snowflake. Always have been, always will be.
Food I Cooked
Old School Blogroll
kottke.org
Home of fine hypertext products.
MetaFilter
A community weblog.
A Chicken Is Not Pillage
You forgot his exclamation point! It defines him. He put it there for a reason, to show how in! your! face! he is.
jessamyn.com
abada abada - twenty years of jessamyn
Matt Haughey
A Whole Lotta Nothing
dooce
Heater, Mother Of Lance
Anil Dash
A blog about making culture. Since 1999.
Some Bits
Nelson's weblog
Everlasting Blort
proud member of the reality-based community
Whatever
This machine mocks fascists
Scripting News
It's even worse than it appears.
Flutterby
Short attention spans in a world full of flowers
mimi smartypants
Seriously, though: what's with the penguins?
Montreal City Weblog
Stupid Evil Bastard
What the fuck is wrong with you people?
Idle Words
brevity is for the weak
Making Light
Say what you mean. Bear witness. Iterate.
wilwheaton.net
50,000 Monkeys at 50,000 Typewriters Can't Be Wrong
Justin Hall
Growing & breaking down since 1994
Mike the Mad Biologist
Helping idiots who desperately need my assistance by calling them fucking morons since 2004
jwz
MSSV
AKMA’s Random Thoughts
Ruminations about hermeneutics, theology, theory, politics, ecclesiastical life… and exercise.
things magazine
An occasional weblog about objects, collections and discoveries
Miscellaneous Heathen
Hold to the now, the here, through which all future plunges to the past.
kimberussell.com
where it's always Virgo Season
Cockeyed
Recent Trips
Getting it ready for you.