Guys, I wanted to find out what pizza steel i need to get that perfect charred crust. I heard that most people who use these try to get their ovens to 550 degrees, but mine only goes up to 500. I heard that you are supposed to get like 2 of these to get that really good pizza oven effect, but I am not sure which one to get.
>>22044407idk man i just parbake the crust a little then 8 minutes at 500 and it turns out great. dont buy into pizza memes until you have completely mastered all aspects of pizza and you know the only way it could ever be better is by changing ovens. until then, if anything is lacking in your pizza it's probably just you.
>>22044407How about instead of buying a steel, try out a cast iron that you already own first and see if you like the results enough
>>22044461Fuck. I dont have a cast iron. I also like New York style pizza more than pan pizza. Are you able to get new york results from a cast iron?
>>22044467My friends have a cast iron they use to make pizza cause they didn't want to go out to buy them anymore, and they got decent spotting on it. They precooked the dough on the stove, then finished in the oven. Look up results on google or youtube or reddit to see it their results fit your needs.Do you think you'd use the black cast iron for other things? Or perhaps in the future, cause a pizza steel isn't gonna be as versatile as a kitchen too. If so, def get a cast iron anyway. Hell, try to get a used one too cause it'll be cheaper. Just make sure it's thick and large for your needs (holds more thermal mass)
I only have a toaster oven that goes to 450F. I only use cast iron pans and I have to start the dough on the stove first or else the bottom crust doesn't crisp enough. I microwave the pepperoni for about 30 seconds in between some paper towels or else they also don't crisp enough and make the pizza greasy. The top definitely doesn't get enough heat for my preference but I don't have much else for options. This crust got a tad darker than I like but it was not burnt. Good crunch though.
>>22044407Why dont you just bake your shit on the bottom rack of your oven instead?
>>22044489I'm a brainlet and I can't comprehend reading very well so research behooves me. Casual conversations are my best learning tool so I wanted to ask you if I have to season a cast iron every time I have to clean it?I heard you can't use soap and have to do like salt scrubs and reoil it with olive oil and shit. Is this true?
>>22044494Your pizza looks amazing. I see what you mean when it comes to not enough mayard on the cheese.
>>22044496Is that safe? I have a sneaking suspicion I would burn my house down, i'm not very good at cooking.
Using a typical metal baking sheet gets rather crisp bread, they are metal so they get hot fast in the oven so I dont see why you need a heavier platform
>>22044508The first one was a white sauce pizza with pecorino on top after it came out of the oven so it probably looks paler than normal. I really like mixing some seasonings into the oil of the pan before I put the dough in so it gets embedded in the crust.
>>22044509Why wouldn't it be?Its not like you are putting it on the floor of the oven
The dough is very versatile. Add some extra seasonings and/or flaky salt and parm and it's a quick side dish. Add some sugar and cinnamon or whatever you want really and it's an awesome dessert. I mix the dough and let it cold ferment for 3-7 days so it gets a nice sourdough taste to it.
>I heard that you are supposed to get like 2 of these to get that really good pizza oven effect, but I am not sure which one to get.This seems to be kind of a meme. Just get one and put it on the top rack. 500F is fine.>>22044447Yeah this guy gets it.
>>22044528I'm very jealous of this since my oven is capped at 450F. Looks awesome though.
>>22044407>>22044533Charcoal grill will hit 800°+. Use a stone, grill it until the crust is how you want it, if the top isn't done throw it in a 400° oven until it is. I do this every other week. I just did 3 pizzas about an hour ago, each took literally 3 1/2 minutes on the grill, then 5 minutes max in the oven.
>>22044505>soapYou can and should indeed use soap to clean it up as any normal pan.>season a cast iron every time I have to clean it?After it's good a handful of times, you really don't. And seasoning is very easy to do.More important is learning how to use it. You gotta heat the pan for a few minutes so the metal expands and all "sticky" pores or wtv the real explanation is expand enough that it's hard for things to stick. For pancakes, I heated it up to 400F (i got a laser thermometer), then splashed a bit of water to cool it by -50F to get it to good pancake temp. If I start in the 200F's, the pancakes stick to the pan. Then drop a small bit of oil, spread it around with a cooking brush, give it a minute alone for good measure, and make the pancakes. After I'm done with the batter, the pan is pretty clean other than the thin layer of oil, so I crank up the heat to get the oil to polymerize and get the next layer. I eat the pancakes with extra butter so no loss in flavour.Bacon is another "clean" food like pancakes to make seasoning with. Drain the excess oil (to reuse for cooking other food), cook your bacon, wipe the hot af pan to remove any existing crumbs and to leave only a thin layer of oil, then crank up the heat to high until it polymerizes and the pan is dry.For the first couple of times cooking rando shit, nothing wrong with doing a clean seasoning layer. Just clean the pan like normal with soap, spread a thin layer of oil as always, then crank the heat on the stove. I don't even do this anymore cause my pan is fine.
>>22044552Detroit style pizza would be pretty clean too, cause you douse the bottom of the pan with olive oil then put the dough in. Get the cooked pizza out, wipe the pan clean (it's still gonna be a little oily), then heat on the stove or oven until it's dry
I have some scrap metal pieces that have been in my basement for decades. If I cleaned one up could I use it as a pizza metal?
>>22044407go to your local metal supplier and ask them to cut you a 1/4 inch sheet. it will be 10x cheaper and better than whatever you can find on amazon. just clean all the millscale off and then season.if you have a grinder feel free to round off the sharp edges.
I got one with handles, it's nice.Needs to be fairly thick (1/4-1/2 inch thick) and preheated for 45-60 minutes for best effect.
>>22044583
>>22044523Oh sorry, I thought you meant the bottom of the oven...
>>22044528Yours is the one i see on instagram and on youtube. Idk bros, I think ill get a steel because the idea of parbaking makes me nervous.
>>22044537Can i see a pic of the pizza? This sounds cool.
>>22044552ty for the tips <3
>>22044577Brother, I barely know how to cook let alone go to school, if I were to use a grinder my skin is for sure coming off.
>>22044583>>22044588Looks amazing. I think i am going to use fresh mozzarella. I think the bagged stuff has sawdust in it and it doesn't melt very well. :(
>>22044612Bottom crust, pic is a year old.
>>22044577its not the 90s anymore, the raw materials for a pizza steel would cost 60-70% whatever amazon is charging. Might as well get a finished product instead of some non-foodgrade scrap metal
>>22044620mozz is overrated and overpriced. brick and/or provolone is for real pizzaboys. mix some cheddar in for color.
>>22044640>Always wanted to try brick cheese for my Detroit style pizza>Cant get it on the east coast>Costs a shit ton to get it shippedSomeday im gonna make proper pizza
>>22044636you have no idea what you are talking about and are probably a 14 iq trump voter.
>>22044718>Can't get it on the East CoastActually Detroit style pizza places are opening up on the EC. There are a handful in MA.
>>22044494Does your toaster oven have a broil mode? Cause my cheap one with a 450F max has one, and one or two minutes on broil should get the perfect top.
>>22044552>Bacon is another "clean" food like pancakes to make seasoning with.I must be doing something super wrong because I've never been able to cook bacon in any kind of pan without leaving sticky gunk on the bottom of the pan. it even happens in my non-stick one.
>>22044537this is kind of how i do pizza using a bed of embers in my woodstove. cast iron pan get preheated on the embers, the pizza is placed in the pan, then back on the embers. the crust cooks very quickly, the cheese melts, then it gets a few minutes under the broiler to crisp the top. its almost as good as using a pizza oven because of the quick high heat to cook the base with.
>>22044552NO NO NO do not scrub your seasoned cast iron pan with soap. EVER. absolutely not required and you'll ruin the coating.even if i managed to get , for example, egg baked onto the pan, all that needs to be done is a bit of a soak (water in the pan, not the pan in water) then scrape off the easy stuff. a gentle bit of scrubing, and rinse and a wipe, and you're good. you can dry it completely if you like.do NOT scrub with soap like other pans.
>>22044407You can get propane or wood outdoor pizza ovens for as low as $50 these days. There is little reason to buy a steel. >>22045273This hasn't been an issue for almost 100 years when people stopped use soap with lye.
>>22045282theres just no need or reason to use soap every time, or even at all. no soap has gone in my pan for years because even if its not as aggressive, you're still using a degreasing agent.
>>22044494your toaster oven doesn't have a broil function where only the top activates? if I were you I'd get a cooking torch and just finish the toppings with it. Just don't be a retard and burn your house down.
>>22045266Very smart. Do you get some smoke flavor as well? I've tried using wood chips when I grill, but it's too much smoke, it ends up a little off putting.
>>22045542>get some smoke flavor as well?didn't notice any so far. its just embers when we do it so not much smoke being produced at all. only thought of making pizza like this over the last winter but really love it. no more screwing around with the oven for ages and then it not doing the base very well anyway. we mostly do pizza in the colder months anyway so its perfect, but would definitely use an outdoor fire too if the kids wanted pizza in the summer.
This isn't terrible for a new pizza cook in a home oven. Shits cheap too. Start on bottom rack and rotate and move to the top rack about 2/3 of the way through
>>22045035Oh, great you pointed that out. So when I make bacon, I do a lot at a time, so a ton of oil pools up and the bacon fries in the oil. I keep the oil in a glass container. The first early drain gives me pretty clean white oil, and the later drain at the end of cooking is a little darker. I normally buy thick cut, normal bacon. Once when I bought a cheaper+thinner cut bacon once, maybe it was flavoured like maple or something, the oil was more brown than what I expected. When I drain out the oil, I filter it with paper and maybe collects most of the gunk I think you're talking about. If you only cook a few bacons at a time like a normal person, I'm guessing yeah you'd definitely get that gunk stuck to the bottom since there isn't much liquid to dissolve it. And maybe flavoured bacon is more sticky?After wiping, I also imagine that me leaving the cast iron on the stove to polymerize the oil for a long time probably burns any excess gunk if any was left behind even after the draining and wiping. That might even cause seasoning issues, at least if that was the only way someone seasons, but I do a bunch of stuff with mine and have never noticed anything. I also used to only do a few bacon at a time before for myself, so I probably did have the same sticky issues as you did, but I just don't remember it anymore.So bacon prob isn't clean, yeah.
>>22045273>you'll ruin the coating.As long as you got the initial layers already, you definitely won't, lol. Since I imagine OP is reading all the posts in their thread, btw, don't put it in the dishwasher. High heat + soap probably won't be good
>>22045608>High heat + soap probably won't be goodfor sure it wont. but theres just no need for washing them with soap at all. seriously. its needless pedantry
is it worth par-baking for cast iron pizza? typically i just bake it for 16 minutes @ 500-550F and it comes out alright.
>>22044640Wtf is brick cheese??? What does it taste like?
>>22045847>What does it taste likeit's comparable to mozz or provolone. it's traditional for detroit style za. apparently there are some aged varieties but I've never seen them.
No food is meant to be charred. Any idiot can char food containing carbon (organic).
>>22045888But it is every so slightly bitter mixed with that amazing nutty cooked pizza dough. Do you just like your food boiled? :(
>>22045749Is the bottom of the pizza good enough for you? Air isn't a good conductor, and a gas fire is directly touching the cast iron at over 1000F. The cast iron isn't really heating up to over 600F in any case, but the direct fire means the part of the pan touching the pizza is probably gonna be hotter than if it were just heated by 500F air for the duration of the cook. You get decent spotting fairly easily with a cast iron on a stove, then a few minutes in the over to finish the top. If you dgaf about the spotting, and prefer a more hands-off in exchange for a few extra minutes of cooking, it really doesn't matter. But you might as well try it out once to see if you like it better.
>>22044407Just get yourself one of these, perfect crust every time and it's cheap
>>22044494thats pretty rad
