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Pizza Physics: Why Brick Ovens Bake the Perfect Italian-Style Pie

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Re: Pizza Physics: Why Brick Ovens Bake the Perfect Italian-Style Pie

#61

Post by chapium »

radicalbyte wrote: post #22
mickronome wrote: post #12

Being frustrated with burned top, and undercooked bottom I figured out that using the broiler together with a couple 2-3 mm thick pre-heated aluminium sheet that I placed the pizza on produced pretty good results. Not that I was aiming for a particular style of pizza though, ymmv. The sheet itself was placed on an ordinary oven rack somewhere below the middle of the oven. It seems to align somewhat with their finding…

Just buy a pizza steel (like this: https://pizzasteel.com/ ). Warm it in an oven at max for 45 minutes, then turn the grill (broiler) on for 15 mins to get it as hot as possible. Then bake your pizza on it with the grill still on.

There are also circular shaped baking sheets which are designed for pizza. Does a great job but preheating is key. https://www.amazon.com/Wilton-Recipe-Right-Pizza-2-Piece/dp/...

Re: Pizza Physics: Why Brick Ovens Bake the Perfect Italian-Style Pie

#62

Post by 1024core »

aequitas wrote: post #28
radicalbyte wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just buy a pizza steel (like this: https://pizzasteel.com/ ). Warm it in an oven at max for 45 minutes, then turn the grill (broiler) on for 15 mins to get it as hot as possible. Then bake your pizza on it with the grill still on.

Or make your own using a slab of stainless like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldo56hGAzHA I can recommend Alex's channel for the more hacking/DIY minded chefs.

I just went to a part of the city (southern SF) with lots of workshops. Found a steel piece that I liked, and bought it. The whole 50lb chunk of steel cost me ~$50; it's sold by weight.

Then I soaked it in vinegar for a day, and all the rust/grime wiped right off.

Then I coated it with oil and put it in the oven at 500 to season it.

Re: Pizza Physics: Why Brick Ovens Bake the Perfect Italian-Style Pie

#65

Post by sstanfie »

justsomedood wrote: post #11

Another option is to use a Kamado grill with a pizza stone. They can get very hot, and with the charcoal it gives it a nice smokey flavor. You can add wood chunks for extra flavoring as well. It's hard to eat pizza from the oven now after we have starting cooking them this way!

I have a Big Green Egg (kamado-style grill) with 1" thick ceramic wall, which might be a comparable thermo substitute for the brick. Reaching 600° F is no problem.

Because it's wood (or charcoal) fired, so you get the flavor from the wood.

And with a BGE pizza stone, you get indirect heat on the bottom of the pie.

Whole setup works great. I used it recently to reheat half-baked (lol) pizzas from Berkeley's Cheese Board Pizza Collective (aka, our communist pizza). Very tasty.

Re: Pizza Physics: Why Brick Ovens Bake the Perfect Italian-Style Pie

#66

Post by ozten »

We've been chasing awesome home pizza for almost 2 decades. Pizza stones, steel, convection oven etc. Last year, I built an Alan Scott style brick oven using [1] this book. It naturally does what we were trying to workaround with lots of hacks.

I can confirm that it is really hard to make "wood fire" style pizza in a home oven.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Bread-Builders-Hearth-Loaves-Masonry

Re: Pizza Physics: Why Brick Ovens Bake the Perfect Italian-Style Pie

#67

Post by bluedino »

dahlueblojen wrote: post #45
MisterTea wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

New Yawker here: It's mainly a NY thing (and probably throughout the northeast) used to describe a whole pizza vs individual slices. Though it's rare to hear someone use the phrase "pizza pie" as it gets shortened to "pie". When I order pizza I always ask "gimme a pie to go" and I get a whole pizza.

You know I love what your city did with pizza. I love how much it has influenced pizza around the world. However I'm getting tired of seeing NY-style pizza shops opening up here in central Ohio. Some chain that focuses on NY-style relocated their headquarters here (from previously being in NY!). We've already got our own style (central Ohio, wider Ohio region as far as I know). I don't want poor imitations of NY styl…

What’s Ohio style

Re: Pizza Physics: Why Brick Ovens Bake the Perfect Italian-Style Pie

#68

Post by MisterTea »

rootusrootus wrote: post #18
pizzamyheart wrote: post #14

The self cleaning cycle on an electric oven is close to 1000 degrees, and can be used to cook pizza: http://staff.washington.edu/freitz/pizza/clean_cycle_pizza.h...

But keep in mind that many people have tried and still failed to adequately disable the locking mechanism on a self-cleaning oven, and had to watch (and smell) as their pizza turned to a big pile of ash.

That almost happened to my mother who accidentally set the oven to clean with lamb chops in there. My father went into the basement, turned the gas off and somehow unlocked the oven door. Lamb chops were saved.

Re: Pizza Physics: Why Brick Ovens Bake the Perfect Italian-Style Pie

#69

Post by riquito »

frabert wrote: post #37
mlevental wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

pizza means pie in italian https://www.etymonline.com/word/pizza

As an Italian, I've never heard anyone use "pizza" as a synonym for pie, which is "torta".

Neither do I, or anyone I know of. Pizza meant "pie" originally, at least until 1700, but that meaning has long gone. If the american translation is old enough it did have a point

Re: Pizza Physics: Why Brick Ovens Bake the Perfect Italian-Style Pie

#70

Post by mathgeek »

dopeboy wrote: post #48

The guy quoted, Kenji, contributes to Serious Eats and is active on reddit and twitter. He's done a lot of work on comparing different flours, comparing different pizza ovens, and also has good recipes. If you're a pizza buff, it's well worth your time checking out his work. I've made his hacker free pizza [0] which turns out decent. The hard truth, though, is that you're never going to get the chewy, moist flavor fr…

The RoccBox has interested me before, but I can't seem to connect the "you need higher temperatures for Neapolitan pizzas" claim with RoccBox's "[t]o achieve an authentic Neapolitan pizza, a 90 second cook in a stone floored, 500°C pizza oven is required. RoccBox is just that."

You're saying it goes much higher than 500 degrees, though? Their site seems to say 500 degrees is its limit, but maybe they mean the stone floor itself.

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