Pizza query
- Thread starter albula
- Start date
I love pizza! But apparently not enough to buy or build a special oven exclusively for pizza. I've never eaten Domino's, so had no idea that $7.99 pizzas exist. Don't know how Gracie's sells a good pizza for $17. Confession time here: I have Papa Murphy's on speed dial, and I pay $27 for a large pizza. (Who would buy a small or medium when left over pizza is wonderful?) My cost at PM's includes a tip cuz it's a great bunch of kids that work there. Plus I don't want them to spit on my pizza. I pay only a little more, $32 at Farelli's for an already cooked pizza.
My understanding is that special pizza ovens get hotter than standard kitchen ovens. But I don't understand why that is so desirable. I was told about this special cool pizzaria in Hood River that has a 700 degree oven. So when I was there I of course ordered a pizza. All I remember is that the crust is what pizza dough tastes like when it turns to charcoal. Which likely explains why I'm fine with cooking my Papa Murphy's pizza at 425 degrees in my kitchen oven.
As for pizza toppings, I'd never survive in NYC. Pizza with cheese, tomato slices, and basil is just salad to me. A starter. I like me a meat lover's pizza with every meat in the house, except anchovies, cuz those belong on a different pizza, and onions, green pepper, olives, and most any vegetable except pineapple.
So please 'splain to me why special pizza ovens are so special.
My understanding is that special pizza ovens get hotter than standard kitchen ovens. But I don't understand why that is so desirable. I was told about this special cool pizzaria in Hood River that has a 700 degree oven. So when I was there I of course ordered a pizza. All I remember is that the crust is what pizza dough tastes like when it turns to charcoal. Which likely explains why I'm fine with cooking my Papa Murphy's pizza at 425 degrees in my kitchen oven.
As for pizza toppings, I'd never survive in NYC. Pizza with cheese, tomato slices, and basil is just salad to me. A starter. I like me a meat lover's pizza with every meat in the house, except anchovies, cuz those belong on a different pizza, and onions, green pepper, olives, and most any vegetable except pineapple.
So please 'splain to me why special pizza ovens are so special.
Amortize that over the next 5 years and you're in the green!The great pizza oven search of 2025 has ended. Huzzah!!! My first pizza will cost me a little less than 2K. A bargain.
Next time you fish the peninsula stop by for a slice. I Promise not to spit on it and no tip expected. Bet you can't eat (just) one.
Edit: Bring your own box of wine.
Good pizza, like wine, doesn't come in a box.
You want high heat so you can get a crispy (but not burnt) exterior to the crust while keeping the interior light and fluffy. Lower temps give a very different texture. Definitely shouldn't taste like ash or charcoal though. You also want a very hot floor - the home oven solution is a steel or pizza stone.
Pizza-specific ovens work more as a convection type oven, so have a different way of cooking them. You can get good results from a home oven if it gets hot and you have a stone or steel, but convection is where you're going to take it to that next level.
This is what I cook mine at:
Take a right out of my driveway, Papa Murphy is 50 feet away. I get my milk (cheese), bread (crust), meat (Canadian bacon) and veggie/fruit (pineapple) and order a big enough one for a cold breakfast meal. I might add some extra cheese. If the crust was made from cauliflower, all the better. Done once a month only. Then it is chicken in one way or another.
You might like Chicos Pizza in Moses Lake - order the Hochstatter Special*. Eat it fast, don't do take out and drive 18 miles home but if you do, be sure to put the takeout box onto at least two thick cotten towels.
*
I'm fascinated by you guys who build ovens, build pizzas and the rest of the pizza gurus. J
that pizza is nightmare fuel for me. Not only is it covered in greasy meats (and way, way too much of them), it has the only food on the planet I won't eat under any circumstances: OLIVES
Growing up between Ephrata and Moses Lake, my memories of Chico's are not positive.
More suspect, subversive behavior here...
Next, you'll be disparaging bacon...and that aggression shall not stand
Bacon is fine. I don't think it's the end all, be all of food like has been the trend over the last decade... but I enjoy a strip now and then. I just don't want it piled on my pizza.More suspect, subversive behavior here...
Next, you'll be disparaging bacon...and that aggression shall not stand
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Not a fan of the Hochstatters either. Hometown Pizza in Grand Coulee makes a garlic chicken pizza that's superb. They make their own dough, toss it before cooking, they cook their own ingredients including the chicken and there's lots of garlic and onions el dante(?) in the sauce. We drive up to Grand Coulee at least a half dozen times a year for pizza (134 miles round trip).
... Did someone just mention bacon????
Holy crap-that thing has heart attack written all over it!!!!!!!! ...and black olives-gag!
Well, after my family's Papa Murphy's bill got to be over $60 I decided to try and make my own. Over the last couple months, I watched several videos, tried a few different dough recipes, even found an actually good GF dough recipe for one of my kids.
Still an amateur, and working with my home ovens. I got a pizza stone for Christmas, but it is only rated to 450deg. I need to get a steel next. Anyhow, it has been fun and rewarding. Especially making pizza better than PM, for a fraction of the cost. Recently we found calzones or stromboli to be really yummy also. I have considered something like an Ooni, but patio space is limited with other grills. Might need to rearrange things.
BTW, the crunchy, cheesy crust from the cast iron pies is quite delicious. I purposely put cheese past the edge.
Gluten free crust that doesn't taste like cardboard.
Still an amateur, and working with my home ovens. I got a pizza stone for Christmas, but it is only rated to 450deg. I need to get a steel next. Anyhow, it has been fun and rewarding. Especially making pizza better than PM, for a fraction of the cost. Recently we found calzones or stromboli to be really yummy also. I have considered something like an Ooni, but patio space is limited with other grills. Might need to rearrange things.
BTW, the crunchy, cheesy crust from the cast iron pies is quite delicious. I purposely put cheese past the edge.
Gluten free crust that doesn't taste like cardboard.
This.
Sounds like we need to compare notes on the next outing
Plus 1 on the cast iron pizza! I have dough cold fermenting now that will be cooked in cast iron on Saturday evening. Some of the very best tastes.
The only crime depicted in this photo is that awful-looking crust.