What's in your (PIZZA) oven?

iveofione said:
A little off subject but is there any such thing as a good frozen pizza? I have watched between 6 and 10 video comparisons lately on identifying the best frozen pizzas but there seems to be no clear winner. Why would I buy a frozen pizza anyway? Well, normally I make one on the weekend, starting the dough on Thursday and baking on Friday or Saturday. But this Friday I had to make a grocery run to prepare for next week's Arctic blast. It involved a 90 mile round trip over a mountain pass (with temps down to 3 degrees), shopping for hours at two different supermarkets then after the drive home, unloading all that stuff and putting it away. By the time I was done I knew I would be in no mood to build a pizza so I bought one that promised pizza nirvana. It was bloody awful, more like a saltine cracker with spaghetti sauce, a thin layer of cheese and a tiny bit of pepperoni on top. Even my failures are better. The one I bought was a Raos brick oven model and at $10 was seriously overpriced. I can't imagine the budget priced pies being much worse.

Next week I am expecting the delivery of some high quality pepperoni and should be back in business. In the meantime the question remains-is there such a thing as a good frozen pizza? When you live alone there are just some days that you don't want to cook and having a decent pizza in the freezer would be a big plus on those days.
Click to expand...

Hi Ive, the Screamin’ Sicilian brand pizzas are pretty good as far as frozen pizzas go. I like the Supremus Maximus. They are around $8.00 in my neck of the woods but I can occasionally find them on sale, buy one, get one free.
 
Evan B said:
Unlike @mcswny , I don't have a talent for finding free wood that's worth using. I found a guy out in Beaverton that sells a bit of everything for a pretty fair price, so I go load up with oak and cherry with him. Unlike running a smoker, you just want whatever is going to burn hot and hold up to the heat for more than a few minutes. The different woods aren't going to really change the flavor of your finished product. Just way too hot for smoke, so you're just getting heat.

Soft woods just flame out super quick if you toss it in to an already up-to-temp oven. So find something like oak or cherry that's well-seasoned and you shoudl be good to go. If I have some laying around, I'll sometimes toss less desirable wood in during the 2hr long process of heating my oven up, but once the oven is up to that 700f+ range, it's all hardwoods.
Click to expand...
To echo @Evan B , hardwoods are where it’s at. They burn hot and stay hot. Using lesser woods for heating the oven is very clever.

For flavor, extending beyond just pizza, I’ve found maple is fantastic as are used French oak wine barrels. Here in the PNW, there is a winery near just about everywhere and they’ll often blow out used barrels a couple times a year. The smoke is soft and sweet and they burn very well. American oak barrels used for whiskey, and some wine, have a much more intense flavor that I am not a fan of in my wine or woodsmoke.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_3949.jpeg
    IMG_3949.jpeg
    863.1 KB · Views: 5
  • Like
Reactions: Zak
Prepping for today's pizza sesh. Decided it was a good opportunity to show my Detroit/Sicilian crust process.

Remove from the fridge and let them rest for 1.5-2hr
1000006793.jpg

Place dough in a well-oiled high side pan and gently stretch/push to edges of pan. At this stage it will want to pull back a bit which is fine. Leave them to rest another hour.
1000006794.jpg

Do one more stretching / pressing to get the dough to fill up the pan and let it rest one more hour.
1000006796.jpg
(this is a good time to get your oven and pizza stone to temp if you are using a standard oven)

Get the oven to 450f and bake for 7mins, rotate and do 7 more mins. I often do this a few hours before I build and bake the full pizzas to give me time to prep and build my fire in the outdoor oven. So I let them cool on some racks.
1000006798.jpg
 
That is a truly killer price, chimney is not there but still, one could make one or likely buy another. They make really good pizzas.

Dave
 
Evan B said:
Pizza dough flavor?
Click to expand...

I didn’t believe that could be a real thing, but it is!

Ingredients:
Cheddar cheese powder [(milk, salt, culture, enzymes), nonfat milk, buttermilk, maltodextrin, salt, disodium phosphate], maltodextrin, salt, natural flavors, garlic and onion powder, lactic acid powder (lactic acid calcium lactate), yeast extract, spice, silicon dioxide (prevents caking)
 
Chucker said:
I didn’t believe that could be a real thing, but it is!

Ingredients:
Cheddar cheese powder [(milk, salt, culture, enzymes), nonfat milk, buttermilk, maltodextrin, salt, disodium phosphate], maltodextrin, salt, natural flavors, garlic and onion powder, lactic acid powder (lactic acid calcium lactate), yeast extract, spice, silicon dioxide (prevents caking)
Click to expand...
Does it come with a chemist? :oops:
 
Evan B said:
Pizza dough flavor?
Click to expand...
First time trying it.. IveOfIone mentioned it I think.. Got it on King Arthurs site.. I'll let you know.. going to let the dough ferment at least 3 days in the fridge..
 
Evan B said:
Prepping for today's pizza sesh. Decided it was a good opportunity to show my Detroit/Sicilian crust process.

Remove from the fridge and let them rest for 1.5-2hr
View attachment 141385

Place dough in a well-oiled high side pan and gently stretch/push to edges of pan. At this stage it will want to pull back a bit which is fine. Leave them to rest another hour.
View attachment 141386

Do one more stretching / pressing to get the dough to fill up the pan and let it rest one more hour.
View attachment 141387
(this is a good time to get your oven and pizza stone to temp if you are using a standard oven)

Get the oven to 450f and bake for 7mins, rotate and do 7 more mins. I often do this a few hours before I build and bake the full pizzas to give me time to prep and build my fire in the outdoor oven. So I let them cool on some racks.
View attachment 141394
Click to expand...
When you par bake those in your house oven are you using a pizza stone?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top