The Homemade Pizza Thread

[DavidDetroit]

For us mere mortals with just a gas over, does anyone have any basic tips?

I always heat the over for 15 mins at max temps & just put it straight on the oven grills without a tray. Seems like getting the dough thoroughly cooked while slightly crispy is the bedrock of a great pizza for me

What you're doing sounds good. Some use pizza stones or steel. When I make a round, I use a pizza screen under the dough.
Dough is key and there are good recipes here.

 

[SilverShadow]

What you're doing sounds good. Some use pizza stones or steel. When I make a round, I use a pizza screen under the dough.
Dough is key and there are good recipes here.

Totally agree. It took having pizza from a local independent mobile seller, for me to realise just how transformational a good dough base can be.

Something thin, yet airy & crispy, with an elastic/chewy feel to the dough, is sensational to me

 

[SilverShadow]

Welcome to capitalism - you pay the value it gives you, which happens to give them spectacularly good margins. It's just a shame that so many people are satisfied by "adequate" pizza, and aren't prepared to pay the relatively little extra to get really good ingredients.



Umm - try reading this thread? But in an ordinary oven, a couple of minutes pre-cooking the base without the topping was a gamechanger for me. And just generally try to minimise how "wet" it gets - I pat dry eg the mozzarella, and go sparingly with the fresh tomatoes.

Yes, sadly a £15 bland, grease smoothered, often soggy/sometimes burnt offering seems all to popular. Seems like quantity over quality is what sells

I tried a random place months back, only to find they were using cheap cardboardy naans for their base. It was only pure hunger & drunkenness that made me persevere!

Thanks for the tip about the base. Definitely worth a try as our gas oven is a little puny

 

[Brewelder]

Pizza is, without doubt, the unrivalled ripoff of the fast food industry. The ingredients cost a few quid, it takes literally minutes to cook & requires very little culinary skill (once the dough base is formed)

And yet, despite this, a truly well cooked pizza with quality fresh ingredients is one of the things I hugely enjoy. The buggers round my area must know, cos the prices are sky high!

For us mere mortals with just a gas over, does anyone have any basic tips?

I always heat the over for 15 mins at max temps & just put it straight on the oven grills without a tray. Seems like getting the dough thoroughly cooked while slightly crispy is the bedrock of a great pizza for me

I’ve got a wood fired oven which i swear by, simply can’t be beat for flavour in my opinion. That said, during the winter months when it’s either lashing down or too cold i resort to my regular electric oven.

Best method for a regular oven i find is to crank it as high as it will go, use a Pizza stone or better still, a slab of metal/cast iron works better if you can get hold of one. Maybe a suitable sized flat griddle? Iron hold the temperature better. Other than that, use the non fan setting on the oven, just radiant heat works best for me.

Some ovens now have a pizza setting which basically heats from the bottom so if you have a similar setting on your oven then try it.

 

[DavidDetroit]

As far as pizza, quality cheese and meat are very expensive. Sometimes it's hard to differentiate between price gouging and an honest business trying to make a reasonable profit.
For the fair restaurateur, you either sell food items in massive quantities or price it really high to compensate (in which case you need the right location and incredible products). Profit margin on food is notoriously small when done fairly or according to what the market will bear. That's why I would never run just a food restaurant without a liquor license to sell beer and wine.
Food trucks, very big here, seem to do okay but I think that's mostly a fuzzy perception passed along. I bet mostly there's a lot of food trucks being sold from one inexperienced person to another to another.

I'm going to do a side-by-side with bread flour versus 00 flour and make square pizzas, giving the doughs much time to ferment. I'll see if it the flour really matters for squares.
For rounds (or my version of the gas oven Neapolitan), I'm already convinced that the 00 is the way to go.

 

[Brewnaldo]

Just made the pizza dough with poolish. I'm not HUGELY convinced re flavour difference. But that said, it was made with Canadian strong bread flour not 00 as I ran out.

BUT, it was an easier dough than usual to work, and seemed generally better Bread, even if I can't say it was flavour wise

 

[DavidDetroit]

doner meat

Just learned of that word now. Kind of like ground bits from many animals?
We already have hotdogs and I try not to think too much about how many strands of rat hair or rat balls I'm eating. Funnily, rat intestines don't bother me that much.

 

[Clint]

Doner is lamb.

 

[Brewnaldo]

Doner is lamb.

I am a HUGE fan of the Doner kebab, but with that said, there's as much chance of it being 100% unicorn as 100% lamb

 

[SilverShadow]

Just learned of that word now. Kind of like ground bits from many animals?
We already have hotdogs and I try not to think too much about how many strands of rat hair or rat balls I'm eating. Funnily, rat intestines don't bother me that much.

I'd describe doner meat as 'miscellaneous'. Certainly indistinguishable, in terms of what may have fell into the processing machine!

 

[Hanglow]

A good doner is great, quality cuts of lamb slapped onto a spit, seasoned, and grilled upright to perfection. A lot of doner in the uk though is utter rubbish, mechanically separated scrotum, overly salted and served to drunks with three day old lettuce.

also a fan of all types

 

[Brewnaldo]

A good doner is great, quality cuts of lamb slapped onto a spit, seasoned, and grilled upright to perfection. A lot of doner in the uk though is utter rubbish, mechanically separated scrotum, overly salted and served to drunks with three day old lettuce.

also a fan of all types

I'm sure there's probably some negatives aswell.

 

[will4009]

Made a poolish dough today. Came out well, a bit tricky to manage on the peel, but worth it.

 

[Robin54]

Just made the pizza dough with poolish. I'm not HUGELY convinced re flavour difference. But that said, it was made with Canadian strong bread flour not 00 as I ran out.

BUT, it was an easier dough than usual to work, and seemed generally better Bread, even if I can't say it was flavour wise

Indeed, Ive always just used bread flour but use the polish method - that makes a huge difference. What you could is stuff cheese around the edges and turn them over for a stuffed crust

 

[Oneflewover]

Looks proper tasty!

Made a poolish dough today. Came out well, a bit tricky to manage on the peel, but worth it.
View attachment 66106
View attachment 66107

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Profit margin on food is notoriously small when done fairly or according to what the market will bear. That's why I would never run just a food restaurant without a liquor license to sell beer and wine.
Food trucks, very big here, seem to do okay

I wouldn't say the margins on food are low here - gross margins are generally quite a bit higher than on drink, but they come with big fixed costs. So in order to make money from food you need to do it on a big scale to spread those fixed costs over a lot of covers, otherwise you do food just to keep people in the place whilst they spend money on drink. Both styles can work, but they're very different operations.

Food trucks are increasingly popular here - they work because a) they minimise the fixed costs and b) to some extent they alleviate the problem of the current chef shortage due to Brexit by allowing taprooms etc to not have to try to recruit a directly-employed chef, and giving them the chance to choose how many hours they work.

 

[Dutto]

I tried a pizza stone in the oven, but I scratched the ceramic hob lifting it out after it had cooled!

SWMBO still blames me but can’t work out how I did it.


The stone (with corners now cut off using a grinder) now fits the BBQ and I am waiting for summer!

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

Doner is lamb.

I make my own with this recipe and it's amazing in a pitta bread with chilli and garlic sauce, plus a bit of shredded white cabbage if you're feeling fancy.

1 teaspoon plain flour
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried Italian herbs
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
500g/1.1 lb lamb mince

 

[DavidDetroit]

Food trucks are increasingly popular here - they work because a) they minimise the fixed costs and b) to some extent they alleviate the problem of the current chef shortage due to Brexit by allowing taprooms etc to not have to try to recruit a directly-employed chef, and giving them the chance to choose how many hours they work.

We're having a heck of a time trying to get people to fill restaurant positions. Familiar with White Castle? It's a fast food hamburger chain, easy to train to do the job, etc. They're hiring for $15/hour which is unheard of until recently.

 

[prog99]

I make my own with this recipe and it's amazing in a pitta bread with chilli and garlic sauce, plus a bit of shredded white cabbage if you're feeling fancy.

1 teaspoon plain flour
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried Italian herbs
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
500g/1.1 lb lamb mince

And then forget about it and microwave it the next morning for breakfast. (I've survived that one too)

How accurate is this spice mix. My facebook feed has a company offering an authentic mix with good reviews but it can't be that hard to get the right combo?