Pizza peel sticks

[tenspeed]

Different brands of parchment paper are rated at different maximum temperatures. I don't know if they are really different or if it's just a labeling thing. I use a brand rated at 450 F for dutch oven bread (it make it easier to add the dough and remove the loaf). The paper turns a light brown at 450, but doesn't appear to be close to igniting.

 

[CraigC]

I cook pizza outdoors in a wood fired kettlepizza or on the BGE. Temps can get to 900F. Parchment paper would never work. My peel is aluminum and I use a very light dusting of coarse corn meal.

 

[Chef Kenny]

i'll try cornmeal again. I tried it once but it didn't work well. Perhaps if my pizza stone was MUCH larger, I could get more aggressive when I jerk the peel back.
Perhaps part of the problem is that I seriously load up the pizza dough with so many ingredients that by the time I'm done, the dough has had time to stick to the peel ?

I haven't made pizza on a stone in a while, the low carb recipe I'm working with now does employ parchment paper, but using a perforated round metal pizza pan. The crust is par-baked, then the parchment is removed, then the pizza topped and back in the oven.

Parchment does solve a lot of "release" problems.

When I was cooking normal pizza (meaning regular pizza dough instead of the low carb version I'm doing these days) on a stone I had the same problem as you. Being a metal worker by trade, and specializing in non-ferrous metals, the obvious go to for me was to make my own pizza peel...and of course I chose stainless because I have the stuff. The exact same thing happened to me and it was in fact what you described. By the time I got all my toppings on, it was a disaster getting it transferred to the hot stone. I think its partly the time it takes to top the pizza (for me this is a factor because I am one of those people who MUST get the toppings evenly distributed...I could never work in a pizza shop where they just throw the toppings on randomly), combined with how heavy the pizza becomes once topped...and I tend to use a lot of toppings.


What I started doing was forming my crust on the peel over top of cornmeal (I dont keep semolina, but its a coarse flour that works similarly), then spread just the sauce on it. At that point, I removed the hot stone from the oven and slid the sauce topped dough on to it. It starts cooking right away of course so I was sure to have my toppings all ready and organized in order to get them (perfectly of course) on the pizza fast. then back in the oven.

 

[roadfix]

When I used to use parchment paper in the kitchen oven I would yank it out from under the pizza about 2 minutes into the cook before it got burnt and brittle.

 

[roadfix]

When I built my outdoor wood fired oven several yrs ago I also made my own tools. For my metal peel I used a length of 3/4" copper tubing and rivetted a round cut sheet aluminum. Works wonderfully.

edit: I found the photo

 

[buckytom]

Don't burn it. No problem.

That's the trick.

Many pizza places (and the occasional home cook) don't scrub the residual cornmeal out of their ovens often enough.