Thread: Tell me about your pizza peel

JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
> Stopped at Bed Bath & Beyond yesterday to get a pizza peel, and the
> one they had in stock was about as thick as two pencils, with a
> business end that didn't seem tapered enough to slide easily under a
> pizza. It was also made of some kind of wood that wasn't much heavier
> than balsa. Seemed like it end up gouged all to hell by the pizza
> cutter. Made in China, of course.
> I haven't had time to look elsewhere yet. If you've got one, how
> thick is it, and is the leading edge blunt, sharp, or what?

I have a metal one with a wooden handle. The metal part is about 18 inches
square and the handle is perhaps 2 feet long. Very hand for rising bread or
developing pizza. The metal is thin enough that it slips easily under
anything.
Janet

"Janet Bostwick" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:13upq5fj3410s8d@news.supernews.[email protected]..
> JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
>> Stopped at Bed Bath & Beyond yesterday to get a pizza peel, and the
>> one they had in stock was about as thick as two pencils, with a
>> business end that didn't seem tapered enough to slide easily under a
>> pizza. It was also made of some kind of wood that wasn't much heavier
>> than balsa. Seemed like it end up gouged all to hell by the pizza
>> cutter. Made in China, of course.
>> I haven't had time to look elsewhere yet. If you've got one, how
>> thick is it, and is the leading edge blunt, sharp, or what?
>
> I have a metal one with a wooden handle. The metal part is about 18
> inches square and the handle is perhaps 2 feet long. Very hand for rising
> bread or developing pizza. The metal is thin enough that it slips easily
> under anything.
> Janet
>

Anything? What about under a house?

"JoeSpareBedroom" <[email protected]> ha scritto nel messaggio
news:Bs5Hj.741$[email protected]..
> Stopped at Bed Bath & Beyond yesterday to get a pizza peel, and the one
> they had in stock was about as thick as two pencils, with a business end
> that didn't seem tapered enough to slide easily under a pizza. It was also
> made of some kind of wood that wasn't much heavier than balsa. Seemed like
> it end up gouged all to hell by the pizza cutter. Made in China, of
> course.
>
> I haven't had time to look elsewhere yet. If you've got one, how thick is
> it, and is the leading edge blunt, sharp, or what?

Mine is metal with a wooden handle. I still wouldn't be cutting pizza on
it. That's not what they are for. Slip it in, slide the pizzo onto the
oven floor, slip it under and slide the pizza out and onto the surface where
it gets cut or not.

"Giusi" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]..
> "JoeSpareBedroom" <[email protected]> ha scritto nel messaggio
> news:Bs5Hj.741$[email protected]..
>> Stopped at Bed Bath & Beyond yesterday to get a pizza peel, and the one
>> they had in stock was about as thick as two pencils, with a business end
>> that didn't seem tapered enough to slide easily under a pizza. It was
>> also made of some kind of wood that wasn't much heavier than balsa.
>> Seemed like it end up gouged all to hell by the pizza cutter. Made in
>> China, of course.
>>
>> I haven't had time to look elsewhere yet. If you've got one, how thick is
>> it, and is the leading edge blunt, sharp, or what?
>
> Mine is metal with a wooden handle. I still wouldn't be cutting pizza on
> it. That's not what they are for. Slip it in, slide the pizzo onto the
> oven floor, slip it under and slide the pizza out and onto the surface
> where it gets cut or not.
>


Thanks.

The cutting is the next issue. Gotta get a cutting board as big as my pizza
stone. I used the heavy stone for the first time last night. The pizza crust
was so delicious, we went into some sort of trance state. :-) This is going
to become a habit around here.

"JoeSpareBedroom" <[email protected]> ha scritto nel messaggio
news:Fb6Hj.745$[email protected]..
> "Giusi" <[email protected]> wrote
>> Mine is metal with a wooden handle. I still wouldn't be cutting pizza on
>> it. That's not what they are for.

> Thanks.
>
> The cutting is the next issue. Gotta get a cutting board as big as my
> pizza stone.

Or make single serving sized pizzas. OTH, if cut you must, kitchen shears
do a fine job on any surface.

JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
> "Janet Bostwick" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]..
>> JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
>>> Stopped at Bed Bath & Beyond yesterday to get a pizza peel, and the
>>> one they had in stock was about as thick as two pencils, with a
>>> business end that didn't seem tapered enough to slide easily under a
>>> pizza. It was also made of some kind of wood that wasn't much
>>> heavier than balsa. Seemed like it end up gouged all to hell by the
>>> pizza cutter. Made in China, of course.
>>> I haven't had time to look elsewhere yet. If you've got one, how
>>> thick is it, and is the leading edge blunt, sharp, or what?
>>
>> I have a metal one with a wooden handle. The metal part is about 18
>> inches square and the handle is perhaps 2 feet long. Very hand for
>> rising bread or developing pizza. The metal is thin enough that it
>> slips easily under anything.
>> Janet
>>
>
> Anything? What about under a house?

With a good lever . . . sure! ;o}
Janet

JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
snip
> The cutting is the next issue. Gotta get a cutting board as big as my
> pizza stone. I used the heavy stone for the first time last night.
> The pizza crust was so delicious, we went into some sort of trance
> state. :-) This is going to become a habit around here.

My cutting board is not quite that big so I turn the pizza and then cut the
other half.
Janet

In article <Bs5Hj.741$[email protected]>,
"JoeSpareBedroom" <[email protected]> wrote:

> I haven't had time to look elsewhere yet. If you've got one, how thick is
> it, and is the leading edge blunt, sharp, or what?


Several years ago Robin Ringo (used to post here) sent me a peel that
her husband had made. There's a pretty good picture of it at
http://www.jamlady.eboard.com , click on the "Yeast is Yeast. . . ."
note and scroll down for the pic. It is two kinds of wood; you can see
that it is tapered. I would describe the edge as sharpish rather than
blunt, though it's certainly not going to ever cut anything. :-) It's
not especially heavy. I don't cut pizza on it; I slide the pizza to my
cutting board and do the deed on that. I'm guessing (from afar) that
it's maybe 1/2" thick. FWIW.
--
-Barb, Mother Superior, HOSSSPoJ
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/amytaylor
Pray for the abatement of her pain.

"Melba's Jammin'" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]..
> In article <Bs5Hj.741$[email protected]>,
> "JoeSpareBedroom" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> I haven't had time to look elsewhere yet. If you've got one, how thick is
>> it, and is the leading edge blunt, sharp, or what?
>
>
> Several years ago Robin Ringo (used to post here) sent me a peel that
> her husband had made. There's a pretty good picture of it at
> http://www.jamlady.eboard.com , click on the "Yeast is Yeast. . . ."
> note and scroll down for the pic. It is two kinds of wood; you can see
> that it is tapered. I would describe the edge as sharpish rather than
> blunt, though it's certainly not going to ever cut anything. :-) It's
> not especially heavy. I don't cut pizza on it; I slide the pizza to my
> cutting board and do the deed on that. I'm guessing (from afar) that
> it's maybe 1/2" thick. FWIW.


Wow....that thing's a work of art!

In article <[email protected]>,
"Giusi" <[email protected]> wrote:

> "JoeSpareBedroom" <[email protected]> ha scritto nel messaggio
> news:Fb6Hj.745$[email protected]..
> > "Giusi" <[email protected]> wrote
> >> Mine is metal with a wooden handle. I still wouldn't be cutting pizza on
> >> it. That's not what they are for.
>
> > Thanks.
> >
> > The cutting is the next issue. Gotta get a cutting board as big as my
> > pizza stone.
>
> Or make single serving sized pizzas. OTH, if cut you must, kitchen shears
> do a fine job on any surface.

I make individual pizzas -- we each prefer different stuff. My method
is, I am sure, unorthodox and will probably elicit gasps of horror ‹ but
it works for me and it is what I will continue to do. It is based on
less than satisfactory experience doing it a more traditional way.

I use a piece of dough about the size of a tennis ball for each pizza.
I roll the dough very thin - perhaps the square inch total of a 9"
round, though not exactly round. :-) I slide it to my baking tiles
(unglazed terracotta, 1/4" thick) and bake it on the bottom rack at 550
deg F for 2-3 minutes just to set the crust a bit. I dock the dough
first.

I put the toppings on the baked side of the crust and slide it back into
the oven with the peel for about 5-7 minutes, until the cheese is as I
like it. Or until the crust edges are brown (Rob has his without
cheese). The crust is crisp (as he likes it).

I'd had a flippin' Alexawful mess with one. My dough was too thin for
what I was putting on it and I had not prebaked it as described above.
The dough stuck to the peel and let's just say I wound up with a heckuva
mess in my oven due to slippage and sloppage and stickage. :-/

Prebaking the crusts as I do allows me to prepare them a bit in advance
-- when Small Child was in residence we could have one in the oven while
we arranged the topping on the next.
--
-Barb, Mother Superior, HOSSSPoJ
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/amytaylor
Pray for the abatement of her pain.

In article <[email protected]>,
"Janet Bostwick" <[email protected]> wrote:

>The metal is thin enough that it slips easily under
> anything.
> Janet

Does it bend from the weight?

--
-Barb, Mother Superior, HOSSSPoJ
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/amytaylor
Pray for the abatement of her pain.

JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
>
> Stopped at Bed Bath & Beyond yesterday to get a pizza peel, and the one they
> had in stock was about as thick as two pencils, with a business end that
> didn't seem tapered enough to slide easily under a pizza. It was also made
> of some kind of wood that wasn't much heavier than balsa. Seemed like it end
> up gouged all to hell by the pizza cutter. Made in China, of course.
>
> I haven't had time to look elsewhere yet. If you've got one, how thick is
> it, and is the leading edge blunt, sharp, or what?

They are normally made of light weight wood. My peel tapers along it's
entire length somewhat and then more significantly at the front edge. It
starts at about 3/4" at the handle and tapers to about 1/2" near the
front before the final taper to about 1/8" in the last 3/4".

You *DO NOT* cut a pizza on the peel! A peel is a transfer device, just
a big spatula really and you don't cut stuff on a spatula either. The
peel is used to transfer the uncooked pizza into the oven and remove it
from the oven once cooked, that's all. Once you remove the cooked pizza
you put it on a platter or disk of some type which is where you do the
cutting.

"JoeSpareBedroom" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:Bs5Hj.741$[email protected]..
> Stopped at Bed Bath & Beyond yesterday to get a pizza peel, and the one
> they had in stock was about as thick as two pencils, with a business end
> that didn't seem tapered enough to slide easily under a pizza. It was also
> made of some kind of wood that wasn't much heavier than balsa. Seemed like
> it end up gouged all to hell by the pizza cutter. Made in China, of
> course.
>
> I haven't had time to look elsewhere yet. If you've got one, how thick is
> it, and is the leading edge blunt, sharp, or what?
>

Mine is made of oak, but it was a gift, so I have no idea where it was
purchased. It's about 1/4 thick and tapers towards the end so that you can
pick up the pizza pretty easily. It's not really wide, I'd say it would
hold a 14" pizza - max.

kili

"JoeSpareBedroom" <[email protected]> wrote

> I haven't had time to look elsewhere yet. If you've got one, how thick is
> it, and is the leading edge blunt, sharp, or what?

I don't have a pizza peel. I use a large metal offset spatula, get it
under there and just slide the pizza onto a cutting board.

nancy

"Pete C." <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:987Hj.22816$[email protected] net...
>
> JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
>>
>> Stopped at Bed Bath & Beyond yesterday to get a pizza peel, and the one
>> they
>> had in stock was about as thick as two pencils, with a business end that
>> didn't seem tapered enough to slide easily under a pizza. It was also
>> made
>> of some kind of wood that wasn't much heavier than balsa. Seemed like it
>> end
>> up gouged all to hell by the pizza cutter. Made in China, of course.
>>
>> I haven't had time to look elsewhere yet. If you've got one, how thick is
>> it, and is the leading edge blunt, sharp, or what?
>
> They are normally made of light weight wood. My peel tapers along it's
> entire length somewhat and then more significantly at the front edge. It
> starts at about 3/4" at the handle and tapers to about 1/2" near the
> front before the final taper to about 1/8" in the last 3/4".
>
> You *DO NOT* cut a pizza on the peel! A peel is a transfer device, just
> a big spatula really and you don't cut stuff on a spatula either. The
> peel is used to transfer the uncooked pizza into the oven and remove it
> from the oven once cooked, that's all. Once you remove the cooked pizza
> you put it on a platter or disk of some type which is where you do the
> cutting.


I sorta had a feeling that wasn't a great idea. But, my mind was momentarily
swayed by the descriptive text for a nice looking peel at the BB&B web site,
which claimed the product wouldn't be damaged by knives, or something like
that. I've come to my senses, though.

Melba's Jammin' wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>,
> "Janet Bostwick" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> The metal is thin enough that it slips easily under
>> anything.
>> Janet
>
> Does it bend from the weight?
>
> --
> -Barb, Mother Superior, HOSSSPoJ

No, it is similar to a cookie sheet in guage.
Janet

On Mar 28, 6:57*am, Melba's Jammin' <barbschal...@earthlink.net>
wrote:
> In article <6549noF2d50u...@mid.individual.net>,
>
> *"Giusi" <decobabe...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > "JoeSpareBedroom" <dishborea...@yahoo.com> ha scritto nel messaggio
> >news:Fb6Hj.745$[email protected]..
> > > "Giusi" <decobabe...@yahoo.com> wrote
> > >> Mine is metal with a wooden handle. *I still wouldn't be cutting pizza on
> > >> it. *That's not what they are for.
>
> > > Thanks.
>
> > > The cutting is the next issue. Gotta get a cutting board as big as my
> > > pizza stone.
>
> > Or make single serving sized pizzas. *OTH, if cut you must, kitchen shears
> > do a fine job on any surface.
>
> I make individual pizzas -- we each prefer different stuff. *My method
> is, I am sure, unorthodox and will probably elicit gasps of horror ‹ but
> it works for me and it is what I will continue to do. *It is based on
> less than satisfactory experience doing it a more traditional way.
>
> I use a piece of dough about the size of a tennis ball for each pizza. *
> I roll the dough very thin - perhaps the square inch total of a 9"
> round, though not exactly round. *:-) *I slide it to my baking tiles
> (unglazed terracotta, 1/4" thick) and bake it on the bottom rack at 550
> deg F for 2-3 minutes just to set the crust a bit. *I dock the dough
> first.
>
> I put the toppings on the baked side of the crust and slide it back into
> the oven with the peel for about 5-7 minutes, until the cheese is as I
> like it. *Or until the crust edges are brown (Rob has his without
> cheese). *The crust is crisp (as he likes it). *
>
> I'd had a flippin' Alexawful mess with one. *My dough was too thin for
> what I was putting on it and I had not prebaked it as described above. *
> The dough stuck to the peel and let's just say I wound up with a heckuva
> mess in my oven due to slippage and sloppage and stickage. *:-/
>
> Prebaking the crusts as I do allows me to prepare them a bit in advance
> -- when Small Child was in residence we could have one in the oven while
> we arranged the topping on the next.
> --
> -Barb, Mother Superior, HOSSSPoJhttp://www.caringbridge.org/visit/amytaylor
> Pray for the abatement of her pain.

No gasping from me- your method sounds like a great idea!

>
> I'd had a flippin' Alexawful mess with one. *My dough was too thin for
> what I was putting on it and I had not prebaked it as described above. *
> The dough stuck to the peel and let's just say I wound up with a heckuva
> mess in my oven due to slippage and sloppage and stickage. *:-/

It stuck, even with a sprinkle of cornmeal under it to to ease the
sliding?

I LOVE thin-crust pizza - but I'm afraid if I get a stone for the
oven, I'll just eat too much of it.... ;-)

N.

"Nancy2" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

>
> I'd had a flippin' Alexawful mess with one. My dough was too thin for
> what I was putting on it and I had not prebaked it as described above.
> The dough stuck to the peel and let's just say I wound up with a heckuva
> mess in my oven due to slippage and sloppage and stickage. :-/

It stuck, even with a sprinkle of cornmeal under it to to ease the
sliding?


=============


I had that same problem last night. Without a peel, I used an inverted
baking sheet for assembling the pizza and (theoretically) sliding it onto
the baking stone. I put a LOT of cornmeal on the surface first, but that
pizza would not budge, no matter how I tried to assist with a really long
spatula. So, I ended up putting the baking sheet on the stone. It still
turned out delicious, except the bottom didn't get to the color/crispness I
wanted.

The recipe said "dough should be somewhat wet". I probably made it TOO wet.