Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Steve,

I really like the flavor of the low yeast, slow fermented, high-hydration dough. The solution to the pizza peel problem is parchment paper under the dough. Slide the parchment with undressed dough in the hot oven for a few minutes. Pull the dough when the bottom has firmed up, toss the (well caramelized) parchment and finish the pizza on your peel. It will slide nicely.

Tim

As expected, they are sending me a new stone, no problem.

Any one have experience with the Cast Iron pizza skillet for Weber BBQs?
I'd think they would work great; get them HOT, they retain the heat about as good as anything out there.
Durable, no worries about cracks or breakage. Seasonable stick free surface, and reasonable price.
Me, I'd opt for cast iron over a stone. Maybe you guys have more gooder reasons for your choices.
Care to share?

This one can accommodate a 16 inch pizza.

I think it is a very interesting idea. Getting it to heat should not be a problem. The only thing is to make sure the top side of the pizza cooks in time without over doing the bottom. It should be similar to Amy's use of her dressed aluminum plate to cook pizza under her broiler.

I was looking at something similar to suspend over my pizza and filling with hot coals to help radiate heat down while the pizza cooked on a stone that should be in the 700F to 750F range or possibly more. But cooking on it would be simpler and if the top cooks as well, you're bob's uncle!

If the pizza bottom cooks to fast, some sort of screen pan might help keep the bottom from cooking too fast while the top finished.

I'll be playing with all this in another five weeks or so, I hope. Depends on the condition of the pizza stones upon arrival.

I use a 12" round cast iron griddle (Comal)
for pizza. Serious Eats has a great suggestion that really works.

Heat your broiler. Turn your burner up to high. Make your pizza and place on the griddle.
Put pizza under the broiler for 3-4 minutes or until done to your liking. Remove from oven and place on the burner and cook until crispy brown on the bottom.

I can't believe how well this works.

fitzie

Tunaoue,

Well, I don't know about others, but I have three reasons to use ceramic instead of cast iron:

1. Cost: those mexican tiles cost me $1.20 each. Even the big high-fire stone I have was less than $20.

2. Sticking: I can always scrape pizza off a ceramic stone, even if cheese has run off and burned onto the ceramic. My experience with cast iron pans would leave me to believe that this would be a problem with cast iron.

3. Shape: I want a rectangular stone (or pair of tiles) so that I can do two pizzas/calzone/bread loaves at once.

Of course, I haven't tried fitzie's unconventional method.

I haven't had any problem with pizza sticking to the Comal. I do put a little olive oil on it before the pizza goes on.
fitzie

I did not know that. The tiles are so cheap, they're expendable.
Is the clay in the tiles made with anything we should be aware of? (i.e; lead, arsenic, steer dung, . . .)

That helps you, and maybe me, but what about Steve?
How's the market for Mexican tiles in P.I.?

Unglazed Mexican ("Saltillo") tile should contain only teracotta clay, with no significant amounts of lead or radioactive materials. Arsenic would burn off a tile during manufacture, even if it was used to make tile, which it isn't. I'm not clear on why steer dung would be considered toxic.

However, stay far away from glazed terracotta tiles. These often contain unfritted lead, and are not safe for culinary purposes (nor are those cute decorative terracotta cazuelas you picked up in Guadalajara, either, unless they came with a certificate of food safety).

High-fire stoneware clay bodies are sometime made with toxic material additives. However, in the process of firing those chemicals become fused into the stoneware in a completely nonsoluable form. So if you could find unglazed high-fire stoneware tile they would be perfectly safe, regardless of clay composition. They would also be more durable than the terracotta. However, I have yet to see unglazed high-fire stoneware tiles for sale anywhere.

Even for high-fire, though, glazed tile is not safe unless you have a bill of materials. Manganese, lithium, chrome, copper, cobalt, and even traces of uranium are not uncommon as high-fire glaze materials, and may be present in sufficient quantities to leach into food, especially when cooked at high temperatures. Most potters who sell cookware are aware of toxicity and make sure not to use those ingredients in soluable quantities or chemical combinations, but tile manufacturers are only expecting shoes to be on the tile, not food.

So, to sum up: unglazed tile = safe, glazed tile = dangerous.

(why, yes, I do have a degree in ceramics. Why do you ask? )

And yes, they are nicely expendable. Break one? Keep a stack next to the grill. I bought 6.

Luckily, there is a lot of pottery made here in the Philippines. Attached is a photo of pottery being sold in La Union Province which is just down the road from me and where I bought a bit of it myself. I haven't found the factory, but if I do I'll see about getting baking stones made. The little two piece pottery sets in the photo hold charcoal in the bottom pot and usually a soup of some sort in the top.