On this episode of Ask the Test Kitchen, Cook’s Illustrated editors Lan and Andrew answer all your questions about making pizza at home.
Disclaimer: This video was filmed earlier this year and our team is currently working on exciting new content at home for the foreseeable future. Stay healthy and hope you enjoy!
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00:55 – @marleymaginnis: When does pizza dough become over proofed and can you still use it?
01:52 – @PoniesRevil: Sometimes I don’t roll [pizza dough] out too well and I get thin spots in the middle. If I try to fold it back up and reroll it, it doesn’t reincorporate. Can this be fixed?
04:11 – @SarahSandler: What’s the best way to clean a baking stone?
08:30 – @witnesstoevents: What about using parchment to get a pizza from peel to oven?
12:24 – @mdalena_bresson: What exactly is cold fermentation and should I be doing it to my pizza dough?
13:49 – @KevinHullinger: I used a pizza stone for years based on your recommendation to use the bottom rack. Now you say the top rack is best. Which is it?
15:15 – @sylvanair: I want to know how to get a thin crust that doesn’t sag under the weight of the toppings!
16:48 – @JHenderson333: All things equal, is wood better than gas for pizza? Have you done a blind taste test to confirm?
18:13 – @masmith93: New Jersey Pie — Why is it so good?
18:49 – @SarahSandler: How do you easily grate a fresh ball of mozzarella?
19:36 – @thedarkwolf: What’s a better upgrade from mushrooms and pepperoni: Sopressata and Morels or bacon and baby bellas?
23:29 – @Kattsrags: I love pizza but gluten doesn’t agree with me. Any ideas on gluten free pizza recipes please?
25:55 – @drlanaperez: What’s the trick to making pizza in an airfryer oven?
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Disclaimer: This video was filmed earlier this year and our team is currently working on exciting new content at home for the foreseeable future. Stay healthy and hope you enjoy!
I love they're assuming we're all having guests 🤣
Get a mini pizza oven. Mine (Ferrari g3) cost 100€ and makes and HUGE difference, as it heats to 750F. No oven+stone or steel combo can even compare. Also preheats in 10 minutes instead of 30-40.
Great informative program. If you both could eliminate the umm's, ahhh's, so's etc – crutch words, it would be so much better for viewers.
I love this lady ❤️❤️❤️
She's so classy in addition to knowledgeable… 😘😘😘
I use parchment to transfer pizza on my pizza steel and pull out after two minutes. Works great, I get crispy bottom crust. My total cooking time is 6 minutes at 500 F.
Cornmeal works for me. Downside: vacuuming the oven the next day.
The tip of making more dough to practice is really great. ♥️
As the peel is metal: Can you prime it with oil like a pan to prevent sticking?
If you have a tear in your pizza dough and no toppings on ball it up again without adding more flour and try again. This will be your individual pizza, of course. Not for a guest. 😉
You could also make little pizza rolls or pizza bread to save the dough.
LOL Jesey tomato pie…What Italians in Montreal called PIzza or pizze and exist since at least since the 50's
8 minutes on a steel? Mine is done in 3 min…. and my steel so thick it don't need to recover…….. don't get the thin steels.
Sounds like the might be using parchment on the on the peal to make it kind of like the cloth top peel.
Love Lan!
Eye of providence t-shirt and a question from 'thedarkwolf?' Repugnant #gangstalking
I found the discussion about ordering cheese, sauce and topping fascinating. About 30 years ago, I worked at a local pizza shop that started with sauce, added a layer of mozzarella for the gooey cheese pull, then added toppings and finally a layer of cheddar cheese for a really crispy brown cheesy crust.
What if your food processor is a compact (5-7 cups) size? Make the dough in batches? Use the stand mixer?
I don’t want a gas smell flavor in my pizza so I’ll stick with wood.
No stone?
Method From Mario Batali – I have made my Pizza with a Round Pizza Pan – in the bottom of the oven and a regular rack about 3/4 the way up at highest temp (550 degrees) I cook the Pizza on the Pan Just until it is set enough to be slid off the Pan – and I slide it onto the Regular "OPEN" Oven Rack which allows the bottom to get DIRECT heat. MY Question – I note that as I have lived they put less and less sauce on the pie – some of them are just too dry (I am from NJ – and I grow my own tomatoes) – But – to prevent the SLIDE OFF – put some Sauce below the Cheese and some above the cheese. Also helps prevent sausage or pepperoni from turning into Hockey Pucks too.
My carbon steel paella pan cooks a pizza well.
Why does watching anything about pizza make me want it, no matter what time of day or night. Good thing no one delivers out to the country.
this guy shouldn't be teaching people how to put on socks
13:55.: Everyone seems to forget you can have two racks in your home oven. I start my pizza with the stone bottom(not rack but the sole) and move it to the top after the crust has set and started to brown on the bottom(about 2-3 minutes). Then move just the pizza to the top rack to brown the top. That extra air around the bottom crust will get it nice and cripsy.
These two have such great chemistry….and I'm insatnly in love with Lan!
How do you clean the cloth on a Super Peel? Or do you clean it? Does it come off?
I like the content, but he sure sniffs a lot….those in the know will know what I am thinking.
What about using a stone and/or steel in a gas grill outside?
I love her questions!
Lan asking some of the same questions I had!
I'm shopping for pizza steels and I was wondering if there was a sweet spot for thicknesses. A lot of the commercial models are unavailable during quarantine, so I was also considering buying an A36 Steel plate and seasoning it myself. Since I can choose whatever thickness I want, do you think there is any downside to going with a thicker plate, maybe 1/2 inch?
flop and slide!!! love the video! oh also love the illuminati pizza eye!
Lan is awesome. She is so easy to listen to. What a great voice.
Tabletop or mini pizza oven? Did ATK test them and if so, do you have a suggestion for best one, please?
Pepperoni and green olives is my favourite pizza.
Hearing impaired and captions didn’t work. What is the salami butter thing mentioned after suppressants?
What corner of hades do the people who cut round pizzas into squares originate? (Party cut). What bus do we put them on to send them back whence they came?
I think Dave Portnoy “One Bite Everyone Knows the Rules” will disagree about the flop.
The cheap alternative to the steel/stone combo is bricks wrapped aluminum foil – thermal mass is your friend.
my indoor setup for NY or Neapolitan style (electric oven):
top rack has bricks wrapped in foil, 2+/- inches from the top element, and four inches+/- above the top of the bricks on the bottom rack
bottom rack with bricks wrapped in foil (pizza will land on this if you use a peel, if you don't use a peel just drop your cookie sheet onto this).
let the oven and bricks preheat for an hour at your ovens highest setting before landing a pizza in there.
getting to the point though where I'm just going to build a wood fired brick oven in the yard – we make pizza every other week, it's worth it for us at this point.
let the bricks cool down completely before you try to remove them
general stuff:
Doesn't matter what your heat source is, as long as it gets HOT.
Chicago style is more forgiving/adaptable to electric ovens, because it will cook well at a lower temperature (compared to a pizza oven) – use a spring form pan, it's way easier to remove and serve from
"grandma pies" are also more forgiving in an electric oven
Please. Not once in my whole life of 80 years have I considered pizza even remotely 'mystifying'.
I wanted to like this but there are so many science questions about pizza making that have already been answered that these people seem not to know or did not discuss. For instance, a seven day ferment is great if you turn it once a day. There was no discussion about flour protein levels and hydration, or of Maillard reactions of the crust and the flavor enhancement that contributes. The fact that they only took one bite of their slices, and waited a long time to do so also indicates that they are not that serious about pizza,
I had an idea about using a countertop toaster oven. Could you use a ceramic tile bought at say Home Depot?
For an upgrade for mushrooms on pizza, why not mitaki/hen of the woods?
Andrew, love that tshirt! Where can I buy it? 😀
Great discussion. Thanks
So so so good. Nothing like listening to Andrew speak about pizza. Lan was so incredible–so knowledgable and a delight to watch. Bravo!
Where is the recipe for pizza dough in the food processor?
I think a lot of people, throw basil on their Margaretta Pizzas, before cooking it. Then burn the basil, and freak out when it comes out black, and soggy looking!