Equipment Expert Lisa McManus Answers Your Questions About Pizza Equipment | Gear Heads



Lisa McManus answers all your questions from the Gear Heads episode about equipment for making the best pizza at home.

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33 Comments

  1. Loved the pizza Gear Heads episode, as I do most all of them. I tried the thin crust recipe, and something went wrong somewhere. The dough just about refused to stretch out to the necessary size. It kept springing back, and I would up with two oddly shaped, small pizzas (Maybe 6-8"). I'm sure there a multitude of errors I could have made, but what is most likely?

    Thank you.

  2. Since home ovens usually don't get hot enough compared to real pizza ovens, I sometimes parbake the crust plain for a bit first, then let it cool and add toppings and bake the rest of the way. I find that especially helps if you like being generous with the toppings (and like a saucy pizza) to avoid the crust being too wet in the middle.

  3. If you add the cheese last and you have veggies as a topping, leave the center area of the pizza relatively free of cheese, it acts as a blanket when it melts and traps the moisture. The center of the pizza gets the least amount of heat and will not have the best chance to release that steam. That is why the center is usually the droopiest part and it's also the first bite which can dampen your reaction to the pizza overall

  4. One important tip she missed was to NEVER put a frozen pizza on a pizza stone, as you run a significant risk of seeing your stone split into multiple pieces. If you use a STEEL, no problem, but never on a stone.

  5. you get perfectly good pizzas by using aluminium pizza cooking trays. as bonus, no need to pre-heat them, so you make the pizzas on the trays and chuck into oven…on max heat with all topping minus cheese, then bring temp right down and put the cheese on top to melt without burning. make own dough and use plenty semolina to dust trays before laying out dough.

  6. If you buy a bunch of gear to make "great Pizza at home" you will eat A LOT of "great Pizza at home." But ask a cardiologist if that is such a good idea. I don't have an ice cream maker either. Now I do eat some pizza and ice cream on occasion but nowhere near as much as if could make it great at home. No deep fryer or carbolicious bread machine at home either.

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