Mayo wrote:
>David E. Ross wrote:
>>
>> I use a perforated steel pizza pan. Applying a very thin coating of
>> olive oil on one side of the rolled and stretched dough -- oiling my
>> hands and then rubbing the dough -- I place the dough on the pizza pan
>> with the oiled side down. I bake just the dough at 475F (the
>> temperature on the dough's package) for 6-8 minutes. This pre-baking
>> prevents soggy crust. Taking the dough out of the oven, I apply the
>> toppings, using marinara sauce instead of pizza sauce. I then bake the
>> assembled pizza another 8-10 minutes, still at 475F.
>>
>That sounds like a well-sorted process. Plenty of pizza joints use
>perforated pans so they must be another good way to go.

I've been advocating perforated pizza pans here for many years,
produces much better pizza than those steenkin' stones because it is
not possible to duplicate a brick oven with a residential stove...
slap a raw pizza on a pizza stone and quick as a blink the steam
produced drops the stone surface temp to that of boiling water. A
real pizza oven has the heating elements embedded in the fire brick so
recovery is quick, a cooled pizza stone in an ordinary residential
oven takes too long to recover, in fact the toppings will begin to
burn before the stone surface comes back up to heat. Most of today's
pizza parlors use pizza screens, you can see the hatch marks on the
underside of the pie. I prefer perforated pans for a home oven,
they're rigid so no peel is needed, also great for baking pizza in my
Weber. Also serving the pie atop the perforated pan greatly reduces
condensation on the crust underside... can slice pizza on a perforated
pan, not on screen. I've been using my Chicago Metallic perforated
pan set more than 25 years, still good as new. I never had to oil it,
never thought to. The set comes with a deep dish pizza pan that the
perforated pan fits nicely on top, keeps condensation to a minimum.
That's the killer of pizza crust, placed on a regular pan or in a
cardboard box makes the crust soggy. I don't care for deep dish pizza
(more a caserole) but that pan is perfect for baking sticky buns.