Jaclyn wrote:
> I'm trying to pick out a pan to bake pizzas in. I'd prefer something
> that I can leave the pizza in as I slice it, so I'm assuming that
> aluminum would not be a good choice, and might be damaged by the pizza
> slicer. (Please let me know if this is incorrect.) Since I don't like
> crispy crusts, I don't think a pizza stone would be a good choice
> either. So I guess that leaves me with steel. A quick search of the web
> revealed that not many companies make steel pizza pans - the only one
> I've found is made by Norpro. I was just wondering, does anyone here use
> a steel pizza pan, and do they work well?

Every cookbook, TV show, and magazine I can recall says that baking a
pizza in a pizza pan gives lousy crust. Everyone recommends baking
stones and not necessarily "pizza stones" either. The recommendation is
for plain old brown quarry tiles in sufficient quantity to cover your
oven rack. Best to take the rack down to "Tiles R Us" or wherever and
get them to cut some of the tiles for a perfect fit.

How to get the pizza on the tile? I broke my heart for a decade trying
to handle a real peel like the pros. Used cornmeal, flour... I was
awful. Then came across suggestion: Assemble pizza on parchment, put
the whole thing on the tile (Use the peel. It's so impressive) and
bake. When finished the burned parchment will be something to reckon
with over the sink, but then move to cutting board and cut away.

BTW: The word is "parchment", not "bakers' film" or any other such.
Those substitutes cannot tolerate the heat, as far as I've been able to
determine. Parchment is messy after the cooking, but the whole thing is
worth it. I use it for French bread baking, too.