Comments by "SmallSpoonBrigade" (@SmallSpoonBrigade) on "New York-style pizza at home, v2.0" video.

  1. That's what I do. I found a skillet from lodge that's got very low sides that's great. I assume that it's for eggs and pancakes where it can be difficult to get under if you've got higher sides. In this case, it makes it easier to avoid getting burned. Alternatively, you can get dual burner griddles that are flat on top and large enough to fit more than one pizza at a time. On a side note, I still use a pizza stone, one permanently lives on the bottom rack in my oven to increase the consistency of the temperature across the oven. I just pretty much only cook the pizzas on cast iron.
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  2. I personally go with 500F preheated with a cast iron skillet inside. The pizza gets assembled directly on the skillet and after about 7-8 minutes, I have a wonderfully brown, crispy pizza that is just about as good as what you'd get from a quality restaurant. (And tons better than what you'll get from a typical delivery pizza place) The cast iron is important as it transfers heat more efficiently than the air, allowing the crust to get nice and crispy without burning the toppings. Alternatively, when I was in Venice, the pizza place I went to didn't even put the cheese into the oven. They baked the crust and sauce, and put the mozzarella and basil on afterwards. I have no idea if that's a common thing in that area, but it is a rather practical way of doing it.
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  3. I personally stopped using a pizza cutter years ago, now I use a pair of scissors. If I keep making so much pizza, I'll probably upgrade to actual pizza scissors, but ordinary kitchen scissors work just fine if you don't have to have perfectly straight pieces or make smaller pizzas.
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  4. You could probably also do this on a grill for a more woodfired oven variation.
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  5. I've done that, the issue I've had is that the crust never ends as crispy that way. I pretty much just use cast iron for when I'm making my own. For frozen pizzas from the store, when I'm even lazier than just buying the components, I'll use the airfryer. The main issue with the airfryer is that it doesn't really allow you to deliver the energy directly to the crust the way that you need to if you want a nice crispy crust without burning the toppings. It certainly works but, I'll take my cast iron any day.
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  6. I personally just smoosh mine against my dinner plate until it's roughly the same size as the cast iron skillet that it's going to be baked in. Then I take it out and hold it vertically and work it around before putting it back on the plate and stretch it some more. Sure, you can hand stretch it the way that they do in the movies and TV, but if you're not making a larger pizza, that can be problematic as that requires a relatively large area to work with. The dough winds up being even and the right size before I throw it into the preheated skillet for a trip into the oven.
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  7. The crust should brown if it's at 500F or up and on pre-heated cast iron. You should see obvious browning within the first 10 minutes.
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