Random Slice Wednesday: How to avoid a hot, cheesy pizza disaster inside your home oven

Wednesday is Hump Day, where we slide down the remainder of the work week into weekend pizza. Wednesday in the North End of Boston is Prince Spaghetti Day (right, Anthony?). And Wednesday here along the Pizza Coast is Random Pizza Post Day.
 
What does that even mean? I’ll tell you at the end. First, let’s get to the bidness.
 
Last week, I received an email from a reader in Portugal who claimed to have, quote, a stupid question:
 
“I can put the pizza onto the steel or stone using the peel, but how do you use the peel to get it back off once it's baked? I mean, you can't slide it under the pizza because the wood is too thick. (I told you it was a stupid question, but then, I don't cook any more than I have to.)"

And just by the way, if you don’t know, Portugal is pizza country. The Portuguese love their pizza. But it’s not American-style pizza, so the expat from the Boston area posing this question is using the guiding principles inside ​Free The Pizza, A Simple System For Making Great Pizza Whenever You Want With The Oven you Already Have. This person has learned (much to their own amazement) to make an “American-style” pizza at home on a pizza steel.
 
But is using a wooden peel only.
 
One of the key directives here is to avoid flinging a hot pizza all over the inside of the oven.

For both turning the pizza during baking and retrieving the pizza from the oven, my own questionable advice to this query is as follows:
 
In a perfect world, the best idea is to also obtain a metal peel. It’s an excellent tool for easy retrieval and manipulation of a hot pizza.
 
That said, you can get the wooden peel underneath the hot pizza. It has a beveled edge, and you can finagle it beneath the pie. It's a little more challenging if, instead of a peel, you’re using a wooden cutting board to launch and retrieve. But it is possible. I’ve done it.
 
Something I DO NOT RECOMMEND: plucking the edge of the hot pizza with your fingers, dragging it partway onto the peel, and sliding the peel the rest of the way beneath it. 
 
Something I DEFINITELY DO NOT RECOMMEND: Succumbing to the temptation to pinch the edge of the pizza and spin it 180 degrees by hand. It can burn the hair off your knuckles. Or worse. (Remember, around here we’re using the broiler method to char the top of the pizza.) This method is just one that can lead to involuntary and reflexive pizza flinging.

Flinging pizza should be avoided at all costs. 

Don't ask me how I know. 
 
An easier, safer way than using bare hands is to use a spatula. I’ve used the spatula to pull the pizza onto the peel or cutting board, or else used the spatula to manipulate the pizza around the baking surface 180 degrees. Not a perfect method, but functional. Less likely to launch a hot, cheesy fling thing.
 
Of course, the simplest, safest, most recommended way is the obvious one mentioned at the outset: get a metal peel. 
 
As I advise in the book, a wooden peel is a recommended minimum. It’s easier to launch pizzas that way. A metal peel works better for retrieval, as it’s better suited to the task. 

I don't recommend a metal peel for launching because a pizza is much more likely to stick. (This is intel for the newbie. If you are an experienced pizzamaker using a metal peel, feel free to ignore this advice. I would.) 
 
Yes, this is my opinion. I’ve formed it from my personal experience—and from decades of watching professionals in many, many American pizzerias doing the same thing: launching from semolina-dusted wooden peels and retrieving using metal peels.

I've even had professionals tell me they prefer that method: wooden peels for launching, metal peels for retrieving.
 
There's a lot of peel chauvinism out there, especially with regard to the trendy perforated metal peels. I go with what is a convention in so many pizza joints because it makes sense with physics. A wooden peel and semolina are great for sliding a raw pizza into an oven.
 
A metal peel is great for use as a giant spatula.
 
Simple.

If you want to see the peels I use myself and recommend, you may find them on the tools page by going to that page on the Free The Pizza website and scrolling down. (When you get there, just scroll down. The peels are right underneath the extensive section about baking steels.)


So, back to the issue of what does Wednesday even mean in the context of Free The Pizza?
 
Sometimes, a random pizza tip or ridiculous thought comes up, and it deserves attention.
 
When that happens, I pop it into a "Random Slice Wednesday" post.
 
Like this one.
 
Special thanks to the fan in the Algarve (who requests anonymity) for asking the question.
 
If you have a pizza question, feel free to send it via the Free The Pizza comment form.
 
Free The Pizza!
 
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A lot of big-time professional artisan pizza makers once made their first pizza in a home oven just like yours. You can do it, too. My weird little award-winning book is one way to make it so. The book is about how to get from zero to pizza using the oven you already have. Besides learning to make great pizza, there’s not much else you can do with it. In fact, you can’t even use it to level a table leg if you buy the Kindle edition (which is less expensive than the print editions and has links to instructional videos and printable kitchen worksheets). To learn more about Free The Pizza: A Simple System For Making Great Pizza Whenever You Want With The Oven You Already Have, click here. ​​