Varnish for pizza paddle

[Zed Rafi]

Hello,

I built a wooden pizza peel for my pizza oven out of a pine board yesterday, and applied natural oil on it to protect the wood. I've been warned not to use varnish on wood designed to be in contact with food, such as cutting boards, salad bowls, etc.

However, i noticed that after application of the oil, the surface of the paddle is still quite rough and i am afraid the pizza is going to stick on it (for those of you who do not know, trying to get the pizza not to stick to the peel is a big preoccupation when sliding pizza onto hot baking stone).

I have a cutting board i bought at the store which has a shiny finish. I am certain there is some sort of varnish on it, and i've never any poisoning problems or anything like that.

Could anyone recommend me a sort of non-toxic varnish to add a smooth finish to my peel?

thanks

[George]

Smooth the wood. Oils in the ingredients will take care of the "finish."

[Edwin Pawlowski]

No oil, no varnish, no nothing. Be sure your dough is right and has some flour on the outside or sprinkle some semolina on the peel until you learn how. It is all in the writs. Put the edge at the back of the stone and pull back with some gusto.

[RonB]

I have used mineral oil for cutting boards and it provides a very nice finish. You will have to renew it from time to time.

[Lee Michaels]

I have never seen a finish on a pizza peel. And I have used a lot of them.

Sprinkle something on the surface where you prepare the pizza.

My wife's favorite is corn meal.

This provides an organic "ball bearing".

The pizza slides easily on this.

[LRod]

Only if you don't know to use corn meal on the peel. This is why Kramer's make-your-own-pizza scheme was doomed to failure.

George: You can't have people sticking their arms into 600° ovens!

Oops. Wrong ng. Meant alt.tv.seinfeld

- - LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

[igor]

IMO, you keep the peel w/o oil or varnish, as others have said. Keep it well-floured -- like the cloth some pastry chefs use. If you want an oil-slick surface, then I would suggest a metal peel available from restaurant supply stores -- and oil it. (Yet, even on a metal peel that has been oiled, a pizza can stick if it is left to sit too long.) As someone else noted, corn meal can be good and is recommended. However, running a pizza stone in a 550 oven, I can end up with lots of burned corn meal in the oven. So, I use flour - just enough to close up the pores of the bottom of the pizza but not so much as to dry it out. And I do not leave the pizza on the peel very long. If I build the pizza on the peel, I am sure to shake the peel right befeore each new ingredient is added to be sure the dough has not stuck. Overall, the more experience I get making dough the less this has been an issue over the years. Apologies if you know this already. -- Igor

PS: Not that you asked, but have you ever considered a pizza screen? After a couple of minutes and the bottom of the dough has set, you can slip the pizza off the screen and directly onto the stone. FWIW.

[J T]

Tue, Oct 5, 2004, 5:02pm [e-mail] (Zed=A0Rafi) whimpers: Could anyone recommend me a sort of non-toxic varnish to add a smooth finish to my peel?

Yeah. It's called andpaper. It's used to sand it smooth.

JOAT We will never have great leaders as long as we mistake education for intelligence, ambition for ability, and lack of transgression for integrity.

- Unknown

[Mark L.]

[U-CDK_CHARLES\Charles]

Remember that a pizza peel has to pop into and out of a 500+F oven.

Since you can't anodize wood, about the only finish that'll withstand the heat is engine block paint . .. :)

Leave it unfinished. Flour or dust with cornmeal. When you put the dough down on the peel, jiggle it a bit to make sure it's loose.

Watch the Pizza episode of Good Eats for a demonstration of the technique.

[Woodchuck Bill]

[e-mail] (J T) wrote in news:19426-41636790-405@storefull-

3158.bay.webtv.net:

I've never heard of andpaper. Is that a variant of sandpaper? ;-)

[Dave Hinz]

It's more exclusive than orpaper.

[Robert Bonomi]

Other way around -- andpaper is the cheap stuff; the other one carries the xorbitant price.

[Anonymous]

I dunno about that. I have 12 sheets of andpaper for sale at $10 / sheet. It's out of production so I am only accepting orders accompanied by cash.

Bill

[Anonymous]

A peel will need to deal with temps in the 600-700 deg. F. range. No oils, safe for food use, can withstand this temp. Keep the peel dry, build the pizza on a screen or counter top. If on a counter top, make certain it is well floured (or corn-mealed).

When I first became a Domino's manager I had an older Bakers Pride stone oven. I just left the pizza on the screen until nearly done cooking then, if the customer wanted a crispy crust, popped it off the screen and onto the stone for about 1 minute. Done.

Bill

[Ba r r y]

Dominos? I thought this was about Pizza?

Barry Who lives in the corridor between Philly and Boston, where pizza dosen't come from chains.

[Byrocat]

Actually, if you want to show off at the shop, my suggestion is to get a fine-grain pumice stone (the ones used on the steel griddles to clean them.)

Overy once in a while, you whip out the stone, polish the surface of your paddle, then give it a hand-rubbed flour coating.

Something to make yourself look good while you're waiting for the pizzas to cook.

One of the best places for pizza was St. John's Newfoundland -- old stone oven , practically paper-thin crust with a hand-rolled edge.

One of the worst places for fish and chips was right next door to the pizza parlour -- old oil, not hot enough and fries left to sit around for ages.

[Old Nick]

On Sat, 23 Oct 2004 20:11:42 -0400, "Byrocat" vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!:

remove ns from my header address to reply via email

Talking of outsourcing to Asia. The two best FnC meals I have had lately were made by Asians, running FnC shops. They thrashed Greek, Aussie, British, NZ. Don't know that I have ever had a US-cooked FnC meal...

They do things _better_ as well...D'Oh!

***************************************************** Have you noticed that people always run from what they _need_ toward what they want?????