Hacksaw pizza
The Philadelphia Inquirer had a fun story recently about a guy who's obsessed with making great pizza at home.
Lacking a wood-burning over, Dave Ravanesi turned to the next-best tool: a hacksaw.
He used it to cut off the locking mechanism on his electric range, "enabling him to bake at the incinerating temperatures of the oven's cleaning cycle," The Inquirer's Rick Nichols wrote. "The cleaning cycle, in the event you have never stuck your head in to check, can hover easily upwards of 1,000 degrees."
Ravenesi aims for 810 degrees, which bakes his pies to char-speckled perfection in a minute and 40 seconds, Nichols wrote.
As someone who is forever trying to improve upon her homemade pizza, I appreciate an extreme culinary striver like Ravanesi.
I wouldn't have the nerve to hack off my oven's locking mechanism. I'm quite sure it would end with my house burning down. But I'm glad there are people out there like that.
The real, wood- and gas-burning deal at Pazo. Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum
Comments
Instead of locking mechanism, many pizza folks use a balled up aluminum foil to prop open the door a crack, keeping the burners going (i suppose only for gas ranges), and getting the temperature on the pizza stone (which sits close to the burners) far beyond the usual ~500 degree limitation.
self clean cycle is another 'normal' hack to go beyond the 500 degree limit.
also, you may want to check out local pizza blogger, pizzablogger and hear aobut his pizza loving craziness. apparently, he brings his dough to work so that he takes it out of the fridge just at the right time to let it rise for dinner.
Posted by: Matt K | May 13, 2010 12:08 PM
I believe Jeffrey Steingarten originated this idea in one of his books. And it was also definately done by Jeff Varasano of Atlanta, who had a very famous pizza blog and now owns a pizzeria. So he's not really that original. But I guess he should still get credit for taking the chance of burning down his house for good pizza.
Posted by: Jason | May 13, 2010 12:13 PM
One of my neighbors was thinking about doing this, but his wife found out about it in time to scotch the idea.
Posted by: Hal Laurent | May 13, 2010 1:18 PM
I bake pizzas at home using a Big Green Egg, which can hit 800 degrees pretty easily. It's ceramic and cooks the pizza from all angles. I tend to run it at about 550 for pizza though.
Posted by: tatmaker | May 13, 2010 2:02 PM
@ tatmaker
sounds interesting. never heard of the big green egg. I'm imagining it looks something similar to the much publicized "franken-weber"?
http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/01/pizza-hacker-hacked-modified-weber-kettle-grill-pizza-oven-sf.html
Posted by: Matt K | May 13, 2010 5:09 PM
Matt K, no need to imagine anything -- just look at the Big Green Egg's website and judge for yourself whether it resembles that Franken-Weber.
Posted by: hmpstd | May 13, 2010 7:59 PM
We have a cousin who really ought to work as a salesman for the Big Green Egg--he is crazy about his. I noticed they have them at Watson's in Lutherville.
Posted by: Dahlink | May 14, 2010 6:48 AM
check out the BGE forum, there is a cult-like following......lots of pics.....
this local bbq team, the Dizzy Pigs, use all bge's and win a lot of comps.....makes some great seasonings, too.
i bought mine at watson's about 5 years ago, and it was worth every penny.
http://www.eggheadforum.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&Itemid=112&func=showcat&catid=1
http://www.dizzypigbbq.com
Posted by: tatmaker | May 15, 2010 10:05 PM