4 ms·

Another good tip, ask your local pizzaria if they'll sell you a dough blank - usually they'll do this for $2-3 and then you can dress it the way you want, bake

Another good tip, ask your local pizzaria if they'll sell you a dough blank - usually they'll do this for $2-3 and then you can dress it the way you want, bake it and have great quality pizza with top choice ingredients with a 25 minute wait, which is roughly as long as it takes for delivery. Most good pizzeria's will have already let the dough sit for a day or so.

tptacek 8y ago
I have a dumb question: what part of the rest of the pizza-making process can you do better than the restaurant? I ask because the big issue in home pizza production is that your oven is unlikely to reach the temps commercial pizza ovens hit, and people go to all sorts of weird lengths to rectify this. At the point where you're getting the dough from the restaurant, why not just get the pizza from the restaurant?
- kevinmchugh 8y ago
  I think it's a price-minimizing move, not a quality-maximizing one. unless it's about the topping selection
- jacobush 8y ago
  Around here, the dressing is really, really cheap. For about $9 you get great dough, really cheap stuff on top. If you want top quality ham, organic tomatoes, etc, there is no restaurant in town who does that. For $17 you can get decent dressing though. If you put the decent dressing on top of your (great) $3 dough you bought from the restaurant, you get a decent pizza ($17 street value) for $9 spent.
  - tptacek 8y ago
    That's a good answer. Thanks!
- raldi 8y ago
  > what part of the rest of the pizza-making process can you do better than the restaurant? Customize it to your personal liking. Tastes differ greatly re: salt, tomato variety, amount and kind of cheese, presence or absence of olive oil or basil...
- tgtweak 8y ago
  Good and valid question. For me it's a few things. 1) the kids love putting "their" toppings on "their" quadrant of the pizza, and wow, like a lot of things in life, when you make your own there are 0 complaints. 2) You can really put premium toppings that no pizzeria would spend on our even stock. 3) You can get it fresh out of the oven, like "burn the top of your mouth (again, you dummy) cheese napalm" fresh. 4) You can put as much or as little of any combination of cheese as you like, and it doesn't have to be the powdery pre shredded dry-frozen stuff that a lot of pizza places use. 5) Really it takes like 5 minutes to dress a pizza, heating your oven up to whatever it's highest settings is takes longer. 6) You can barbeque your pizza. 7) It's usually pretty cost effective when you consider most delivery places are charging $15+ for a large (14") pizza with a few toppings. Plus you save the tip and the emissions from a delivery driver (provided you buy a few and pick them up on the way home!
  - hendricius 8y ago
    Great points. For me it is mostly 2).
  - ergothus 8y ago
    One thing ivr done since I was a kid is buy pizza sauce, toppings, and pillsbury biscuits (or equivalent generic). You can work each biscuit into a mini pizza, top it as you see fit, and cook the lot for 8-12 mins (based on the biscuits instruction). It was a great treat when I was a kid and I've kept it up as an adult because dangit adulting has to have some perks.
- crispyambulance 8y ago
  > what part of the rest of the pizza-making process can you do better than the restaurant? A determined home pizzaiolo can make a perfectly decent pizza. But you are right about the temperature. Household ovens simply can't reach the temperatures used in a proper pizza oven, about 700F. I have had success with heating a large cast iron pan on the stove top to ~700F, dropping the dough in that, adding toppings when it's ready and then finishing it in a broiler or well preheated oven. These guys show how it's done, without words, better than I can describe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXAW2GseICs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXAW2GseICs It is pretty damn good technique. They're using 00 flour, high protein (available at Italian markets in any big city). One thing you can do at home better than the pizza shop, however, is to use crazy good artisinal toppings, dialed in exactly how you like it.
  - rrauenza 8y ago
    I’ve also had good luck in the oven. Line the rack with proper fire bricks and set the oven to 500 F - and convection if you have it. Place the pizza directly on the brick using a pizza paddle. I’d say it’s as good as the 1000 degree pizza places,
- gok 8y ago
  Cheese! It's hard to find a place that will make a pizza with good Emmental or Ricotta.
hendricius 8y ago
Wow - that is such a good idea indeed! Thank you.
SpikeDad 8y ago
Beat me to it. After many years of pizza dough failure a quick stop at my favorite pizzeria and presto - perfect dough with great flavor and soft as a baby's bottom. 8-) I also get my sauce from them also. Not that I wouldn't get a great satisfaction from making the perfect dough myself but there's plenty of other activities in life that once can work on for satisfactions. Dough isn't a top priority for pizza. (Now for the perfect sourdough loaf that's another story).
yumraj 8y ago
when you say "dough blank" do you mean the dough ball to be rolled at home or flattened/rolled (in pizza shape) dough?
- tgtweak 8y ago
  Most large scale pizza places will have trays full of pizza dough already prepared and sized for a single pizza. This is what I was referring to. Some places have a large roll/ball that they cut off of to make their individual pizzas. I've not found a place that offers them already flattened into a pizza shape, they're usually in a ball.

tptacek 8y ago

I have a dumb question: what part of the rest of the pizza-making process can you do better than the restaurant? I ask because the big issue in home pizza production is that your oven is unlikely to reach the temps commercial pizza ovens hit, and people go to all sorts of weird lengths to rectify this. At the point where you're getting the dough from the restaurant, why not just get the pizza from the restaurant?

kevinmchugh 8y ago
I think it's a price-minimizing move, not a quality-maximizing one. unless it's about the topping selection
jacobush 8y ago
Around here, the dressing is really, really cheap. For about $9 you get great dough, really cheap stuff on top. If you want top quality ham, organic tomatoes, etc, there is no restaurant in town who does that. For $17 you can get decent dressing though. If you put the decent dressing on top of your (great) $3 dough you bought from the restaurant, you get a decent pizza ($17 street value) for $9 spent.
- tptacek 8y ago
  That's a good answer. Thanks!
raldi 8y ago
> what part of the rest of the pizza-making process can you do better than the restaurant? Customize it to your personal liking. Tastes differ greatly re: salt, tomato variety, amount and kind of cheese, presence or absence of olive oil or basil...
tgtweak 8y ago
Good and valid question. For me it's a few things. 1) the kids love putting "their" toppings on "their" quadrant of the pizza, and wow, like a lot of things in life, when you make your own there are 0 complaints. 2) You can really put premium toppings that no pizzeria would spend on our even stock. 3) You can get it fresh out of the oven, like "burn the top of your mouth (again, you dummy) cheese napalm" fresh. 4) You can put as much or as little of any combination of cheese as you like, and it doesn't have to be the powdery pre shredded dry-frozen stuff that a lot of pizza places use. 5) Really it takes like 5 minutes to dress a pizza, heating your oven up to whatever it's highest settings is takes longer. 6) You can barbeque your pizza. 7) It's usually pretty cost effective when you consider most delivery places are charging $15+ for a large (14") pizza with a few toppings. Plus you save the tip and the emissions from a delivery driver (provided you buy a few and pick them up on the way home!
- hendricius 8y ago
  Great points. For me it is mostly 2).
- ergothus 8y ago
  One thing ivr done since I was a kid is buy pizza sauce, toppings, and pillsbury biscuits (or equivalent generic). You can work each biscuit into a mini pizza, top it as you see fit, and cook the lot for 8-12 mins (based on the biscuits instruction). It was a great treat when I was a kid and I've kept it up as an adult because dangit adulting has to have some perks.
crispyambulance 8y ago
> what part of the rest of the pizza-making process can you do better than the restaurant? A determined home pizzaiolo can make a perfectly decent pizza. But you are right about the temperature. Household ovens simply can't reach the temperatures used in a proper pizza oven, about 700F. I have had success with heating a large cast iron pan on the stove top to ~700F, dropping the dough in that, adding toppings when it's ready and then finishing it in a broiler or well preheated oven. These guys show how it's done, without words, better than I can describe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXAW2GseICs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXAW2GseICs It is pretty damn good technique. They're using 00 flour, high protein (available at Italian markets in any big city). One thing you can do at home better than the pizza shop, however, is to use crazy good artisinal toppings, dialed in exactly how you like it.
- rrauenza 8y ago
  I’ve also had good luck in the oven. Line the rack with proper fire bricks and set the oven to 500 F - and convection if you have it. Place the pizza directly on the brick using a pizza paddle. I’d say it’s as good as the 1000 degree pizza places,
gok 8y ago
Cheese! It's hard to find a place that will make a pizza with good Emmental or Ricotta.

hendricius 8y ago

Wow - that is such a good idea indeed! Thank you.

SpikeDad 8y ago

Beat me to it. After many years of pizza dough failure a quick stop at my favorite pizzeria and presto - perfect dough with great flavor and soft as a baby's bottom. 8-) I also get my sauce from them also. Not that I wouldn't get a great satisfaction from making the perfect dough myself but there's plenty of other activities in life that once can work on for satisfactions. Dough isn't a top priority for pizza. (Now for the perfect sourdough loaf that's another story).

yumraj 8y ago

when you say "dough blank" do you mean the dough ball to be rolled at home or flattened/rolled (in pizza shape) dough?

tgtweak 8y ago
Most large scale pizza places will have trays full of pizza dough already prepared and sized for a single pizza. This is what I was referring to. Some places have a large roll/ball that they cut off of to make their individual pizzas. I've not found a place that offers them already flattened into a pizza shape, they're usually in a ball.