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Gus Mueller, software developer and amateur pizzaiolo, had an idea for generating the sort of heat you need to make properly burned pizza at home:
My general theory was as follows:
1) Place pizza stone near the top of the oven.
2) Turn broiler on high, and make the pizza stone super hot.
3) Place pizza on stone and cook it super fast.
I had instant success.
This weekend, Christa and I tried this in our still-new GE Induction range (which I should point out includes a badass oven, in case I’ve been praising the induction cooktop too much). My fears were:
- It may be difficult to control the whole setup, given the high heat and the proximity of the pizza to the heating element
- The stone may crack under the intense, immediate heat
I discussed this with Gus some more and settled on a slightly modified battle plan: the baking stone was pre-heated on the middle rack at 550 F (the highest any home oven will reliably get) for 45 minutes; this should have been a full hour, but oh well. I then moved the stone one rack up, to the next-to-highest position, and cranked the broiler to high. I gave this about two minutes, while I topped the pizza; in it went.
Here’s the whole process immortalized in video form (shot and edited by Christa):
The result? Even though I used bakery dough instead of making my own; even though I took my cheesemonger’s advice and went with a strange cheese he assured me would work great on a pizza; even though I made no particular efforts with this pie except for Gus’ method, the final result was one of the best pizzas I’ve made at home.
The exact thing Gus predicted would happen did happen: the toppings bubbled seductively, the dough stretched awake with no time to dry. It ended up perfectly crisp/chewy, with an almost croissant-like contrast between the caramelized shell and the gooey interior.
So, consider Gus’ experiment repeated and confirmed. Oh, and, the stone was totally fine.
Now, salivate away at the photos (More here.)
