i am sold on cast iron

[ijason]

wow before reading this forum i never knew how good cast iron is for cooking i always thought of it as old day cooking thats outdated and not any good. boy was i wrong now when i see any cast iron at tag sales i will be buying them up. i will also start cooking at home on it i have 3 skillets down stars that i just keep as antiques. but it looks like i will be spending the weekend seasoning them in my grill :-)

i wanted t know is it true that aluminum is bad for your health if you hook with it. i only cook pizza on a aluminum pan when i make it. but now i am going to see if i can buy a cast iron pizza pan. i hope i can get one because i make pizza at least 3 times a month. also for muffins i want to get rid of my none stick made in china. and get cast iron for that. with muffins i always put paper in each cup so that should have made the non stick safe right?

again thank you all it was fun reading the benefits of cast iron. now i need to find out what dutch oven cooking is all about i never had it.

Jason

[AmyH]

Jason, I am a bit of a pizza junkie. Try picking up a pizza stone to cook on. They work really well. If you are adventurous, you can pick up some unglazed ceramic tiles at Home Depot and use them to cook pizza on your grill. I do two layers of tile with some foil underneath. I also put woodchips on the grill a tiny bit before putting the pizza on. Works great!

I got rid of all of my cookware that had teflon and converted to cast iron. I also refuse to cook in anything that is aluminum. IMHO, cast iron is the way to go!

[coreyjhen]

You could also try to find one of these:



It's about 14" (35 cm) in diameter, weighs about 6½ lbs (3 kg), and bakes pizzas beautifully.

[mandy]

Hi Jason,
If you want to learn more about Cast Iron Cooking go to Joannes Forum.
http://camp-cook.com

Theres a lot of people for here and around the world there.

See ya there

Mandy

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

Jason,
You like pizza, eh?...

I use a special scratch dough I discovered in The Bread Baker's Apprentice and
I bake 'em hot and fast in a camp style dutch oven...


Here's a hot bubbly start for a BLT pizza ready to come out and be topped...
I bake 'em on parchement paper... The oven stays clean.


Pizzerias can't touch this one and this can be done while camping...

[ijason]

wow that looks real good could you give me the recipe for your. and will i need to buy a Dutch oven for it? if so what size do you use.

thanks
Jason

[AmyH]

Dean, correct me if I am wrong, but I seem to remember you saying that you use a 14" DO for the pizza. Is that right? I tried making pizza in my little 10" DO a while back, and if I hadn't left it in a bit too long, it would have been perfect! The bottom got a wee bit burned, but still edible. I would love to get a larger one for making pizza while camping. Give us the scoop on your technique.

I make my pizza dough from a sourdough starter that I maintain, and it makes some of the best dough. I usually make up about 8 dough balls at a time and keep them in oiled zip lock bags in the freezer. Sounds wierd, but when I know I want to make pizza I take one of the dough balls and put it in the fridge overnight, and somehow it makes the flavor really nice. The slow, cool, fermentation creates more of the lactic acid versus the acetic acid, so you get a slightly sweeter flavor (I think). Works quite well for me.

[dreadcptflint]

I use a special scratch dough I discovered in The Bread Baker's Apprentice and
I bake 'em hot and fast in a camp style dutch oven...
--Dean

OK Dean, were could I find the recipe for my wife?






(Well it's more for me however she is expressing an interest in giving it a go when we go camping.)

[The Teardrop Nanny]

Glad you latched on to the joy of Dutch Ovening, Jason. The pizzas come out great in a DO. Dean has made his infamous BLT complete with mayo for a number of gatherings now, but you can bet we've had pepperoni, and other kinds of toppings as well. The parchment paper allows you to lift it out easily for cooling and cutting. The right kind of flour dough is important too if you make it from scratch. Dean's also used the stones to cook on, and those are excellent as well. Here is where cornmeal comes in for the bottom of the crust. Anyway, I'll remind him to revisit here and give you J, an upbringing in Dutch Oven pizza making.

In the meantime,
You can use pre-made dough (store bought) or ask your local pizzeria if they'll sell you a bowlful, but the recipe from the Bread Apprentice Cookbook will have to come from Dean when he's got a moment (he types r e a lllll lllllll...slow unless it's already posted somewhere on the many places he visits on line.

TDN

[ijason]

In the meantime,
You can use pre-made dough (store bought) or ask your local pizzeria if they'll sell you a bowlful, but the recipe from the Bread Apprentice Cookbook will have to come from Dean when he's got a moment (he types r e a lllll lllllll...slow unless it's already posted somewhere on the many places he visits on line.

TDN [/quote]

thanks so much i do make my own dough for bread and pizza but would like to try others. also it loks like when he cooked the pizza in the Douch oven he only put caracole brickets on the top. is that all i need to do? also how long dose it take to cook in there.

thanks very much
Jason

[capsu78]

I have recently found another thread that dives into the deep end of topic of Pizza making. I have been pulling off many tips since I found it a couple of weeks ago.

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php

Dean, I may cross post your beautiful DO pizzas if you don't mind?

[Old Goat]

Jason, Here's a link to Deans recipe. http://tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?t=8920
I'm droolin, got go try this bye
Old Goat

[AmyH]

I have recently found another thread that dives into the deep end of topic of Pizza making. I have been pulling off many tips since I found it a couple of weeks ago.

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php

Ah yes!! I have been there a number of times and found some really great recipes there! Some of it gets a little too scientific for me, but I will say that I now use an electric scale to measure my ingredients for dough. That made a significant difference! There are some fantastic tips on that forum!

[Dark Horse]

I'll throw a 2nd in for the Pizza stone, but any unglazed quarry stone will work, at much less cost than a pizza stone kit. I have an 18x18x1/2" in the oven now and leave it in all the time
Makes for a nice crust, as it give the moisture a place to go

Jim

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

Dear All,
That's not the recipe... That's an earlier experiment, which was good, but before I stumbled upon Peter Reinhart's book.
Here's the real good one...

BLT Pizza (Baked in a 14” D.)

Dough Ingredients…
4 ½ cups chilled unbleached high-gluten flour
1 ¾ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast
¼ cup olive oil
1 ¼ cup ice water
½ cup chilled Miller Genuine Draft beer

Make dough day before making pizza.
Stir flour, salt and instant yeast together in a 4-quart bowl.
Stir in oil, water and beer with fork, and then knead by hand until consistent.
Lightly coat inside of two zip-lock bags with olive oil spray.
Divide dough into two equal parts and place into zip-lock bags.
Place zip-lock bags in refrigerator or ice chest.

Pizza ingredients…
1 lb. thick sliced bacon
½ head of lettuce
2 red tomatoes
1 lb. shredded mozzarella cheese
Pizza sauce (I like squeeze bottle type)
Mayonnaise (I like squeeze bottle type)
Semolina flour (For Dusting)
Additional olive oil (For brushing)

Preparing the pizza…
Remove one bag of pizza dough from cooler two hours before making pizza.
Fry bacon strips on 14” D.O. lid, or inside open 14” D.O.
Pat bacon strips dry and dice. (Place diced bacon into zip-lock bag and set aside)
Slice and dice lettuce. (Place lettuce into zip-lock bag and chill)
Slice and dice tomatoes. (Place tomatoes into zip-lock bag and chill)

Making the pizza…
Remove dough from zip-lock bag and place onto 16” x 16” sheet of parchment paper.
Flatten dough ball out and roll into pizza skin, dusting dough with semolina flour to keep from sticking to rolling pin.
Trim pizza skin to 14” diameter. (I use a 14” pizza pan)
Dock pizza skin with dough docker or fork.
Place another 16” x 16” sheet of parchment paper over docked pizza skin.
Slide pizza peel under bottom sheet of parchment paper and place pizza pan or cutting board over top sheet of parchment paper and invert.
Carefully peel top sheet of parchment paper off of pizza skin.
Redock the pizza skin and trim remaining bottom parchment paper into 16” diameter, using scissors.
Carefully lift parchment paper and pizza skin and place into cold 14” D.O.
Pizza skin should have approximately ½” lip around wall of the D.O.
Brush lip of pizza skin with olive oil.
Apply desired amount of pizza sauce.
Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over sauce.
Sprinkle diced bacon over cheese.

Baking the pizza…
Bake pizza for 25 minutes with 17 briquettes under oven and 40 briquettes on top of lid.
Rotate oven and lid ¼ turn at 12 ½ minutes.
Carefully lift edge of parchment paper and quickly slide pizza peal underneath to retrieve pizza form the D.O.
Squeeze small amount mayonnaise over pizza while still hot and allow to melt, while cheese takes a set.
Slice pizza into desired amount of slices.
Top with chilled lettuce and chilled tomatoes.
ENJOY!!!

Hey... That only took me about a minute to type.