Pizza Screens Are They Supposed To Be Flexible or Stiff?

[PizzaEater101]

I was driving down the street in an industrial area and I saw a restaurant supply warehouse store.  I went in hoping to find pizza supplies such as screens and steel pizza peels.  They had screens and pizza peels but only wooden.  Well I am in the market for a screen and if I can buy it locally I will.  They had various sizes but it the screen itself was pretty flexible but of course the rim was not. 

If you hold it with one hand on each side with your fingers around the edge on each side and place your thumbs on the actual screen you can flex the screen.  I was under the impression the screens were supposed to be kind of stiff or firm but this one you can push with your thumbs and it will flex. 

For those of you with screens are the screens supposed to be flexible or stiff?

By the way the screen was about $3 bucks.


Thank You,


James

[BrickStoneOven]

If the screen was like one of these your fine.

[PizzaEater101]

BrickStone it was just like that one.  Thanks much.  I am gonna go back there tomorrow and buy it then.  I think it has to be seasoned right?  What spray Pam or some non-stick spray and put it in the oven for a bit to blacken it up before using on a pizza?  Thanks.

[BrickStoneOven]

You could probably use Pam. I just brushed some oil on it and put them in the oven or a while till they stopped smoking. http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,2894.msg24858.html#msg24858

[PizzaEater101]

Thanks for the info.   I think I'll buy that one.

[c0mpl3x]

You could probably use Pam. I just brushed some oil on it and put them in the oven or a while till they stopped smoking. http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,2894.msg24858.html#msg24858

spray/brush them with oil and bake them until they give a 'gloss', and are no longer sticky with oil.  you now have a seasoned screen

[dmcavanagh]

I've never found it necessary to "season" a screen. Mine have never seen oil of any kind.

[Pete-zza]

As a precautionary measure I have always seasoned my screens prior to first use. It's not a big deal since I only have a handful of screens and once it's done, it's done. That way, I don't have to worry that sometime--maybe when making a high hydration skin or letting one sit on a screen a bit too long or loading up a pizza with too many things--that I will have a sticking problems that might have been avoided had I seasoned the screens. That said, there are people, including pizza operators, who say that they don't season their new pizza screens. Without knowing what their dough formulations are or their preparation methods, it's hard to say whether that is a wise thing to do. Maybe some types and brands of screens are more prone to sticking problems than others. For years, I used to read fairly regularly about screen seasoning and sticking problems over at the PMQ Think Tank, so I know that seasoning of screens is an issue. To get an update on this topic, this morning I did a forum search at the PMQTT and found the following:

http://thinktank.pmq.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7955&hilit=

http://thinktank.pmq.com/viewtopic.php?p=63507#p63507

http://thinktank.pmq.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8833

Peter

[c0mpl3x]

i season my screens and roast them at 500+ on the bbq.   they turn like glass.

[PizzaEater101]

Thank you everyone for your input on this.  Pete thank you for the links, I read the info and it was very helpful.

I bought a screen today.  I found an amazing restaurant supply store near my house, a different one from yesterday.  They had peels, screens, grips and the whole 9 yards.  Bought a couple of grips and bought the screen and a aluminum peel too. 

I am going to season my screen in the gas bbq grill just as c0mpl3x does.  I am curious how this pie will turn out when I use the screen.  See it's easier to load with a screen in my setup.  Well I have not done it yet but I think it will be and easier to turn the pie.  After it's almost done I'll take the pie off the screen and put it on the firebricks directly to get browning on the crust.

[PizzaEater101]

What do you guys think of pizza disk, the perforated kinds as opposed to the pizza screens we have been talking about?

Check it out here -

http://www.instawares.com/pizza-disk-19in-super.amm-18919sphc.0.7.htm?LID=IWAMZ&ci_src=23393768&ci_sku=AMM-18919SPHC

[PizzaEater101]

Nevermind my disc question, I found a discussion on this -

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,5374.0.html

[chickenparm]

I'm in the market for some screens too and I have to order them by mail.There isn't any supply shops around here.You are lucky to find them locally!

 

[PizzaEater101]

I'm in the market for some screens too and I have to order them by mail.There isn't any supply shops around here.You are lucky to find them locally!

 

My first try with a screen today was a bomb.  I mean a disaster.  Problem is I made the dough or skin as they call it way too thin.  I used store bought dough because I didn't feel like making more and I didn't want to mess up the good dough I made days ago that is fermenting.   To experiment it made sense to us store made since I was too lazy to make more.  It actually came off the screen well for most the pie but some small section got stuck.  Not sure if being too thin had to do with it but when I got it all off and put it on the bricks to finish up it was so thin that the sauce bled thru and it got stuck to the bricks for the most part and lost most the pizza.  I'm good at making a thin skin and making it usable to bake but this one was way too thin. Not sure how it got that way.  I weighed it to make sure it was the right ounces for a .105 thickness factor 14 inch but when I shaped it and tossed it it got way too long. Put the screen over the skin and used the pizza wheel to cut around the edge of the screen to make the round skin and to get it to the right size.  I had so much left over dough I cut off it is obvious the 14 pie was thinner than thin. 

I have some dough fermenting for days in the fridge.  Tomorrow I'll make that pizza but be careful not to thin it too much and I'll use my old way without the screen in order to make sure it comes out right.  I will try the skin again but not with this dough. 

[chickenparm]

That has happened to me before when using my 16 inch pizza pan to precook the crust first.

The pan has many tiny holes in it,I got it at walmart,and if I made the dough too large before setting it down,it would hang off the edge.I would have to cut it off then that got rid of the rim.So I had basically a thin crust pizza all around with no rim.

When this happened,the dough was THEN too thin in many spots,and many of the thin spots got pushed into the tiny holes and got stuck when baking.Its worse when you add the toppings and cheese.It ended up being a pizza I did not enjoy.That will happen with screens too.

You did the right thing using a store made dough to experiment,yet I know them doughs can be very extensible and each time you lift it up to shape they seem to grow larger than you ever want them to.
I would suggest you try using one them dough balls when cold,and see if you can shape it anyway.

If let out to warm up too much,will end up in some extra extensibility you may not want.I could be wrong,but that is what happened with the store bought dough balls I used in the past.

[PizzaEater101]

That's exactly what happened, the dough got stuck in the holes.  Not all of it just a small section enough to ruin it.  You have a good idea about store bought dough not to let it warm up too much because it can be stretched out really big and thin it causes problems. 

[PizzaEater101]

Used the screen today but the opposite way.  I used the screen after the pie was already on the firebricks directly.  I loaded the pie on the bricks, no screen.  When it was about half way done I slid it off with my new aluminum pizza peel and slid the pie on to the screen then back onto the firebricks.  I did this so I won't worry about dough sticking to the screen.  Then I let it bake more and let the top cook more without worrying about the bottom burning as it did last time.  This worked pretty good.

[c0mpl3x]

Used the screen today but the opposite way.  I used the screen after the pie was already on the firebricks directly.  I loaded the pie on the bricks, no screen.  When it was about half way done I slid it off with my new aluminum pizza peel and slid the pie on to the screen then back onto the firebricks.  I did this so I won't worry about dough sticking to the screen.  Then I let it bake more and let the top cook more without worrying about the bottom burning as it did last time.  This worked pretty good.

you can spray your screen with oil, and lightly dust it with flour if you are worried about it sticking.  you can also do this to speed up seasoning the screen.    pizzas stick because sauce runs through, or because the dough was pressed into it by novice ladle pressure and/or applying pressure when topping the pie to get the toppings to 'lay flat' in my experience; part of the reason why most screen-fed pizza shops use a lower hydration, higher oil dough.  it simply doesn't stick to the screen nearly as much.