My first pizza in a cast iron skillet..what a mess

[norma427]

I got a birthday present from my granddaughter that was a small cast iron skillet and a pizza dough mix and herbs.  She had asked me if I tried it, but I told her I was too busy with the holidays.  I decided to try it tonight and added the yeast to the water to proof, then mixed the water and yeast in with the flour and it wasn’t enough of water (what they recommended) to make the dough moist at all, so I added more water and hand kneaded.  Then I formed the dough ball, oiled it, and left it proof for one hour.  After I saw how big the dough ball was after mixing, I thought there was no way it would fit on the small cast iron skillet that came with the dough mix and herbs, so I got my cast iron pan to try the method of heating the skillet on the stove then baking in the cast iron pan in the oven with the broiler on.

Everything went well until I tried to load the pizza into the hot cast iron pan on the stove burner from a wooden pizza peel.  The one edge of the pizza wanted to fold over, but I proceeded and put it under the broiler.  I guess from all the cheese sliding onto the bottom of the cast iron pan it started to smoke not too long after it was placed under the broiler.  The smokes alarms starting going off from all the smoke, but I had to watch the pizza because it was getting done fast.  The bake time was only 2 minutes and I turned the cast iron pan a few times.  The pizza was okay, but when I try this again sometime of baking in a cast iron pan I will make my own dough and try to get the pizza in the cast iron pan right.

The pizza was dressed with dhorst’s sauce, two mozzarellas, coarse grind pepperoni, some of the herbs that came with the mix and small skillet and after the bake, grated Romano cheese was added.  I love the taste of dhorst’s sauce on a pizza.

Norma

[norma427]

Norma

[norma427]

Norma

[norma427]

Norma

[Chicago Bob]

I think it looks like a "good an greazy" mess....I would hit that sucker so hard your eyes would spin !   

[mkevenson]

Norma, congrats on a good try. I have a GIANT CI fry pan , I turn over and use the bottom, especially for reheats.
Your pie looks good, not a "mess".

Mark

[norma427]

I think it looks like a "good an greazy" mess....I would hit that sucker so hard your eyes would spin !   

Bob,

Thanks!    I didn't know what kind of flour I was dealing with and with the other ingredients in the dough mix, sure didn't know what their formulation would do.

Norma

[norma427]

Norma, congrats on a good try. I have a GIANT CI fry pan , I turn over and use the bottom, especially for reheats.
Your pie looks good, not a "mess".

Mark

Mark,

Thank you too for saying the pie looked good.     

Thanks also for posting a picture of your giant cast iron fry pan and telling me how you turn it over and use the bottom of the cast iron pan.  I don’t have a bigger cast iron anymore to try, but I think my mother does.  What kind of dough do you use when you use your cast iron pan to bake your pizzas and what rack position do you bake on?

Norma

[Pete-zza]

Norma,

Now that you have an iron skillet, I thought that you might be interested in this thread: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,2047.msg18031.html#msg18031.

I can't speak for the recipe cited in the above thread but the thread is a most extraordinary thread. It has an amazing pageview count--87,212 page views but only 19 replies, many of which are only one or two sentences long. The number of page views to replies is 4590. To put that into perspective, for the Lehmann NY style thread, which is the number one thread on the forum in terms of page views (366,629), the corresponding number is only 358. At 316, the Papa John's clone thread is not far behind. To show you what a lot of replies can do to a thread with even a lot of page views, the Mellow Mushroom thread that you and I dominated, with 75,256 page views, the ratio of page views to replies is only 41. The number is even worse for the Two Bill's Detroit style thread that you and I have been living at for the past two and a half months or so. The number there is only 15.

Just a bit of trivia to get the day started .

Peter

[norma427]

Norma,

Now that you have an iron skillet, I thought that you might be interested in this thread: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,2047.msg18031.html#msg18031.

I can't speak for the recipe cited in the above thread but the thread is a most extraordinary thread. It has an amazing pageview count--87,212 page views but only 19 replies, many of which are only one or two sentences long. The number of page views to replies is 4590. To put that into perspective, for the Lehmann NY style thread, which is the number one thread on the forum in terms of page views (366,629), the corresponding number is only 358. At 316, the Papa John's clone thread is not far behind. To show you what a lot of replies can do to a thread with even a lot of page views, the Mellow Mushroom thread that you and I dominated, with 75,256 page views, the ratio of page views to replies is only 41. The number is even worse for the Two Bill's Detroit style thread that you and I have been living at for the past two and a half months or so. The number there is only 15.

Just a bit of trivia to get the day started .

Peter

Peter,

I have had that cast iron skillet for lots of years and do use it for many other foods, but haven’t gotten around to trying it to make pizzas.  I think I also have a bigger cast iron skillet put away in my shed, but don’t use it because I don’t cook for as many people anymore.

Thank you for the link to that thread.  I can see is a most extraordinary thread.  The pageview count is very high and I think Bills views of why is became so high is right where he posted at Reply 10 http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,2047.msg87233.html#msg87233

Thanks also for all of the trivia this morning to get the day started.  I find all of that interesting.  It goes to show a lot of page views isn’t necessarily a good thing.  I know we have been living at the Two Bill’s Detroit style thread for the past two and a half months.  I don’t know if that is a good thing or not either. 

I have to try and find a decent dough formulation to try out in my cast iron skillet, or either my moms bigger cast iron skillet.  The cast iron skillet has me intrigued now how fast it can bake a pizza in my anemic home oven.  My daughter was sleeping last evening when I made that pizza, because she had to go to work really early this morning to print some orders out for Monday, because computers went down yesterday and they were upgrading stuff with computers where she works.  She jumped out of bed when those darn smoke alarms went off and told me to stop them.  I said I can’t, I have to watch the pizza.      She wasn’t too happy with me.     

Norma

[Pete-zza]

Thanks also for all of the trivia this morning to get the day started.  I find all of that interesting.  It goes to show a lot of page views isn’t necessarily a good thing.  I know we have been living at the Two Bill’s Detroit style thread for the past two and a half months.  I don’t know if that is a good thing or not either.

Norma,

A lot of page views is a good thing. It is a lot of replies that is not usually a good thing but it is generally unavoidable when trying to reverse engineer and clone a particular dough in a step-wise manner and more or less in real time. Recipe hounds looking for clones that they have searched for on Google and other search engines are the ones who do not like long threads, especially those where the recipes are not laid out in a self-contained fashion all in one place and in excruciating detail. That is one of the reasons why the Papa John's clone thread is so popular. It is the recipe hounds that are reading that thread. In my travels across the Internet, I often see links to that thread in other places.

Good luck with your new skillet.

Peter

[mkevenson]

Mark,

Thank you too for saying the pie looked good.     

Thanks also for posting a picture of your giant cast iron fry pan and telling me how you turn it over and use the bottom of the cast iron pan.  I don’t have a bigger cast iron anymore to try, but I think my mother does.  What kind of dough do you use when you use your cast iron pan to bake your pizzas and what rack position do you bake on?

Norma

Norma, I use the CI in my home oven, but so far only for reheats. I am doing all my raw pizza baking in my outdoor "kitchen" on my 2Stone. I think that I will bake a pie on the CI indoors soon.

[norma427]

Norma,

A lot of page views is a good thing. It is a lot of replies that is not usually a good thing but it is generally unavoidable when trying to reverse engineer and clone a particular dough in a step-wise manner and more or less in real time. Recipe hounds looking for clones that they have searched for on Google and other search engines are the ones who do not like long threads, especially those where the recipes are not laid out in a self-contained fashion all in one place and in excruciating detail. That is one of the reasons why the Papa John's clone thread is so popular. It is the recipe hounds that are reading that thread. In my travels across the Internet, I often see links to that thread in other places.

Good luck with your new skillet.

Peter

Peter,

I understand what you mean now that a lot of page views are a good thing in some threads.  I know the long and many replies aren’t particularly appealing to recipe hounds that just wants to get a recipe for pizzas and then run.  I know your Papa John thread is very popular and you sure did do a lot of work on that thread.  It is interesting that in your travels across the internet you often have seen links to that thread.  I wonder if John Schnatter ever came across your Papa John thread, and if he did what he thought about it.

Thanks for telling me good luck with my skillet pizzas.  I think I am going to need good luck with trying a skillet to make pizzas.

Norma

[norma427]

Norma, I use the CI in my home oven, but so far only for reheats. I am doing all my raw pizza baking in my outdoor "kitchen" on my 2Stone. I think that I will bake a pie on the CI indoors soon.

Mark,

I got that a little confused of what you used you cast iron skillet for.  I did see you posted you used it for reheats, but also thought you made pizzas either in it, or on it.  I also forgot about your 2Stone in your outdoor kitchen.  A 2Stone would be cool to play around with.     Good luck to you if you try your cast iron skillet indoors.   

Norma

[Pete-zza]

I wonder if John Schnatter ever came across your Papa John thread, and if he did what he thought about it.

Norma,

Since I came up with more versions of his pizzas than he sells, he might have offered me a job .  I don't think he is worried about a few people copying his pizzas. Last year, just on SuperBowl day alone, PJ sold over one million pizzas. And they are now in a promotion to give away two million pizzas.

Maybe you can use your new skillet to make a skillet version of a PJ pizza .

Peter

[norma427]

Norma,

Since I came up with more versions of his pizzas than he sells, he might have offered me a job .  I don't think he is worried about a few people copying his pizzas. Last year, just on SuperBowl day alone, PJ sold over one million pizzas. And they are now in a promotion to give away two million pizzas.

Maybe you can use your new skillet to make a skillet version of a PJ pizza .

Peter

Peter,

That was a good one that since you came up with more versions of John Schnatter’s Papa John’s pizza he might have offered you a job.    I think your Papa John Clone pizzas are much better than the real Papa John’s pizza.  I didn’t know last year on Super Bowl day how many PJ pizzas were sold, or they are now in a promotion to give away two million pizzas.  I only could wish I were in his shoes from making all that money. 

I sure wouldn’t mind trying a PJ clone in a skillet.  It has been a long while since I tried one of those formulations on your Papa John‘s thread.  I guess I would need to either bake at a lower temperature or not heat up the skillet on the stove burner first.  It would be easier for me if I could put a PJ clone pizza in the skillet when it isn’t so hot.

I think if you offered your services as a consultant for pizzerias you would do very well.

Norma