Do you have any pieces of equipment you regret trying to save money on?

[Chimpstronaut]

I bought an Ooni Koda 16 oven and I am looking into buying equipment to make pizzas with, but there are so many choices and price ranges it is a bit daunting....

Heres a brief list of things I think are essential that I am probably going to get:

1) aluminum or stainless steel pizza peel (16")
2) pizza turning peel (maybe)
3) infrared thermometer
4) pizza cutter (wheel)
5) plastic dough trays (1/4 size)
7) metal sauce ladle
6) large wood pizza stretching board (~1/2" thick?) that I can put on top of a table

Do you guys recommend saving money or purchasing quality on any of these items?
Any recommendations?
and am I missing something?

 
Thanks!

[Pizza_Not_War]

Wooden peel instead of metal would be my main deviation from your list. I like the Epicurean Pizza Peel, which I've had for 12 years and it still looks pretty good. It's thin and light.

Always good to have some parchment paper for use, especially if you have a problematic batch of dough that just wants to stick to the peel.

And lastly I really like an oversized silicone mat which comes in handy for stretching perhaps in addition to your wood board, or instead of. I use it frequently for shaping breads. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MK2P53L/?tag=pmak-20

[Yael]

A scale, I have a scale that goes from 0.1g to 3000g. I also have one for smaller amounts.

Pizza peel is important in commercial setting. The first one I had in my 1st restaurant was stainless steel custom made, and weighed a ton. The 5 first pizzas of a row are ok, but then... the arm hurts 
BTW, Koda is 16', but it doesn't mean you can make 16' pies. You need room to turn the pizza. So I wouldn't suggest using a 16' peel. 14' would be better.

Dough trays need to be hermetic. I first had cheap ones which were always crooked.

Then it's the same song again and again... A cheap pizza wheel will eventually break or lose its sharpness; a cheap thermometer will give you +/- accurate temps; a cheap pizza sauce ladle will break at the welding spot...

But maybe we don't have the same standards of "cheap". In China there are cheap things like "yeah, this exact same brand is 50% cheaper than in my country!!" and others like "OMG, I understand why this thing was 10 times cheaper than in my country".

[Chimpstronaut]

Thanks for the comments guys!

Pizza_Not_War: Yeah, I was thinking about a wooden peel, but at the neapolitan pizza restaurant I worked at they used some kind of metal peel, maybe it was stainless steel... I am trying to stay true to what I know but maybe a wooden peel is the way to go.. I'll definitely take a look into that. Also the silicone mat is something I was considering, I'll also give that some thought. Thanks for your input!

Yael: I do have a scale, I am not certain how precise it is, its pretty cheap... In terms of peel size I was hoping to get large pizzas in there. I haven't gotten my oven yet so only time will tell how large of a pie I can fit in there ( I do get that you cant max it out completely) but I guess the idea was that I wanted to accommodate the maximum size of what can potentially fit in there..

I also understand that the dough trays need to be air-tight. The ones I was looking at had some complaints about that issue, but I have no idea if it their complaints are true across the board, or if the people that complained had some irregular ones. I guess ill find out if i get those dough trays.. thats really the problem with buying things online, who knows if the cheaper or even more expensive products will be satisfactory, right? I guess the answer you gave is pretty much what you'd expect.. more expensive products will probably give you more reliable results and vice versa.

Anyway, thanks for your input guys! I'll keep it in mind when I am shopping for stuff.

[mkevenson]

Wooden peel instead of metal would be my main deviation from your list. I like the Epicurean Pizza Peel, which I've had for 12 years and it still looks pretty good. It's thin and light.



And lastly I really like an oversized silicone mat which comes in handy for stretching perhaps in addition to your wood board, or instead of. I use it frequently for shaping breads. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MK2P53L/?tag=pmak-20

I agree with both of the above. The wooden peel above is great I also have had mine for many years. Unfortunately when I needed a smaller peel that brand was not avail in a 14"


The mat is also a great addition to my kitchen/ dough prep area. Very esy to clean and non-stick. I use an extemely small amount of flour of the mat both for kneading and opening. Good suggestions,both.


Mark.


P.S. I do believe that a wooden peel is best for launching and a metal peel for retrieving. I also like a small metal tuning peel. To each his own.

[Chimpstronaut]

mkevenson - Thanks for the reply! I'll have to give this some thought.. I was certain I was going to get a metal peel b/c we used one at the pizzeria, but I might have to take a look at the wooden one you guys mentioned. Also I think I will look into this silicone mat, sounds like it would be great for storing it too since you can roll it up and all.

At the pizzeria we used a metal peel to launch, but we would use the turning peel to turn obviously but also to retrieve pizzas so maybe I'll go wooden launcher and get myself a metal turner..

[ira]

I use a wooden peel to launch and my turning peel to get them out, but I only make 13" pies so it's not been a problem.


Ira

[TXCraig1]

I'm guessing that with a super low dome like the ooni koda, a turning peel won't be of much use. That being said, you might find you like having two peels so that the one you launch from isn't too hot which can make launching difficult.

[Pizza215]

I bought a large metal peel from Amazon that had been recommended... a waste of $ as dough tended to stick & I'd have to use extra flour/semolina. I ordered a bamboo peel & have been really happy with it.  Even when I spill stuff on it it doesn't absorb. I use the metal one to remove pizzas but it's way too big. So def recommend bamboo  for launching. I use a home oven so ymmv. Agree w/ prior posts: silicone mats are awesome. Don't even need flour down and they clean up easily. I have stone counters but much easier to keep everything on the mat. W/ bamboo peel and mat I've cut way down on flour usage, which was an issue for me. Since we're talking about equipment, I'll mention that I broke my food processor and realized that mixing by hand in a bowl was simple and much easier to clean up. So anyone out there looking to get into pizzamaking, don't be discouraged if you don't have a mixer or food processors. Def don't need any of that.

[Chimpstronaut]

Thanks for the responses guys!

Ira: Looks like the overwhelming consensus is a wooden peel, i'm convinced.

TXCraig1: Yea it will take getting used to coming from a neapolitan wood fired oven, but I've seen videos of people using a turning peel w/ the koda. I agree though the dome could be higher..

Pizza215: Thats funny man, I probably was going to buy the same peel you bought from Amazon's recommended. I also plan on mixing/kneading by hand, at least for now. Legit dough mixers are pretty expensive, and from the research I have done it doesn't seem like its really worth the money for me at the moment. Do you have a recommendation on a bamboo launching peel?