Dan Richer

Thanks for having me. I'm happy to be here.

Thanks for having me. I'm happy to be here.

So the oven has always been a challenge. It's kind of a round peg, square hole type thing. The home oven is highly inefficient. It doesn't hold heat very well, which makes it safer for your kitchen.

So the oven has always been a challenge. It's kind of a round peg, square hole type thing. The home oven is highly inefficient. It doesn't hold heat very well, which makes it safer for your kitchen.

home ovens don't bake hotter than 550 degrees if you're lucky and pizza ovens hover anywhere between five six hundred degrees for new york style pizza much higher for neapolitan style pizza so if you're trying to make neapolitan style pizza in a home oven you're gonna run into some challenges because There's just not the temperatures that you would require.

home ovens don't bake hotter than 550 degrees if you're lucky and pizza ovens hover anywhere between five six hundred degrees for new york style pizza much higher for neapolitan style pizza so if you're trying to make neapolitan style pizza in a home oven you're gonna run into some challenges because There's just not the temperatures that you would require.

But the home oven is very good at staying in that 450, 475, 500 degree range. So making a pan pizza is fantastic. really the best use for your home oven without having to massively compromise.

But the home oven is very good at staying in that 450, 475, 500 degree range. So making a pan pizza is fantastic. really the best use for your home oven without having to massively compromise.

Yeah, so I love that. Lately, I've just been using the pizza steel in my oven. It just lives in my oven, stays there, makes it a little bit more efficient. If you want to add more thermal mass or a material to heat up and stay hot. And fire bricks are great. You can line one of your oven racks with fire bricks and then put a piece of steel on top of it or not.

Yeah, so I love that. Lately, I've just been using the pizza steel in my oven. It just lives in my oven, stays there, makes it a little bit more efficient. If you want to add more thermal mass or a material to heat up and stay hot. And fire bricks are great. You can line one of your oven racks with fire bricks and then put a piece of steel on top of it or not.

Home ovens are not very well insulated. So every time you open the door, you're losing much of the heat. And pizza cooks from the... top down, but also from the bottom up. To get a crispy crust, you need thermal mass. You need something that can get hot and stay hot even after you open the oven door.

Home ovens are not very well insulated. So every time you open the door, you're losing much of the heat. And pizza cooks from the... top down, but also from the bottom up. To get a crispy crust, you need thermal mass. You need something that can get hot and stay hot even after you open the oven door.

Not even remotely.

Not even remotely.

I've just had so many bad experiences doing that, and it never works. There's not enough thermal mass in a cookie sheet that is very thin. And cookie sheets, listen, they make great cookies, right? They don't require the level of heat that a pizza does. A pizza steel or a pizza stone should be enough to bake one pizza.

I've just had so many bad experiences doing that, and it never works. There's not enough thermal mass in a cookie sheet that is very thin. And cookie sheets, listen, they make great cookies, right? They don't require the level of heat that a pizza does. A pizza steel or a pizza stone should be enough to bake one pizza.

If you're trying to bake successive rounds of pizza, which is what we do at my house, right? I have a wife and two kids and we each take turns making a pizza. So my son will make a pizza. We bake it. We all eat it together. Takes about 15 minutes for us to scarf down a pizza.

If you're trying to bake successive rounds of pizza, which is what we do at my house, right? I have a wife and two kids and we each take turns making a pizza. So my son will make a pizza. We bake it. We all eat it together. Takes about 15 minutes for us to scarf down a pizza.

To eat it and make the next one. The point is we want to give the oven time to regenerate its heat in the baking steel or stone.

To eat it and make the next one. The point is we want to give the oven time to regenerate its heat in the baking steel or stone.