Any advise for what is the best flour to dust pizza peel?

In the last month I finally am able to put the dough onto the wooden peel and slide it into the deck oven. Before I had used a screen. I am making 16" Lehmann dough. I have tried semolina and bench flour mixed. I am now using rice flour. Does anyone have an opinion on any mixture or is the rice flour okay? The rice flour seems to work okay, but I want to keep my hearth as clean as possible.
Thanks, Norma

Re: Any advise for what is the best flour to dust pizza peel

I only use corn grits.

Re: Any advise for what is the best flour to dust pizza peel

Pizzamancer,
If you don’t mind me asking, what are corn grits or do you use cornmeal?
Thanks, Norma

Re: Any advise for what is the best flour to dust pizza peel

Nope it is different. Here is a picture of it:
http://www.afpm.cn/24grits.jpg

Your supplier should have it in stock.

Re: Any advise for what is the best flour to dust pizza peel

Pizzamancer,
Thank you for the picture and telling me about the maize grits. I will check with my supplier to see if they have them.
Norma

Re: Any advise for what is the best flour to dust pizza peel

That pic is the first place I have seen it called maize grits actually. I googled corn grits and that was the closes picture that came up. I use it because it gives the crust a slight texture and taste. What sold me was when someone said take a spoon full of flour then one of corn grits, kind of like the pepsi challenge, except for your dusting flour. Flour tastes like crap, and corn grits isn’t that bad.

It reminded me of every time I was out at a pizza joint that used too much flour on their peels. You know when you bite into a slice and the only thing you can feel and taste on your tongue is flour because there is a clump on the bottom? With corn grits, that never happens.

Re: Any advise for what is the best flour to dust pizza peel

Pizzamancer,
Thanks for the clarification, I just assumed since the picture said maize and that is corn and it was fine, that it was maize grits. Sorry for making you google it.
Sounds like you have a great idea since it makes the crust taste better and gives it a good texture. I will try your method and let you know how it works out for me.
Your Pepsi challenge seems to work.
Norma

Re: Any advise for what is the best flour to dust pizza peel

we use semolina,its a finer corn grit,definiteley helps with crust texture & taste…

Re: Any advise for what is the best flour to dust pizza peel

arduous,
Thank you for the tip. I was using semolina mixed with bench flour, but found I had too much black dust in my oven at the end of the night. That is why I switched to rice flour. I don’t bake on a screen. I bake right on the deck. Do you get a lot of black dust from the semolina?
Norma

Re: Any advise for what is the best flour to dust pizza peel

Norma;
If you want to have a clean hearth, you’ll need to go back to using screens. Anytime you peel pizzas into the oven and bake on the deck, you’re going to have a lot of debris on the deck. Just have an oven rake/broom handy to clean the deck after every few pizzas. Some things that you can do to minimize the amount of “peel dust” going into the oven, is to not get carried away with putting peel dust onto your peels. The temptation is to use too much, especially after you have peeled a pizza into the oven only to dump all of the toppings onto the peel as you retract the dough skin with the peel. Always make sure your peels are dry, some operators wipe them with a clean bar towel if they get anything on them, like a little sauce. Also, it helps a lot if you can put the dough skin onto the peel and get it dressed and into the oven as quickly as possible as this will help to minimize the amount of peel dust actually needed. My own personal concoction for peel dust is equal parts of flour, semolina flour, and fine grind corn meal. I use this for both opening the dough ball, and also on the peel. I always try to minimize the amount used on the peel. I also like to shake the peel to ensure the dough skin is still free to slide after I apply the sauce (just takes a second), then finish dressing it, give it a final shake. Note: If it won’t slide on the peel when you shake it, it probably ain’t coming off when you try to transfer it to the oven hearth. Better to work thing out outside of the oven. Try not to get into the habit of lifting an edge of the pizza and blowing under it to lift the dough from the peel. It just doesn’t come across to your customers as looking very sanitary. Excuse me, waiter…my coffee is too hot to drink, would you mind blowing on it to cool it off for me???
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

Re: Any advise for what is the best flour to dust pizza peel

“Corn” is a term used around the world for the most common grain of the area. It is reall obvious when you see the term used in pre-1492 texts. In America, ‘corn’ is that yellow stuff on a cobb . . . the rest of the world calls it Maize. Think Mazolla as a variant on the term.

In Britain, ‘corn’ may very well get you barley. Just like venison is a general descriptive term that much of US uses too mean white-tailed deer.

Re: Any advise for what is the best flour to dust pizza peel

Hummm. I didn’t know that. See, you learn something new all the time. To stop learning is to go brain dead.
BTW; Venison is normally associated with the meat of any type of deer, not just white tails. Around here, elk and moose, while the largest members of the deer family, get special mention with their meat, such as Elk meat, or moose meat, because it ranks right up there with bison in quality. This past weekend, my wife and I just finished converting the better part of a whole deer into a not so large box of vacuum packed jerky. It is absolutely amazing how little space you can shrink a deer down into. Of course, a live one, it seems, can totally hide behind a single blade of grass, or under a single fallen leaf, and live an entire hunting season in someones back yard as a part time pet.
As you can tell, I like deer. Mighty tasty, and fun to chase around too.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

Re: Any advise for what is the best flour to dust pizza peel

Tom,
Thank you for the information and your concoction for opening dough and peel dust. Yes, I do have a rake/broom and do use it, but maybe not as much as I should. Nooooo, I wouldn’t blow under the opened dough in front of customers. I did try that already though to see if it would work.
The deer jerky sounds great!
Norma

NicksPizza,
Thanks for the information about different terms for corn, that was enlightening. Yes, like Tom said keep the brain working or it will not work well.
Norma

Re: Any advise for what is the best flour to dust pizza peel

I used semolina for a few weeks to try it out a few years back. I love pasta and eat it all the time, but couldn’t handle semolina for some reason. It made my eyes itch and my nose run like mad. I used the few lbs that I got as a sample and never though about it again. Allergies cleared up as soon as it was gone. Pizzas were fine though.

I also played with that corn grits/flour mix. Just did an eyeball 50/50 mix. A hand full of each on the dough table. It worked great, but the idea that flour doesn’t taste that good unless it is dough kept coming back to me and I eliminated it. Not that 10,000 pizza shops that use flour are wrong, it is just a personal style thing. Play around with it, and eventually you will find a mix you and your customers like.