I realize that I’m going to catch some flack here for not using a scale, but the scale just didn’t work. I spent a lot of money on what I thought was a high end scale with a zero touch sensor eye so that I could reset between each toppping. However, the eye never worked well in my shop. I don’t know if it was the lighting, or my hand, or what. I’ve taken the scale off the make line. But I need to replace it with some measuring scoops of some sort. I do a fairly good mixture of 12" and 14" pizzas. We also sell an 8", but I don’t sell nearly as many of those as the others. Anyone have some ideas on scoops that I might be able to use?
We use a standard two cup measuring cup and train on how full it should be.
Cheese? Diced or shredded?
The cheese is shredded, and I realize that I might have to use something different for the cheese. I might even portion out the cheese in the plastic cups. But for the toppings, I want to use a measuring scoop of some sort.
I use spoodles (cross between a ladle and a spoon). They make them in different sizes and also with holes (for olives, pineapple, etc.). For cheese, we pre-portion in plastic bags. They take up much less room than cups and are less expensive.
No kidding, Scott? Is that the Avery Berkel? Bummer. We were considering it.
pizzafanatic, would u mind sharing your different sized spoodles for each topping? I have been trying to think of a way to get rid of my measuring cups, because im a take-n-bake, people watch us while we make the pizza’s and I HATE using measuring cups, seems to I dont konw, cheap or something. Anyway Id love to konw. And when u preportion your cheese into bags how do u do it? Different bags for different sizes? Or 1 bag for small, 2 for medium and three for large?
Thanx!
Exactly Charles. It has two nice posts to catch the screen and a display unit to display remotely. I even put together a Cat-5 cable and extended the distance about 5 feet so I could put it at eye level. Still no dice. In theory it sounds great, it just wasn’t working the way it is supposed to.
We keep 3 oz. spoodles in our sauces and 2 oz. perforated spoodles in olives, pineapple, and artichoke hearts. Example of spoodles.
We weigh out meats.
As for cheese portioning, we use food bags and portion in 7 oz bags, and 3 oz. bags. For Personal-size, we use a 3, Medium 7, Large 7+3, and XL 7+3+3. Yes, it’s a bit more labor intensive than weighing our cheese on the fly, but I know that my cheese portioning is a lot more accurate for it. I buy my bags through Instawares for $16 per 1000.
Hope this info is helpful.
Thanx muchly! Very helpful! Do u mind sharing ur meat weights? I’m just comparing with mine. Do u adjust meat weights depending on what u put on the pizza?
I’m a diced fan, but in the past, have used shred…I bought a bunch of neon colored cups @ WalMart (for the shred) - 2 colors 4 2 weights…ya need several hundred cups if you are a volume operation tho…it doesn’t take but 20-30 minutes to portion out 4 a busy night…store 'em in dough trays until needed…
I currently use a 2 C. plastic cup…each level cup weighs 4 oz. - so a 14" pie gets 2 slightly rounded cups…sure, its not 100% perfect, but 4 200-300 pie nites its fast fast fast…
get several size cup samples and set up your measure to your specs/liking…
That’s odd, we have those scales in 4 stores and the eye’s work flawlessly for us. I assume you went through the calibration procedure?
Even if the eye doesn’t work for some reason - have you considered just pushing the “zero” button on the display? I know thats not as easy as wavy your hand over the eye - but it seems to me that would be worlds better that moving to cups.
I’ve calibrated the stupid thing over and over RG. Now I’m wondering if I just have a faulty scale. At first I thought it might be the lighting. But simple hand movements anywhere near it, or going to grab another topping reset the eye. So I tried moving the eye above my hands. It wasn’t much better. Sometimes it would reset, sometimes it wouldn’t.
Can the eye be disabled? Maybe that is an option to use the button… I might be able to do a bump switch of some sort.
Scott, you should call the customer support number from their website. I called the guys and they determined the one I was sent didn’t have the electric eye I thought it had! They can try to walk you through some basic troubleshooting to see what is up.
Hey pizzafanantic what sizes are your pizzas?
been over a decade now. But when i managed at a Donatos they used scales. Each make table person had one. It had a big red button on front that you could hit between toppings. Dont remember make or model tho. Did 20k plus a week there on those scales. Faster then cups I thought. As your reaching for the next topping with 1 hand. smack the button with the other.
I’ve had zero luck with Avery Berkel scales, always experiencing the same problems that you are describing, zeroing out if a shadow passes the eye, ect. I now use detecto scales that have a foot pedal, a zero button and a motion eye so we can choose how to zero. I turn off the eye and use the foot pedal. I find these to be much better than the Avery Berkel. Here’s a link to the one I use. The display is remote, and can be placed anywhere.
we bought that scale and had a hard time as well and eventualy took it off our line
I took j_rokk’s advice on the cups
1 cup equals about 4 oz of diced…
I use a 1/2 cup stainless Volrath cup with handle for my 8" that I put 2 2/3 oz on…it come to a little less so I sprinkle a little more on…
found a great plastic cup with handles that when full, is about an ounce less than 1 pound that I use on my 20 inch…the other ounce I sprinkle on to fill in …
it really helps me be consistent
thanks j_rokk…
I am the pizzaiola at my place…if I hired pizza makers, I may go to something more objective,
Otis