Pizzas sticking to screen

What actually causes the pizza to stick to the screen at times

The things we have seen is

Screen not properly seasoned or some cheese got cooked into the screen in a previous use and not cleaned off or putting the dough onto a warm screen so the dough oozes into the holes and then expands during cooking.

Sometimes if the pizza is stuck on the screen you can stick it back into the oven and it will free up when the screen heats up. The key word is sometimes. Sometimes you can change your angle of attack to get it to come free, again sometimes. Sometimes that nice crispy bottom of the crust rips away and the kitchen has a pizza to eat after they remake one for the customer.

Any time a pizza sticks to a screen, I brush the screen off and oil it and cook it off to reseason the affected spot.

Rick

A proud conveyor operator

Rick has the subject covered.

George Mlls

One other thing you can try that works when it’s not stuck too badly is to get a long bladed “hamburger flipping” spatula. It gives a bit more precise control than the pizza paddle.

Agree with the above but want to add DON’T WASH THE SCREENS!

Kriss;
Only one thing to add…AMEN!
We have been getting away from the traditional screens and going over to the Hex Disks from Lloyd Pans/Pizza Tools <www.lloydpans.com> or <www.pizzatools.com>. These puppies come with an indestructable, black, anodized, non-stick finish that makes them worth every penny paid for them. No need to ever season them, no more pizzas sticking to them, and unless you fold them in half, you may never need to replace them.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

I keep a can of Pam Olive Oil spray handy,and use that to lightly spray a screen before I put a dough crust on it.I have made many pizzas this way and its worked well.

I never had a pizza stick and never had to seasoned a screen first before use.That said,This is at home use,so it may be subject to different exposures,than say,in a business place,where scenarios such as splashed sauce,stuck cheese or others getting on the screen may be a lot more frequent and common, than at home.

Not to mention the added cost of the oil for each and every pizza made. This can add up to a significant cost over the year in a commercial pizzeria, plus you would also need to take into account the smoke generated by the oil. While you don’t see these in a home pizza setting, they are very real at the store level where we are baking 100 to 300, or more, pizzas a day.
Tom Lehmann/the Dough Doctor

Tom,

Thanks for the heads up.You are 100% correct as always that My Doing this at home is a completely different scenario and far cheaper than what a Business here would go through.That said,my wife,years ago,used to work at a Pizza place that used screens all the time.She told me that they did spray a New screen maybe the first few uses,but never again.

Then she told me that a new employee kept spraying(heavily) all the screens for all the pizzas one busy Friday night and said they had smoke everywhere.People thought something was catching fire.
Was a big whoops!
:oops:

Bill;
Your story reminds me of the time we got a delivery of new pans and screens just before one of our pizza seminars. We had to get the pans and screens ready as quickly as possible so they would be ready for the students to use during the seminar. That afternoon we fired the oven up at 425F and began passing the pans and screens through the oven. Before we were finished, we has a smoke screen even the U.S. Navy would be proud of. Cough, cough! :slight_smile:
Have a great day!
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

[quote=“Tom Lehmann”]

Before we were finished, we has a smoke screen even the U.S. Navy would be proud of. Cough, cough! :slight_smile:
/quote]

Been there, done that :lol:

The visual in my head of what that might have looked like makes me
:lol: