My business just starting weighing cheese for about a month, and already i got the veteran pizza makers claiming they don’t need to weigh cheese. Im not saying they put too much on im just trying to be consistent. How many of you guys weigh cheese and does it work?
You don’t have to. That said, we are a very small operation (Approx $25,000 a month) and when we started to weigh the cheese we saved over $500 a month. Your choice!!!
We do over 2000 pizzas per week and weigh at least 95% of them. Even though my pizza makers believe they don’t need the scale, it’s not up for discussion. They no longer complain that it slows them down, and they know that no matter how busy we are, the cheese will be weighed. The few that aren’t weighed happen when we are cleaning the cheese out of the grates during the rush.
what form of measurement do you use? we are curently using a digital scale, is their a better method?
i use the detecto pz3015. The dispay mounts on the wall and it can be zeroed out with a foot pedal, a button on the display or by waving your hand in front of a sensor on the display. Here’s a link:
STL, give your “veterans” a challenge and tell them if they succeed, they won’t have to weigh out the cheese. Ask them to blindly weigh out 6 pizzas. If the weights are within a 1/2 ounce of your spec and don’t vary by more than 1/2 ounce of each other, then they win. I guarantee they will lose.
while im on the subject of measurement, is there anything you guys do about pizza sauce? we try to do it by scoopes but some people’s are always more than others. i know going by eye is the easiest but im trying to get every pizza almost the same as the next everytime.(i know its impossible) and starting this year im really trying to focus on consistancy. I REALLY appericiate all the advice guys, thanks!!!
We use a 3 oz spoodle (cross between a ladle and a spoon) for sauce. It works great for portion control and spreading evenly over the skin.
It’s all about semantics…
The veteran pizza guys need to mentor and be good examples to the newer guys. Therefore, you need them to take the lead on embracing the weighing of ingredients. It is THEIR experience that is so important and they need to set the bar for the new guys.
You see, now you’re not doubting them, you’re simply ensuring that they train the new folks correctly and serve as the great example you know they are.
Thanks Guys!!!
Then do some more math about that 1/2 ounce variation. Paul does over 200 pies a week . . .we’ll go with 2000 hard number.
1/2 X 2000 = 1000 ounces waste = 62.5 POUNDS waste x $2.75 per pound = $171.88 in lost revenue
That is using what seems to be a conservative cheese price. If the business is ramping out more pizzas that that, the money gets worse. How much does a scale cost? And how quickly will it pay for itself in this scenario? Less than a month for Paul. For me, it will be closer to 3 or 4 months, but as sure as cheese will melt in the oven, the consistently used portion scale will pay for itself in recovered revenues.
I hate 2 burst all yer bubbles out there…but…
even if you have a scale on the make line and the employees “use” it there is no guarantee that “all” the pies will have the “exact” amount of the “required” amount of cheese…
in other words, they can still over portion even when using a scale…how difficult is it to “remove” excess cheese from the pie & how oten will the employee do that, especially in a “rush”?
it all boils down 2 training and accurate accounting procedures, IMHBAO…
My choice is diced cheese, that can be “weighed” on the fly and I run food costs every few days…
if you do the math in “reverse” saving a 1/2 oz. of cheese on each pie may lead to a business decline over time…
if you use a POS, you can track cheese usage/cost on a daily basis…
then, if you have a “problem” either w/or w/o the use of a scale, you can address it much sooner than waiting 4 the end of the month accountant summary…
Semper Fi
USMC Auditor
Consider by bubble unburst 
I agree completely that there are almost no complete technological solutions to training issues, and that awareness of financial ratios is valuable. Panacea it ain’t . . . more effective control tool it is. You and I are of like minds in that the scale won’t solve the problem unless it is part of a larger process and systematic program of waste reduction and consistency.
Free throwing will nearly guarantee more cheese loss than scaling. That is only based on my personal experience as a veteran free-thrower and the input of the scalers and professional consultants I’ve read. there may be some proponents of the economical value of throwing by hand; I just have not read them yet. I actually would find the 1/2 average waste during free-throwing to be a very conservative estimate. I would put the number closer to .75 (to 1 with shredded cheese) oz average loss/waste per pizza.
If a scale program can reduce my cheese alone waste/loss by 50%, then I cannot argue against it. throw in things like portioning other high cost items like seafood and meats, multi-tasking to weigh recipe ingredients, dough scaling tool, potential use as a receiving scale if capacity is 10 to 15 pounds . . . and you have a high impact food control tool that can give imediate and precise impact on food usage, waste and control.
I weigh all my cheese. Well at least I use a portion cup which works extremely well as I test in from time to time.
This is a picture I took for someone, to show them my frozen inserts I use for my meats. But look to the right and you can see the cup that was given to me by Grande.
http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh175/thepassionofthecrust/196047505669.jpg
Where did you get those inserts?
where did you find a prep with grates like that?
i’ve only found one’s with a large plastic cutting board!
errrrrrr :evil:
The makeline in the picture is an old Dominos makeline, probably a Delfield, but possibly a Randell. If you contact Northern Pizza Equipment, they sell these completly refurbished, or they will custom make grates and catch pans to replace the cutting boards on a new makeline.
I know this is going off on a tangent from the original discussion, but what is the benefit of the grates vs. cutting board (besides maybe less toppings ending up on the floor)? If some sausage chunks roll off the pizza while using the cutting board, you just simply pick it up on put it back on. But with grates, it seems like it’s gone and unrecoverable… resulting in more waste (ok, kind of back on the original subject).
Cutting board style, are sandwich tables. Grate like mine are pizza tables. Or at least thats the way I have always seen it.