Ask Tom Lehmann a Question

Pizza Oven Temp

Hi Tom,
I have a commercial pizza oven with stone on the bottom and a heating element on the top. There is also individual temp controls for the top and bottom. My question is: what is the correct temperature to cook the pizzas? do i need both the top and bottom heating elemnets on or just the bottom? FYI, i will be using pizza screens and my pizza is american style like papa johns and dominos.

Thanks, Mike.
 
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bread for subs

thinking about making own bread daily for toasted subs we serve. We have a lincoln conveyor. Wondering if you have any suggestions on cooking bread in the conveyor oven and any recipes or websites to visit.
Thanks Steve
[email protected]
 
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Good afternoon Mr. Tom:

I have a pizzeria in Rio the janeiro and my walk in box is not consistency with themperatures because it is too small and people have to get in many times a day.

How this can affect my dough since the walk in box is never at 41 degrees is is always above by a few degrees,

Thanks a lot.

Jose Arcila
 
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What is the best type of mixer for pizza dough, Planetary , Spiral or Barrel mixer.
Thank you,
Tim Nazzaro
 
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dough keeps tearing, help!
by franwake13 » 15 May 2011 13:29

hey whats up everyone, does anyone know what would cause the dough to keep tearing while streching? im lost. i have been trying to find the answer but no luck. for a 50lb bag of high gluton flower im using 10 oz of salt and 10 oz oil with 6 eggs. o and 2 oz of yeast, any help would be great! thanks alot
-frank

Tom this was in the general area…thought I would forward it too ya. There is more info in the original thread about the dough.
 
Hi Tom,
I’ve been looking at this website for a while now while I’ve been remodeling a restaurant to open as a new pizzeria in my town in Jackson Hole, WY. I love all the information provided!!
I have a question about making dough at a higher elevation. Jackson Hole is at 6,200ft above sea-level and I want to make a hand tossed NY style pizza with good elasticity, flavor, crisp and soft crust.
Do you know of any tricks/recipes that would be beneficial to making large quantities of dough in higher elevations?
All your information about dough making has been very informative and very much appreciated.
Thanks for taking the time to reply to my question.
Regards,
Pinky G’s Pizzeria
Owner:Tom Fay
 
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Hello Tom,

My wife and I have bought a 20ft conseccion trailer to sell pizza in ou home town. We are planning on using a frozen dough ball from our supplier, but have considered making our own dough. We are using 2 lincoln conveyer ovens, and would like to know what size dough mixer you would recommend for such a tight space, making 50 15inch pizzas a day.

I would also like to retard the dough to bake nest day, but have limited refrigeration.

Your thoughts would be appreciated,

Thank you,

Steve Bell
 
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Tom,
I posted a question on the Hobart vs. The spiral mixers
I have just joined here and welcome your replies. I have been over at pizza making.com for 6 years+
I have now started a mobile Wood Fired pizza bus.! And it’s going quite well.
Found a 30 qt Hobart but not sure of the capacities how little how much flour
Will these do and comparison to the spiral do they make a decent Neapolitan dough
I currently use a Bosch and do 15 ball batch
I also use a diving arm mixer at my commissary for bigger parties but this is a bit inconvenient for me
Any thought would be appreciated!
Thanks
John
 
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Question’s

Dear, Tom…

I’m in the process of opening a new Pizzeria in NYC…I have a few questions… Having grown up in Beloit WI. I was always used to eating terrific thin crust pizza, sauce, then raw sausage and grande cheese. In New York this is really not avaliable… I have a few questions below… Thanks in advance… btw, I really appreciate reading your articles in PMQ. Sincerely Chef Michael White.
  1. I’m looking at a few different ovens… Namely a MB60 double stack from Marsal… I’m going to be making a Chicago style cracker crust and a Siclilan style square pizza for slices… The thin crust will be going through a Middlebey Marshall sheeter. The Sicilian will be hand formed into the pan. Do you think that I should purchase this type of oven (MB60) or the regular Marsal deck oven without the brick layer on top… It will be a fairly high volume place… I know that this pizza type requires a 20-27 min cook time… Will this be to hot for chicago style or not…Or should I go with a rotoflex oven? More capacity etc for busy days… In New York as you know there is not cracker crust… It is mainly all hand pulled and cooked on screens with a higher percentage of water content.
  2. In your dough recipes, I don’t see any recipes for a Sicilian style pie in which you lay cheese down and then sauce.
  3. In your recipe
 
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Hello Mr. Lehamann,

We are a Local Mom & POP Shop, we are located in Grand Rapids Michigan. We bought the place 4 years ago, and have never been able to truly portion the true chicago style stuffed deep dish pizza. Is there a set chart to follow for cheese, sauce and toppings so we can get a better handle on food cost while making sure we are giving our customers the quality they deserve.

We use the 50/50 blend diced Grande Cheese, Fontanini meats, with the sky rocketing food prices we just trying to figure out how to survive. Any information will be most helpful and appreciative.

What percentage do you figure food cost percentage do you figure food cost should be set at fot the chicago style stuffed pizza?

We would like to thank you in advance for any help you can provide us.
Our website is www.joechicagos.com

Thanks again,

Gary Scobey
Joe Chicago’s Pizza Co.
Owner
 
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Tom I copied this over so you might find it faster:

Report this postReply with quoteRe: Another Dough question for Tom Lehman
by williamanzaijr » 13 Jul 2011 06:34

Hi, Mr. Lehman Hope you doing good! I meet you at Orlando Pizza Show in 2007.
I have 2 questions:
  1. Do you recomend a natural yeast on pizzas. (natural fermentation)? It will taste good?
  2. I saw in the web site Lloyd Pans, the hearth bake disks and the hex quick disks, witch one do you recommend for a new type of gas brick oven (botton) with infra red burn (lateral and back) or the old types of pizza screens? This oven is here in Brazil. Or if you have another manufactory who does it please gime me a link.
    Thanks and sucess to you.
Best regards
William Anzai Junior
 
Hi tom my names Layson Lynch owner of Diamondz Pizza located in bloomfield Iowa. I have a pizza shop with dine in delivery carryout also a full grillside. Anyway this spring i purchased a trailer and converted it into a pizza vending trailer, i put 3 1116 propane impingers in it and all the necessary refrigeration pop machines etc… currently we roll crusts with a roller in my store and the trailer, i bought a dough press to try in the trailer to get away from all the flour mess that comes with a roller, but my doughs too tough for the press…once you press it it shrinks back and is to thick… I was wondering if you have any suggestions for some modifications to try to loosen up the dough so to speak??? also how long should a person pre roll dough before baking it? We pre make pizzas ahead of time, currently baking on screens, didnt know is there anything better out there like some kind of interlocking stackable baking pan to seal air out to keep dough fresher longer… versus letting it dry out on the screens,and in my store everything is rolled on command…so to speak. ive experimented alot with operations in the trailer because weve never really sold to our store customers,and id like to make things as simple as possible for efficiency and LESS ERROR…

My store on the other hand we use deck ovens and i havnt changed anything scince i reopend the business 2 years ago, because i dont want to loose any customers. Prior to its reopen the resteraunt was shut down for 2 years and set idle, but was a HUGE staple in the community for over 50 years and everyone was super excited for its reopen .

look forward to hearing from you … my numbers 641 208 1166 or you can email me
 
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Ok, I have a newb question. Is it a bad idea to use a 50/50, high gluten/semolina base to make pizza dough? The owners of the pizzeria I work at insist on doing this and the dough comes out so/so. I just think it could come out a lot better.
 
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I took over a pizza shop in January. At the time, they were running a cracker style dough and balled everything in 7 oz. portions. Upon order, they combined the 7 oz. balls to make small (7 oz), medium (10 oz), large (14 oz.), and XL (18 oz.) crusts, then topped and baked.

We recently changed the dough recipe entirely and began balling dough according to finished weight. The new dough is also a slow fermentation process that takes 24+ hours to develop. As I am new to this, it raises a question about dough management that we never dealt with before. First, is there a tried and true way to manage dough ball sizes when you have no idea what kind of runs you will get on different size pizzas and are dealing with a longer ferment period? Second, I understand freezing dough balls can damage the integrity, but would a 2-day freeze have a profound effect on the final product?

Thanks.
 
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When computing the cost to sell a product it is obvious that the components are all of the raw materials. Do these raw materials include labor and if not why not?
 
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Pizza Oven Temp

Postby jamal » Wed Aug 24, 2011 12:35 pm
i am opening a restaurant that is basically a turn key operation all the equipment is included and the rent is very nice. My question is that the restaurant has a bread oven that reaches top temp of 375o. My partner told me that most pizza joint cook their pies at that temp but being from Boston most pizza joints bake at 475 plus at least the ones i am familiar with. Do you think that I will have no problem cooking pies at 375o?
 
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This question is for the “Dough Dr” TOM…
I have always made it my responsiblity to make the dough, because I just wasnt ready for anyone to do it. Well my step daughter who has been with me for the last 4 years wanted to do it, she has always watched me & has helped me ball it. So I left it for her to do a couple times and much to my suprise something happened & it did not turn out right. Her dough turns out like a rubber ball, & dry. Enough though I have measured everything out for her the first time & all she had to do is throw it together, BUT not correct, so we disussed everything AGAIN, and still not good, she claims she is doing everything correctly, so Im at a loss. with out going into to much detail on my side, from what Ive told you can you give any guess as to why it turns out like a rubber ball.
 
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Tom,

When I’m making a batch of dough, I make bags of ingredients for each batch that I will be making that day. I put salt, sugar, and yeast in them. We’re starting to take on more volume and I was wondering if it would hurt if I made these bags in advance and them put them into the walk-in until use. Would that hurt the yeast any?

I’m using Red Star active dry yeast.

Thanks!

Jay Burton
 
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Hi Tom,

I own a couple restaurants in Portland called Fire on the Mountain Buffalo Wings. We are in the process of opening a third restaurant where we are adding pizza and a microbrewery. We are planning to make New York neighborhood style 18 inch pies and offering slices. We are going to use an electric Baker’s Pride oven. My question is what do you think is the best type of flour to make this style of pizza and what is ideal fermentation time? Please let me know if you need more info. Thanks in advance for your help.

Jordan Busch
 
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Tom,
I am building out a food mobile truck and I have tossed and checked out many different deck and conveyor ovens and of course speaking to each manufacturer rep it is always their oven that is the best.
I am making 18" NY pizza for both whole pies and slices (which will be the majority of sales) along with 12" gourmet pies.
In your opinion as I see you have try many decks, conveyors which of your choice would you go with that will give me the best bake for these type of pie.
whether going with gas or electric, any help would be greatly appreciated by a neutral person.
also taking into consideration its on a truck space is somewhat of a factor, heat time, propane or natural gas.

Sincerely,
Mark
 
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