Ask Tom Lehmann a Question

Hello

I am a rookie in this business, I have worked for my employer going on 4 years and have decided to put together my own shop. I have acquired most of the equipment and negotiated the lease, and I am all set to get some ovens. I am in a small city in the Midwest were thin is king. At the current place I work we have some older Blodegett 1000’s with 3/4 to 1" granite looking stones that are fairly smooth and not porous. They have are a gray color that gets lighter the cleaner they get. These stones are what I know and give a result that is satisfactory. I am looking , I know adjustments will have to be made, to use a dough that is similar. I am looking to purchase Baker’s Pride Y-602 double stack, new. They say they that come with 1.5" Cordierite stones. I saw used ones for sale in a nearby city noticed they seem to be more porous and closer to 80 grit sandpaper than say 120-160 that the old Blodgetts have. A friend of mine with experience in the business told me to get thick stones, these oven’s have that too. My question is can you bake straight on these stones like the granite type stones? Do the stones smooth out? And how long can I expect the seasoning process to take? I am attracted to the size, power, and price of the y-602, if it will work for me. I need thin, very thin crust that is cracker like. Will these tan Cordierite stones crisp me up?! It seems like they would be harder to maneuver pizzas around. Is this why people use screens and pans?

Thank you
ryan
 
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Dear Tom,

We run a successful wood fired pizzeria here in Malaysia and we just purchased a two deck gas oven with a range up to 662F degrees. We bought this oven for making our other items: cinnamon rolls, cup cakes, etc. The inside of the oven is steel (not stone) so I have a couple of questions:
  1. Can we still cook pizzas in this oven either on a screen, pan (circle or sheet pan)?
  2. Is it possible to fit a normal deck oven with stone (like we can on the bottom of our home ovens) and then cook pizzas directly on the stones? We have a tile supplier here that can supply me with unglazed stones with various thickness: 1/2 inch / 1 inch and so on up to 2 inches.
While we already have a woodfired oven, the reasons we are asking the above is we are thinking of running our place during the lunch time (we currently are only open for dinner) and would like to use the above oven for our lunch time crowd.
 
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i know this question has been asked alot and i have read through most of it, i have 2 pizza shops using ps360 ovens in both. my problem is a gum line. one shop the pizzas are excellent the other i cannot get rid of the gum line. i have tried everything i know with no luck. i have brushed the dough with olive oil, thickened the pizza sauce, dropped the temp and added time with no changes. i have made the dough exactly the same at both stores to make sure it ws being prepped th same. i have taken dough from the shop with the gumline and cooked it in the other store oven and didnt help. i have taken the dough from the good store to the other and it didnt change anything. this might sound crazy but the only thing i havent tried is the water. one store is on city water and the other is on county water, could this possibly have anything to do with it. i am totally at a loss on this one and dont know what to try next. any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
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nona:
Doc we make pizza & stromboli

all different types of stromboli but seem to get blow outs on some of strombolis spinach, steak cheese ect… what can we do different ?

after filling dough we bake for around 18 min at 400

we don’t fold over we roll like jelly roll style have done this forever but some just blow out .
Code: 
                                                   Need Help 
                                                 Thanks  Nona
Click to expand...
 
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Wow Tom looks like You really know a lot!!Will follow here!!You are the men!!
 
Hi Tom,

A problem I am having is that I have to cook my pies for almost 15 minutes in my oven to get the dough to brown even though the pie seems to be done. The times get longer as I am getting busier with the oven door opening and closing, obviously to loss of heat. I check the temperature with a laser thermometer and the deck reads about 450 to 500 degrees and inside temperature reads about 500 to 550 degrees. I have tried increasing temperature up to 650 degrees but that still does not help in browning the dough unless I leave it in the oven for at least 15 minutes and sometimes longer. I have always in the past used conveyor ovens I and not at all familiar with deck ovens. I am using my old dough recipe which always worked fine in my conveyor ovens. I was told by the manufacturer that I would get pies in about 5 to 6 minutes. As I said earlier the pie seems to be cooked except for the dough not browning. Is the problem my dough or how I am setting my ovens or is it me because I do not know what I am doing??? The oven I am using buy the way is a Bakers Pride, Model 151, Stubby Series, 48,000 BTUH. Deck size is 36" x 24 1/2". My restaurant purchased one to try and I am very nervous about ordering 3 more. I have only been using the oven about 4 days so far. I was told by a friend that it was my dough and I should add browning additives also. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I hate to bother you with these questions but I don’t know where else to go. If I can not get my cooking times down I am in heap of hot water with my boss. This was my idea instead of getting conveyors. I was looking to get a better product.
 
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How much sugar do you have in your dough? I’m not Tom, but…a little more might help with that. How about oil on the crust?
 
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unbleached unbromated flour

hi tom, i have used both unbromated and bromated flour in my pizzeria. i find the dough is much esier to work with when i use bromated. i want to get away from it because of the health questions associated with bromated flour. what changes should i make to keep the dough texture close?i find i lose crispness and the rise is not the same.seems the unbeached unbromated flour is harder to work with.
 
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Hi Tom
just want to say your advise on a pizza recipe for my busines was huge 6 years ago on helping me to understand my dough better. success has been great as a single store owner. My next chapter needs your advise. I have been testing and trying to develope a deep dish. Many things have been tested over the past 4 months but 1 issue is a big problem, my deep dish is very inconsistent as far as my bottom crust and this affects the crunch. if there is a way to send pics let me know i have pics on the crust…let me give you my recipe and process

detriot style deep dish, made with lyodd pan 12x8 anoidized
recipe …50% H & R flour and 50% bay state high gluten flour…70% water hydration,idy is …55% salt 2% sugar 2%
make with 98 deg water mixed in hobart mixer for about 8 min. scale out to 14.5 oz in a 96 sq in pan…I put 1 tbsp of corn oil in each pan with the dough pressed out, i was docking then putting covers on each pan and letting set out for 1-2 hours. press back down and put into the cooler, pull from cooler nest day(and over 3 days) let dough wrm up a little, top and cook in middleby marshall conveyor for about 12 min cook time at temp of 460 deg… PROBLEM seems that the crust has hugh bubble spots underside to the point where it looks like it lifts up off the pan in spots, docker penatration points are small to hugh crater holes, the areas that seem not to be laying flat on the bottom of the pan will not hardly cook at all, it will be chewy without any browning to the crust…please advise what could be going on or what I need to change…thanks john
 
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Help with conveyor oven

Hi Tom

I am using middleby 570 conveyors in my newest store. I am tying to get my finger configuration and time and temperature dialed in. I have in the older stores cutler rotating tray ovens, I bake at 450 for about 13 mins. In the conveyor I am using a lloyd perferated disk and I have kind of settled on 410 for 8.5 mins. The crust has a nice browning to it but I would like a little more crisp to it. The problem I have is the cheese over browning if I increase time or temperature. If I decrease temperature I dont cook the center of the dough. I just ordered some blank plates I am going to remove one set of fingers from the top to see if I get less browning on top at higher temperature. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Vince
 
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Hi Tom,I’m getting ready to purchase a mobile wood burning pizza oven for a hobbie/small business.I wanted my dough to stand out and thought about sour dough starter in my dough recipe.Wondered about cooking times in 700* oven if was any different from regular dough? Also proof time and storage? Is it worth the trouble?? Thanks for any help.
 
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Does anyone follow up on these post. I am new to this site and I have seen where people have posted questions about pizza recipes on the think tank board and they are directed to repost these pizza questions to the specific expert area. Am i looking for the response in the correct area. I have posted a question asking for help on my deep dish recipe over 2 weeks ago and have heard nothing to date. can someone help me?
 
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Tom does respond to posts here. He does take time off occasionally so be patient.
 
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Just a note…Tom does respond mostly in private messages for the questions posted in his area. I also asked why not in the open forum and he commented about privacy issues with some of the people asking. I would also like to hear the answers more often. Tom, I am wondering if we could revisit this policy and come up with an open answer option unless the person asking does not want that? Just a thought. :idea:
 
Hi Tom,

I am in the process of starting a pizza place. I have no experience in Pizza other than loving to eat it. I have nearly 20 years of big box retail management and a deep desire to take charge of my own career.
I’m sure you are busy but here are a couple of short questions.
  1. Any tips for someone like me?
  2. I want to make a $5 pizza (Cheese, Sausage or Pepperoni) and sell it. There is a competitor 5 miles away that does this well. How do I determine the cost to make a pizza?
  3. Can you advise me on how to, or where to get a good Conveyor pizza oven without overspending. My budget is extremely tight.
Thanks for your time.
Mike
 
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I switched from General Mills bromated Full Strength to the same flour Unbromated. Do I need to make any changes to dough recipe?
 
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Tom - We recently purchased a “Super Peel” in an effort to keep our deck ovens clean by reducing the use of semolina on wood peels as a dusting agent. The “Super Peel” works great for a make peel and places the pizzas in the oven without the use of any semolina and keeps the oven very clean and has also eliminated the need to scrape out the old semolina after each pizza is removed. One characteristic I noticed immediately is that the bottom of the crusts become significantly more chared now that there is no semolina between the crust and the oven deck (we have not changed our dough formula or cooking temperature/time). I am worried that customers may complain that the pizza is burnt due to the significant increase in charing. Do you have any ideas as to why this may be occurring and what might be done to reduce the charing on the bottom of the crust?
Thank You,
Pete
 
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