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How many of you guys pan your pizzas?

R

RiZePizzeria

New member
I just swiched from deck ovens to a conveyor oven. I have worked with conveyor ovens in the past and we have always panned the pizzas when they are about to come out. Several years and thousands of pizzas later I am still wondering are you supposed to pan pizzas using a conveyor oven? When I think about it taking the pizza out of a very hot pan to place it on a not so hot conveyor belt doesnt really make too much sense… not to mention breaking up the bake cycle for the 5 seconds it takes to pan the darn thing.
 
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Hi guys:

The above has me confused. What do you do when you pan a pizza? sounds like you are removing the pizza from the pan. Why would you then put it on a conveyor belt? Are you running it through the oven again? If so why do you do that? Are your pizzas not baked sufficently?

George Mills
 
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No idea what you are talking about.

For us:

Pan = Deep Dish and the pizza is built and cooked in the pan and stays in it until it is boxed and cut for delivery.

Hand tossed pizza is built and cooked on a screen and stays on it until boxed and cut.
 
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I think you mean “de-pan” the pizzas… We do this with our larger heavy topping pies.
Take them out of the pan and use a peel to put back in conveyor. Helps to crisp the crust and finish baking that “Ultimate” loaded pie. We use XLT conveyors and stacking pans…
Why? Absolutely no way can you adjust a conveyor to cook a cheese only and a meat lover and a 1" thick plus pie all the same.
 
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Oh but I beg to differ Boatnut, we do just that in our XLT3255. I’ve mentioned before that we run our pub crust (rolled thin crust) our hand tossed, and our deep dish, all at 465 degrees F. all at 6:10 give or take depending on the moon.

The first two are single trips, the deep is grab a pan with dough already in and risen a tad, lightly dock the bottom, cheese and in the oven for trip one. After the first pass, dress the pizza as ordered, sauce the top and back in for the 2nd pass.

When it’s out on the 2nd pass, we simply grip the pan, slide one of those common pizza servers under the pie and slide it out onto a cutting cardboard. Never had one stick, never had one not crisp and “done”, never had one fall apart during the “de-panning” maneuver. Now I’m sure my next one will curse me with all three maladies!
 
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Well I’m sure if I ran my heavy load pie through at 465 for 12min and 20 seconds it would be done as well. In fact I know it would be burnt. Different pie than yours. Not saying better, just different . At our new second location the brand new XLT 3255 is set at 460, 9:30. Cooks the “mid load” pie perfect. Remember we are using 1-1/2" deep stacking pans. Not screens. Build is: Sauce, dry toppings and meat, cheese then wet toppings on top. At our first location the XLT 3270’s are set the same.
Both places we pull the cheese only early, run mid load full time and de-pan and push back in the heavy’s.
Could be a different idea of cooked? Dark golden brown cheese, slight charring ( I mean slight ) on exposed veggies and pineapple, golden crust, and the acid test…
You better be able to pick up a slice and hold it with two fingers on the crust and your thumb underneath in the middle of the slice without any “droop”. Probably as far removed from “New York Style” as you could get. Polar opposite.
I think the idea of the “de-panning” for us is that it delivers the high velocity heated air direct to the crust thus drying and crisping it. I must admit that I find it amazing when guys talk about cooking a pizza in 5-6 minutes.
I have good ovens. I have spent hours and many many pizzas trying to adjust the oven ( finger config, temp, time ) to get the time down. Bottom line is with our topping load and pans they just do NOT cook in less than 9 minutes. When I had a deck oven they took minimum 12 minutes and got up to 20 minutes when slammed.
Really believe that is the great thing about us indies… We all tend to offer a better pie, yet different.
 
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@boatnut, absolutely concur! I love how we can all take a bag of flour and a bit of this and that, yet each of us puts out the perfect pie and one that is in many cases, totally different than the next guy down the road.

We are using the deep pans that are vented all through the bottoms to let that lovely hot air in to do it’s job, plus allow some of the trapped steam out I imagine. I know we tried our recipe in pans that did not have these little dimpled vents and you are right, at times we had a less than acceptable crust in the middle of the pie.

PM me where you are in Colorado. I have a brother up in Bailey and get out there, well…used to before we opened a restaurant anyway, every few years.
 
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Our standard bake is 7 minutes and that is what the ovens are set for. Deep dish or pan pizza goes in the oven midway with just the dough in the pan. Then we build the pie and run it all the way through. Then we cover and run through again. Works nicely.
 
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Im so lost, but all we do is pan pizzas and we run MM PS360’s and they are set at 8min at 525 and they cook great. Our thickest pizza is a 15" pie and loaded up it weighs about 6lb’s and they cook all the way through
 
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