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setting up middlebly fingers

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steve12457

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I have a middleby marshall oven that I purchased used. I called the manufacturer and the man on the phone acted like he could not wait to get me off the phone and left me nowhere closer than where I was to begin with. Does anybody have any suggestions?
 
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It really depends on how you want your pies to cook - but I think the “normal” setup is (from entrance to exit) - on top, 2 L3’s at the entrance - spacers and a third L3 just before the exit. The bottom is 2 L5’s at the entrance - a 1/2 spacer - then 1 L5, a 1/2 spacer - then 2 L5’s.

So total of 8 fingers - 3 L3’s on the top and 5 L5’s on the bottom.

If you want “more cook” - you can change the first 2 top L3’s to “L5 Lightnings” - then have more hole and hang lower (thus closer to the pizza) - I believe Pizza Hut uses the Lightnings.

My comments are based on MM360’s. If you need to know the exact spacer setup let me know and I can get it for you.
 
Sure do, who was it that you were talking to? We always like to know who we should nominate for “rep of the year award”. I think all manufacturers would like to know how their level of customer service is perceived by those who make their business possible. With that said, give my friend Paul Prassa (Middleby-Marshall) a call at 847-429-7777. Paul has always been most helpful. You might also give Northern Pizza Equipment a call at 800-426-0323 to see if they can help you. Different model ovens will require a different finger configuration/profile to give the best bake, additionally, your specific pizza or product mix might require a specialized finger profile too.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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Hi
Just Wondering if you can help I have middlebys 200s what would the best setup be and whats the differece with the litning fingers
 
It is hard to be specific with finger configurations without knowing a whole lot about the product(s) being baked in the oven(s). In general, you can do a pretty good job with full open across the bottom and full closed across the top. Occasionally that needs to be modified with a full to partially open towards the exit end on the top.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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Thanks for the help Tom, I dont recall the CSR’s name but I did call my local restraunt servicing warehouse and they helped me set it up. We are also using the MM ps200 and are full open on the bottom, on top it is closed, 1/2 open, 1/2 open, closed. Cooking 6 minutes at 460 degrees.
 
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Hi Tom

when you say fully closed on the top do you mean no fingers at all?
 
I spent a lot of time testing out the PS200. The best finget arrangement I found for a hand tossed pizza was all open on the bottom, and (from the entrance) 2 open, one closed and an all open at the end. I have a Japanese version of the ps200, and I use that same finger placement.

I did spend a week in the factory testing different set ups, and found that to be the best bake I could get.

With the shorter baking chamber on the ps200, cheese was not done nearly enough with 3 closed fingers and one open on the top, so all closed on the top might leave you with a raw pizza(with cooked dough though).

One other thing, if you take out the 2 middle fingers and stop the belt, you can cook a decent sized turkey in that oven.
 
When you look into the top of the oven you will still see the holes in the outer plate, but the inner insert panel will be completely blocked off with a solid panel. In a pinch, I’ve made a closed panel out of an open panel by carefully wrapping it in a couple layers of aluminum foil and very carefully inserting the inner panel back into place within the “finger”.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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Chris;
I agree totally with your findings. That’s why I always like to begin all closed on top and begin opening panels as needed. With that short oven one or oneand a half open panels are about right, but this will vary to some extent based on what one is looking for with regard to cheese color and also the melt and browning characteristics of the cheese itself. I really like you idea with the turkey. Can you share the bake time and temperature? This sounds like a great way to maybe pick up a few extra dollars by selling fully baked turkeys during the holidays. Prepaid advance orders of course. I’ve seen retail bakeries do this occasionally, so why not a pizzeria? Can’t be that much different from baking a chicken or two, except a little bigger (we grow big chickens here in Kansas).
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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Turkys in the oven

I thought I was the only one who used aluminum foil to close off an oven finger. We actually used stainless steel tape in the test ovens we were using, then had fingers fabricated to duplicate the ones we had taped off.

For the turkey, it worked out great. I put it in a pan with some water in the bottom for gravy, and stuck some tin foil on the side that was getting a direct blast from the holes that the fingers were supposed to be attached to. The edge of the wing closest to the holes did get a bit crispy, possibly a bit charcoaly, but the rest was great.

I had my ovens at about 450F, which was probably a bit hot, but I needed to get the bird done quickly. It was done in about 2-3 hours. I did bring a weber grill back with me a few years ago from the US so I haven’t cooked a turkey in my pizza ovens in a while, but it was a pretty interesting time.

You can also make great baked potatoes by wrapping them in foil and letting them sit on the tops of your oven fingers for 45min or so.
 
Re: Turkys in the oven

Chris;
Thanks for the info on baking a turkey. Regarding the fingers, when I’m out of the U.S. I will experiment with the foil to wrap the finger inserts and develop a profile, then we will take the inserts to a metal fabricator to have new inserts made to duplicate what we did with the foil. this works pretty well and certainly saves us a lot of time. I like your idea of using the stainless steel tape.
The best day is the one where you learn something new. Thanks for making my day!
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor 😃
 
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