- [Amiel] Hi everyone, I'm Amiel Stanek,
editor at large at Bon Appetit,
and this is "Almost Every
Way to Cook a Pizza."
[pleasant music]
All right, there is a whole, wide world
of pizza out there, folks.
You've got soupy centered Neapolitan pies,
you've got rustic Roman style rectangles,
you've got the inimitable
Chicago deep dish.
But today, we're focusing in
on a slightly modified version
of a good old fashioned
New York style pizza.
We're after a slice with a thin, crisp,
nicely browned crust
that'll stand up for itself
with a top layer of beautifully
burnished tomato sauce
and mozzarella cheese.
The challenge here is to
figure out the best way
to use equipment available to home cooks
to produce the kind of pie
we can get at our favorite pizzeria.
Ah, pizza.
You know it, you love it, and
we're gonna try to cook it
every way we can think of.
[metal clangs]
Before you can cook a pizza,
you've gotta shape a pizza.
Here, we have a simple dough
made from bread flour,
water, salt, and yeast
that we've allowed to slowly ferment
in the fridge overnight.
We're using about 10 ounces of dough,
which is gonna produce an
approximately 10 inch pizza.
We're gonna flour our work surface,
so it doesn't stick,
get our dough on there,
and just start stretching it
to form a nice, even round.
Once we get it into shape, we
can use the back of our hands
and our thumbs to get it good and thin.
Once it's shaped, we're gonna top it
with our super simple sauce,
which is just whole canned tomatoes
pureed with garlic and olive oil,
and use a ladle to spread
it into a thin layer.
A little goes a long way.
Then, the piece de resistance,
a judicious handful of shredded
whole milk mozzarella cheese.
We're gonna get our
pizza peel under there,
then this bad boy is ready for the oven.
[metal clangs]
Baked pizza.
All right, we've got our
pizza on this sheet pan,
and we're gonna slide it into our oven
that's been preheated
to as high as it'll go.
Looks like a pizza, all right.
So, this is a pretty run
of the mill homemade pizza.
The fact that the sheet pan had to heat up
before the pizza could cook
put us at a serious disadvantage.
The faster you can connect the pizza dough
with high heat, the better.
So not a lot of spring around the edges,
a little bit of color,
and looking at that slice,
the whole thing is just
a little bit uneven
and kinda floppy.
Yeah, the middle is a little bit soupy,
the dough is a bit dense.
I think we can do a lot better than this,
and the key is gonna be
to create a hot surface
in our home oven that can
mimic the superheated deck
of a real deal pizza oven.
Let's see what we can
do about that, shall we?
[metal clangs]
Pre-heated sheet pan pizza.
Okay, we got another pizza.
This time, we're gonna slide it
directly on to two pre-heated sheet pans,
which hopefully is gonna give us
a little bit more thermal mass.
It's been about eight minutes.
Ooh, pizza pizza!
This looks pretty good.
That sheet pan was supposed
to mimic the surface
of a deck oven, because
it's already pre-heated,
and we got some nice
color around the edges,
but on the whole, I feel like
it's a little bit floppy.
Yeah, looking a little bit
wet and doughy in there.
We got some nice spring around the edges,
but it wasn't enough
to help out the middle,
and it's pretty pale underneath.
Yeah, not bad, but nothing
to write home about.
I think it's definitely
better than putting it
in a cold pan, but on the whole,
I still think we can do better.
[metal clangs]
Twice baked pizza.
Let's try another experiment
with our pre-heated sheet pans.
We're gonna bake this circle of dough
without toppings first.
Then we're gonna take it out and top it,
and then pop it back
in to melt the cheese.
There it is, folks.
So, the idea here was to
give the crust a headstart
before the toppings got involved.
And it looks pretty good.
Decent browning around here,
though it's a smidge uneven.
Cutting into it, not bad.
A bit more oven spring,
since the sauce and cheese
weren't weighing it down,
and it's holding up nicely,
although it did sog out
a bit in the center.
Not mad at it, a little bit crispier.
Still want more browning
on that underside,
and I'm not convinced that
that annoying extra step
was totally worth it.
[metal clangs]
Pizza stone pizza.
We got a pizza pie.
We're gonna slide it onto our
pre-heated ceramic pizza stone,
close the oven, and come back
in seven to eight minutes.
Check on our 'za.
Looking good.
We're seeing some really
impressive crust color here.
The ceramic holds so much heat,
and is able to deliver it
really quickly and efficiently.
It feels nice and crispy.
Handsome browning on top.
Ooh it sounds crunchy.
Nice oven spring on that profile,
and the slice is holding up pretty nicely.
Really tasty.
Well developed crust
flavor, nice and crunchy.
This is definitely an improvement
on our inverted sheet pans.
[metal clangs]
Ceramic tile pizza.
And we've created two decks
out of pre-heated unglazed ceramic tiles,
and we're just gonna slide
our guy right in there.
Should be done by now.
That's a pizza, all right.
Loving those edges.
It definitely feels crunchy,
and we got good heat on all sides.
We basically created
an oven within an oven,
which is what I really
like about this technique.
Cutting in, that crust
looks bubbly and crisp.
Yum, this one is great.
Maybe even slightly better
than our standard pizza stone,
and you can cover all
the racks of your oven
with those tiles.
Meaning you can cook multiple
pizzas at the same time.
Plus, the tiles are cheap
and easy to move around.
A little DIY, but really fun.
[metal clangs]
Baking steel pizza.
So, in here we have a
superheated slab of steel.
We're gonna slide our pie in,
set it to broil for about two minutes,
and then drop the temperature
to the highest regular baking temperature.
Check on this guy, and that
is our baking steel pizza.
This is really beautiful looking.
Handsome edges, a little charring.
Nice, even browning on
top, very substantial.
Cutting in, ooh you can
hear the crunch there.
I'm really excited for this one.
Wow, that is a great slice of pizza.
The crust development is outstanding.
You know, I'm not 100%
sure that it's far and away
better than our tile
or baking stone pizza,
but I think if we had a
little bit more practice
with this product, we
could definitely get there.
Yum!
[metal clangs]
Crisper pan pizza.
Okay, so this time we're
gonna slide our pizza
onto this pre-heated crisper pan,
which is really just a
perforated aluminum disc.
We're gonna check on that
in about eight minutes.
Smells good.
Okay, let's just grab this
whole thing and take it out.
That crust is a bit on
the pale side for me.
I mean, it's still pretty
substantial feeling,
and there's definitely
a little bit of give.
Pretty good browning on top,
but really wishing we got
more along those sides.
Cutting in, yeah.
Little bit floppy.
It's tasty.
I mean, definitely not as good
as our other oven experiments,
but I'm impressed by
what we were able to get
with that thin piece of aluminum.
It's really not too shabby.
[metal clangs]
Frozen pizza.
Right here, we've got a stretched, topped,
and then completely frozen pizza,
and we're gonna cook it
directly on the rack and see what happens.
Okay, it's been about 15 minutes,
that should be done.
You know, this actually looks
a lot better than I
thought it was going to.
It is slightly deformed,
because of the way
that it encountered
the rack, but whatever.
Decent browning on this side,
and it kind of puffed up in a funny way
and I can't really account for that.
Let's look at a slice.
It does seem like it cooked
a little bit unevenly
because it had to defrost
before it could cook,
so the crumb development
did suffer a little bit.
You know, it's actually extremely crispy
because of how long it took to cook,
but the quality of the
crust was compromised a bit.
It works for sure, I'm just not sure
that it's 100% ideal.
[metal clangs]
Rack baked pizza.
All right, we're doing
this one wild style.
Right on the rack.
Hope we don't make too much of a mess.
Ooh, it smells kinda smoky.
All right, let's get this out.
Hold still, ah, gotcha.
So obviously the shape of
this thing is a little wild,
and we had some drips on
the bottom of the oven
that created mess and smoke,
but the crust and the underside
actually looks pretty good.
This is kind of a funny thing to cut.
Yeah, pretty uneven,
but definitely not as bad as
I thought it was gonna be.
Wow, actually pretty crunchy.
I mean, it's a wonky method for sure,
but I'm shocked by how not
bad this turned out to be.
I love surprises.
[metal clangs]
Oven floor pizza.
All right, this pizza's
going straight to hell,
AKA the superheated floor of the oven.
Okay, time to rescue our
pizza from certain death.
Got it!
I'm actually really impressed
by the color we got on this one.
It's really substantial feeling.
Cutting in.
We've got a nice bottom crust going on.
It looks like it came
out of a wood fired oven.
It's pretty good spring, handsome profile.
Yum!
I'm gonna go ahead and
say that this stands up
to our other oven surfaces.
The only problem is that
the bottom of most people's
ovens are covered in crud,
but maybe this is a good excuse
to clean the floor of your oven.
[metal clangs]
Grilled pizza.
We got our pizza, we got
our pre-heated gas grill.
We're just gonna slide this
'za right under the grates,
close the lid, and come
back when it's done.
Okay, it's been about seven minutes.
Let's check on it.
Looks ready.
Not the most even pizza, for sure.
The top is definitely cooked,
but it didn't get enough heat,
so it's a little doughy and pale.
But that underside, which
got the most direct heat
is aggressively charred,
and really tasty looking.
Cutting in, feels crisp,
and we're seeing a bit
of spring, but not a ton.
You know, the bottom of
this slice is outstanding,
but the top is not.
I think we can do better than this.
[metal clangs]
Baking steel grilled pizza.
With this pizza, we're
gonna try cooking it
on a baking steel that's been
pre-heating on this grill.
Slide it on, and close the lid.
All right, let's check on it.
I don't think that
bottom can take anymore,
so we're gonna call it.
So, that baking steel
was definitely super hot,
but the grill chamber
itself was not so much.
The edges are weak, and there's
no browning on the cheese,
but there's definitely a
healthy amount of color and char
on that undercarriage.
Getting in there, nice spring
because that surface was so damn hot,
but it clearly cooked unevenly.
Yeah, that bottom is
crunchy and delicious,
but the rest is no bueno.
There's definitely potential here, though.
[metal clangs]
Flip grilled pizza.
All right, let's try this again.
We're gonna slide this dough on,
and we're gonna come back
in a couple of minutes.
Okay, now we're gonna flip it, top it,
and close the lid again.
Not too shabby!
This looks so much better to me.
Now we've got grill marks on both sides,
which is a huge improvement,
even if we're not seeing a ton of reducing
or bubbling on the cheese sauce layer.
Cutting in, wow.
We've got really good spring,
and it feels nice and crispy.
That underside is gorgeous.
Wow, that is so tasty.
Definitely different from our oven pies,
but the result is undeniably delicious.
Beautifully developed crust,
good grill flavor.
I'm loving this.
If you're working with a standard grill,
this is the way to go.
[metal clangs]
Kettle grilled pizza.
All right, we got our pizza,
we got our charcoal grill,
which has been fitted
with an attachment that
mimics a pizza oven.
We're gonna slide our pie
onto this pre-heated ceramic stone,
and come back in about seven minutes.
And that is our kettle grilled pizza.
So, a little blonder around
the edges than I'd like,
but the underside is what
we're really excited about.
That pizza stone was definitely
a lot hotter than the chamber itself.
That bottom looks really nice.
Cutting into it, you can
really hear the crunch.
Nice spring along there, because
that bottom was wicked hot,
and the undercarriage has a
gorgeous leopard-like pattern.
Mm, it's a smidge doughy for my taste.
I wish we could have closed the unit
so that more heat could
circulate around the top,
but I'm not mad at it.
[metal clangs]
Ooni oven pizza.
So, this kooky contraption
is the Ooni pizza oven,
and it's been superheated
with wood pellets.
We're gonna open it up, get our pizza in,
and close the door.
This should be ready in no time.
This is a truly beautiful pie.
As close as we've come
to a proper restaurant
quality wood fired pizza.
Gorgeous bubbling and charring
on the crust, great color,
all in three minutes?
Looking at that slice,
I'm really stoked on that oven spring.
Ha, yeah, this is an
amazing slice of pizza.
Yum!
Incredible crust
development, so much flavor,
killer texture, and that
unmistakable whiff of wood smoke?
If you're committed to making
backyard pizza on the regular,
this thing really delivers.
[metal clangs]
Grandma style pizza.
Time for something a little bit different.
For our grandma style pie,
we're gonna start with a ball of dough
that's about three times the size
of the ones we've been working with.
We've got our sheet pan.
We're gonna get a good
half a cup of oil in there,
spread it all around.
Get our dough in there, and
stretch it out the best we can
to form a rough rectangle.
Now that it's starting
to resist stretching,
we're gonna let it rest
for about 30 minutes.
Okay, now that our dough
is nice and pliable again,
we can keep stretching
it right to the edges.
Then top it with cheese,
and a few rustic dollops
of sauce all over it.
And then it's ready for the oven.
Now, we're gonna get it in there
and bake it for about 20 to 30 minutes.
Ooh, beautiful!
Obviously, this is a lot
bigger than our other pies,
but because it filled out the sheet pan
it was able to get nice and crispy
where it came in contact with the pan.
Let's check this out.
What I love about this
method is that the pizza
almost fried in the olive oil,
so it's nice and crispy on the bottom,
and we've got some nice, fluffy height.
That's so delicious.
A totally different beast
from our circle pies.
Much puffier and richer,
but I think this is a
super approachable method
for making a great pizza at home
that doesn't require any hassle
or special equipment to achieve.
[metal clangs]
Deep dish pizza.
For this Midwestern treat,
we've got a ball of dough
that's about twice the
size of our standard.
We've got a springform pan,
which has a handy dandy mechanism
that allows us to remove
the wall of the dish
after it's baked.
We're gonna get our pan all oiled up,
and flour our work surface
and stretch our dough
until it's bigger than our pan.
Drape it over the pan,
and then try to work it
so the dough kind of clings to the sides.
That's taking a while.
Okay, great.
Now, we're gonna parbake it
for about 10 minutes.
And then it's ready to be topped.
We've got a good amount of cheese,
then we're gonna spread tomato
sauce over it just to cover.
And then bake it again.
Deep dish pizza, everybody.
This bad boy is in a class all its own.
Sauce on top, we got cheese inside.
It's almost like a casserole.
We got decent browning on the crust
from that parbake with all that oil.
You know, I'm not from Chicago
so I'm not really sure
how to cut this thing.
Okay, there you go.
You know, I was skeptical,
but this looks really good.
Nice, crispy crust, plenty of bubbliness.
I'm into it.
I can't say that I like it more
than a perfect New York
slice, or a good grandma,
but it's definitely its own special thing
and not too hard to make at home, cool.
[gong crashes]
Teenage Mutant Ninja pizza.
It calls itself the most awesome
pizza maker in the world!
What could go wrong?
Let's get our pizza in, and close it.
And ooh, cowabunga dude?
So our Teenage Mutant Ninja
pizza is a little weird.
It still looks kind of
raw and doughy over here.
There's a little bit of blistering,
but a lot of that cheese kind
of just overflowed and burned.
But it's definitely cooked?
Cutting into it, yeah no
oven spring to speak of,
and the whole cheese sitch
looks a little bit demented.
Yeah, bummer dude.
Never meet your heroes, kids.
[metal clangs]
Waffle iron pizza.
We got a ball of dough,
we got a hot waffle iron.
We're gonna get a little bit
of flour down on this surface,
stretch our dough out so
it's about the right size,
sauce, cheese,
open up our iron, and transfer
our pizza right in there.
Shut it, flip it, and
let the terror commence.
Oh god, it's leaking.
Wow.
Okay, well?
That is a pizza waffle, I guess.
So, while it was cooking
a lot of cheese and sauce
just kind of oozed out
and made a crazy mess.
Our pizza was too big for that iron,
so you got some uncooked parts here.
Definitely burnt on this side,
and the other actually kinda looks like
the bottom of a real pizza.
Gonna cut into this, wow.
Very crispy.
Also looks very dry.
Ech, could be a lot worse.
Definitely not getting
much sauce, cheese action
and it kind of tastes like
the burnt edges of a lasagna.
You know, I don't think
anybody needs to do this.
[metal clangs]
Pizzazz Plus pizza.
We got another pizza.
We got our Pizzazz Plus
rotating pizza oven.
We're gonna slide our
pizza right on there,
set this for 13 minutes,
and see what happens.
I'm pretty skeptical of this one, y'all.
[pleasant music]
Huh, well I guess it's cooked?
So, our Pizzazz Plus
definitely did a better job
of cooking the top than the bottom.
That cheese was going crazy,
but the bottom is very pale.
I was afraid we were
gonna scorch the toppings.
Hm, yeah not a whole lot to look at.
Very low profile and floppy.
Yeah, that is one
uninspiring piece of pizza.
No reason to have that
thing on your counter.
[metal clangs]
Breville oven pizza.
We got a pizza, we got
our Breville countertop
electric pizza oven.
It's set to 700 degrees.
We're gonna open this bad boy up,
slide our 'za right in there,
and close the door.
Now we're just gonna
rotate it at 180 degrees,
and come back when it's ready.
Well, hello there.
I am loving the way that this looks.
The outside is gorgeously
burnished, great color,
and because that deck was so hot,
the exterior crust just popped
in a way we haven't seen a lot of today.
The inside looks beauteous.
Definitely crispy, impressive
speckling and color.
Wow, that is a damn
impressive slice of pizza.
It's definitely an investment,
but if you're serious about
pro level pizza at home,
this thing definitely slays.
[metal clangs]
Stovetop to oven pizza.
We got a ball of dough,
we got a cast iron pan
that we've been pre-heating.
We're gonna get a little
flour on our work surface,
stretch our dough out nice and evenly,
get a little oil in this pan,
and then drop our dough right in there.
We're gonna let this go
until we've got a little
bit of color on the bottom.
Okay, looking good.
Now we're gonna turn it off,
top it with a thin layer
of sauce, some cheese,
and then take this over to
the oven to finish cooking.
Look at that!
Okay, I'm into the browning on top,
but I'm not that impressed
by the edges over here.
But that undercarriage actually
looks really well browned.
Let's cut into it.
It's definitely got some crunch.
Nice color development under there,
and it's holding up nicely.
Yum!
I love that little bit of added
richness and crunch the oil adds.
It's not the most even, but
if you don't have a stone,
a steel, or tiles, or anything like that,
this is a great way to make a killer pizza
with a plain old cast iron pan.
[metal clangs]
Stovetop pizza.
Let's see if we can cut the oven
out of the equation altogether.
We're gonna shape our pizza pie,
put some oil into that pan,
and get our flying
saucer of dough in there.
Once we get some color on the first side,
we're gonna flip it.
Top it with sauce and cheese,
and then cover it so we can
get some melting action.
Pretty!
So, this obviously looks pretty different
from most of our oven methods,
but it's pretty damn cool.
The first side, which
took most of the oil,
has kind of a fried dough texture,
while the other side
is more like naan or something like that.
The cheese sauce sitch is a bit soupy,
because the moisture had nowhere to go.
Cutting in, there's some crunch there
and it puffed up really nicely, actually.
You know, this actually tastes so good.
The sauce is a little bit raw,
but the olive oil flavor is great
and it's nice and crisp.
This is more like a flatbread of sorts
than a traditional pizza,
but it's a tasty thing nonetheless.
[metal clangs]
Boiled pizza.
Things are about to get weird, folks.
We're gonna stretch our dough out
a little less than we have before,
get a little sauce in there, some cheese,
and we're gonna fold this over
to make a little pizza dumpling.
Seal it as tight as we can.
Then we're gonna gently pick it up
and slide it into the water.
We're gonna let that go
for about 10 minutes.
Easy does it.
And that, my friends, is a boiled pizza.
The game has changed.
No browning of any variety,
and it has a tacky, almost
pierogi-like texture.
Feels kind of like a savory Gusher.
Gonna cut it into a few different strips.
So, we managed to melt the cheese inside,
and the dough is actually mostly cooked,
which is impressive.
Let's give this a shot.
Well, it's not like any
pizza I've ever had before,
but it's also not bad per se.
It would be a lot better
if we finished it in a pan
with some butter and onions,
or something like that,
but honestly, I don't hate it.
[metal clangs]
Deep fried pizza.
Fried pizza time.
We're gonna take another pizza dumpling
and lower it into some 350 degree oil
and see what happens.
And I guess that's a deep fried pizza.
Okay, so yes this obviously
looks like a deep fried calzone.
The exterior has a cool,
bubbly fried texture,
but it still feels pretty tender,
and it puffed a lot for sure.
Let's cut it.
Ooh, steamy, dangerous.
So, we probably could've stuffed it more
but I didn't want it to burst,
and it's mostly cooked through.
Just a few bits that could've
used a little bit more time.
You know, I'm not gonna lie,
that's pretty awesome tasting.
I mean, it's fried
dough, cheese, and sauce.
I kinda wish we had done it like a calzone
with just cheese inside,
and sauce for dipping.
It's certainly not a pizza,
but it does not suck.
[metal clangs]
Steamed pizza.
All right, we got a pizza.
We got a bamboo steamer.
We're gonna slide that
pizza right in there.
Whoops, just rearrange a little bit.
Close the lid, and come back
for our dim sum pizza surprise.
Wow, that is something.
So, clearly it did not brown.
It did seem to cook, and it has a weird
kind of pillowy texture.
But that inside did not
hold together too well,
and it's pretty soupy.
It's almost wound-like.
It's pretty hard to
cut in the regular way.
Ooh yeah, very floppy.
Man, believe me when I say
I've eaten worse things
in the making of this show.
It doesn't taste like pizza,
but it's definitely not inedible.
I mean, the dough is cooked
and the cheese is melted.
What more could a person ask for?
[metal clangs]
Stovetop oven pizza.
Now, we're gonna try a
different standalone pizza oven.
This one is ceramic, and
powered by the gas burner.
We're gonna open it up,
come around this side
to slide our pizza in.
And close the door.
Open it back up, and there's our pie.
Right off the bat, I'm
really liking this color
we're getting around the edges,
especially these nice blistery bits.
Very appealing.
And underneath, we've
got nice crust speckling.
That bottom surface clearly
gets really, really hot.
Wish we got a smidge more
heat on the top, though.
Cutting in, ooh this sounds legit.
Great oven spring,
beautiful cheetah pattern.
Wow, great texture, great flavor.
If I'm being picky, I
wish the cheese browned
a little bit more,
but this is definitely right
up there with our best.
You know, it's starting to feel
a little bit stuffy in here.
Let's head to the backyard.
[metal clangs]
Pizza stone fire pit pizza.
All right, we've been
pre-heating this pizza stone
in this fire pit for about 20 minutes,
and we're just gonna slide this pie
onto this superheated slab of ceramic.
Oops, that's getting pretty burnt.
Let's take it off.
So, clearly it's quite
undercooked right here,
and then practically
blackened on the bottom.
Let's get in there, yeah.
It's definitely still really doughy.
Yuck, very burnt but also
very raw at the same time.
Too much heat under,
not enough over, blech.
[metal clangs]
Wood grilled pizza.
So here we've got a circle of dough.
We're gonna slide it right onto this rack.
Then we're gonna flip it,
hit it with sauce, cheese,
and let it finish cooking.
And that's our wood grilled pizza.
This one kind of puffed a little bit,
like our flip grilled pizza.
And it's a bit soupy in here,
because there wasn't a lot
of heat applied to that side.
But we've got some nice
color on the bottom crust.
Probably could've built that
fire up a little bit more.
Cutting in.
Nice spring, but still a bit
doughy right around the edges.
Yum, good crunch, nice wood smoke flavor.
This is more of a flatbread than a pizza
and we could've tweaked the method a bit,
but not bad at all.
[metal clangs]
Camping pot pizza.
Okay, we're gonna get a
little bit of olive oil
into our pre-heated camping pot.
And then we're gonna fling
our mini pizza in there,
close the lid.
And that's some kind of pizza, I guess.
Definitely really soupy in the middle,
and the underside just
kind of fried a little bit.
It's a little bit burnt right
around those bottom edges,
but otherwise just looks pretty steamy.
Let's cut in, and we can see
that it is still raw in the middle.
Yeah, uh-uh, nope, not a
good way to make a pizza.
No thanks.
[metal clangs]
Easy-Bake Oven pizza.
All right, we got our Easy-Bake Oven,
we've got our tiny pizza.
We're gonna slide that in.
Oh, it's a little stuck, there we go.
And we're gonna check on this in forever.
Now we use this weird tool to get it out.
Okay, got it.
And that's our Easy-Bake pizza.
Let me see if I can get this out of here.
Oh, okay.
Spoiler alert, it's not that hot.
So, yeah it's kind of cooked.
The cheese is barely melted.
It's hard to tell if it's raw or not.
It's very soggy.
Yeah, nope, not good at all.
Bad, eugh.
I think this is a sign that
we should head back inside.
[metal clangs]
Microwaved pizza.
We got a pizza pie, we got a microwave.
We're gonna open this up,
give it a good spray,
slide our pizza in, close the door,
and set it for three
minutes and 30 seconds.
Wow, okay then.
I mean, the cheese certainly melted
and the sauce definitely cooked,
but that outside crust
feels weirdly tough and hard
in a way I can't really account for.
It's really hard to get through this
with the pizza cutter.
There you go.
Ah, wow, that is truly bizarre.
The interior is floppy and soft,
but the outside is tough like cardboard.
This is a terrible way to cook a pizza.
[metal clangs]
Pizza cone pizza.
Okay, another weird one, folks.
We're gonna punch out this shape here,
fold it over, and seal it
with this patented crimping device.
Get it onto this silicone cone.
Then we're gonna bake
it in a 470 degree oven
for about six minutes.
Okay, now we're gonna take our crust cone
and fill it with sauce and cheese.
And then bake it until the inside
becomes a molten, dangerous slurry.
Tadah, pizza cone.
This thing looks demonic to me,
like an animal horn meant
for a satanic ritual.
Decent browning around the edge, though.
Ugh, it is very wet in there.
I'm terrified that I'm gonna
burn myself eating this.
You know, to be honest,
I find the crunch to
be somewhat appealing,
but otherwise this eating experience
does absolutely nothing for me.
Pizza is good.
Don't mess with pizza.
[metal clangs]
Dehydrated pizza.
We got a dehydrator here.
It's set to 158 degrees,
which is the highest setting.
We're gonna take this thing off,
come around with our pizza,
slide it in, close our lid,
and come back in four and a half hours.
That looks dried, all right.
This almost looks more like
conceptual art made about pizza
than actual pizza.
Let's cut it, wow it's really
tough around the outside
and very tacky and dry in the middle,
and very thin.
I mean it almost has a
perverse kind of crunch to it.
Oh, it's so raw.
It's re-hydrating in
my mouth as I chew it.
This is disgusting.
Bad, not good.
All right, today we cooked
a whole lot of pizzas
a whole lot of different ways.
What did we learn?
Well, for one, high heat and thermal mass
are the name of the game.
The quicker you can apply
sustained, even heat
to that dough, the better the end result.
There are a lot of simple,
very effective ways
to hack your home oven to produce
a close to pizzeria level pie,
and there are also a few serious
business gadgets out there
that are truly impressive,
and quite a few that really aren't.
Have a favorite way to cook a pizza
that you didn't see here today?
Leave it in the comments.
