Gravy's Cooking Thread

I realize a lot of people don't like dark meat chicken, for whatever reason. My assumption would be people undercooking it because they are focusing more on finishing the breast correctly.

But for shredded/pulled chicken thighs are way, way better. And they can stand up to overcooking in liquid to make sure all the fat renders out.

mkopec said:

So ive been on a pizza kick in my house for a while now. Ever since I found an italian place by me that sells pizza dough bags that make perfect 14" pizzas for $1.75 /ea. So ive been reading around the forums abotu perfect pizza, and many places say to use 1/4-3/8 in thick steel slab you can get at a steel place for cheap. Anyone try this method?

Ive just been using the screen type pizza baking thing and it makes the crust Ok I guess at like 425F. Not sure to even bother with the steel.

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The steel works great, much better than a stone or pan. It won't quite get you a Neapolitan but it will work as well as anything your home oven can manage. If you don't want to bother getting your hands on the right piece of steel you can just buy one, which may not be that much more expensive than buying it from a machine shop depending on whether you have a hook up or not.

Thickness is a trade off between how much lifting you want to do, how much time and energy (money) you want to spend heating it up, and how quickly you want to cook multiple pizzas. Thicker steels are heavier and take longer to heat up, but since they hold more heat you can more quickly cook multiple pizzas. Thinner steels are lighter and don't take as long, but you need to leave more time between pizzas. I am happy with my 6mm (little less than 1/4in) steel, even when cooking multiple pizzas, but I wouldn't go any thinner. You'll have to read up on whether other people find thicker steels to be worth it.

You want it as hot as possible. The steel should be in the top of the oven and give it an hour on max temperature (1/4 in) to heat up. Then, 10 or so minutes before you start using it, broil it on max. This will get it absolutely ripping hot. Cook time will vary depending on a lot of factors but it should be about 4-8 minutes. Pre-cook any ingredients that need it.

I honestly recommend buying a peel, they are cheap and that oven is dangerously hot, so it is worth the investment. It can be tricky though, since if you leave the dough on it too long it will stick, although sprinkling coarse semolina on it ahead of time can help. You may feel silly but practice a bit with some spare dough at first to get a feel for how it works, and if you fuck it up no biggy that is just a calzone now

Serious Eats has an old, but good, article on the subject worth reading.

Peels are easy with a little practice, don't be afraid to put a generous amount of flour down under the pie, blow under the pie and slide it back and forth on the peel as you put the peel in the oven, then pull the peel out with back and forth motion where you push in slowly and pull back fast. When you get good you can just rip it out like a magician pulling a sheet out from under wine glasses. Essentially if you keep the pie moving after you blow under it you should never have any sticking issues

Lanx said:

i was boiling eggs and googled how to peel eggs quickly, put in ice bath and shake it up in a container after 15min...

why did i get scrambled eggs

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Finish boiling them first next time.