Pizza Peels

A pizza peel is a critical tool in pizza making, as it provides the means of getting the pizza in and out of an oven. It consists of a broad flat head large enough to hold a pizza, and a handle that may be less than a foot long for a pizza peel intended for home use, and several feet long for a professional using it in a large brick oven. They are constructed from heat resistant materials such as wood or wood fiber that allows them to safely be inserted into very hot ovens. The uncooked pizza needs to be slid into the oven, so some care needs to be taken to allow the pizza to slide off of the peel and into the pizza oven. The more traditional technique is to sprinkle the peel with corn meal to allow the pizza to slide off more easily, but the easier method for home use is to build the pizza on top of a piece of parchment paper. When the peel is put into the oven and pulled back, the parchment paper and pizza remain behind. Removing the cooked pizza with the pizza peel is a breeze.