It’s unfortunate when you’ve cooked a delicious looking pizza and take it out of the oven to discover pizza sticking to the screen instead of slipping right off. What can be done to prevent your pizza from sticking to the screen and ruining a perfectly good pie?
Pizza will often stick to a screen if it hasn’t been properly prepared for cooking. There are steps you should take before putting your pizza in the oven to ensure nothing gets lost to a pizza screen. When you prepare your screen appropriately, you’ll get a crispy, yummy pizza every time without having to battle to take it off the screen.
If cooking pizza on a screen is your method of choice, there are ways to ensure you get a perfect pizza every time that comes off the screen every time.
How To Avoid Pizza Sticking To Screen
Before you use your pizza screen, you should put it through a seasoning process. This essentially prepares your pizza screen with its own coating to avoid having pieces of dough and cheese stick to the screen. Once your screen is seasoned, you should find your cooked pizza slips off the pan easily.
When you go through the seasoning process to prep a pizza screen for cooking, it’s worth spraying your screen once more with a layer of oil just to make sure your pizza can come off the screen cleanly. This little bit of oil can help crisp up your dough more as well, resulting in a wonderfully delicious pizza.
Seasoning a pizza screen will change its color from a standard silver to black over time. Using a blackened pizza screen is actually going to give you the best results when cooking pizza, and it’ll reduce the chances of your pizza continuing to stick to the screen. Restaurants will often continue to use blackened pans as well for how efficiently they cook pizza without having the dough stick.
How To Season A Pizza Screen
To season a pizza screen, you’ll want to spray some oil-based spray all over the screen. Once your screen is thoroughly coated, place it in the oven or your conveyor about six to eight times. You want to see the screen getting darker, as this indicates the oil-based spray has successfully turned into a nonstick coating for your screen.
If you’re using a regular oven, it’s recommended to season your pizza screen at about 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Let the screen sit in the oven for about half an hour, then take it out. You should repeat the process two or three times to ensure you have the best possible coating for your pizza screen. Be sure the pan cools before you put it back in the oven.
You don’t want to use a butter based spray due to the way butter can burn. An oil-based spray is your best bet to ensure the taste of your pizza isn’t impacted by the seasoning. For best results, opt for avocado oil, sunflower oil, or safflower oil. Grease isn’t recommended for pizza screens either as it doesn’t create the right type of coating.
How To Clean Off Pizza Sticking To Screen
If you try to wash a pizza screen with soap and water, you’ll end up washing the coating off. As such, unless you want to repeat the seasoning process again, you should be careful how you clean the screen.
You can clean off any pieces of pizza sticking to the screen by letting the screen sit in the oven until the pieces burn. Any remnants on the screen should brush off easily with a gentle brush afterwards. If it’s necessary to wash the screen to clean it off, you can spray on a coat of oil-based spray once it’s dry and run it through the oven again.
What Is A Pizza Screen?
A pizza screen is a thin metal pan with a screen-like surface as opposed to a solid pan. They are typically circular to help you shape a perfect pizza, and they can be purchased in multiple sizes for different types of ovens. They tend to be a favorite option for pizzerias due to how well they cook pizza on a consistent basis.
Pizza screens are very easy to find at most stores that sell homewares. You can often purchase them in packs, and they are very affordable. They can be a little bit difficult to clean compared to other pizza cooking methods, but seasoning a pizza screen before use can help you avoid having to pick pizza remnants out of small holes.
How Do You Cook Pizza On A Screen?
A pizza screen works well for frozen pizzas or homemade pizzas. If you have seasoned your pizza screen, you can simply place your pizza on top of the screen and cook it to your liking. If you haven’t seasoned your screen, you should do a quick spray of cooking oil to avoid having your pizza stick to the screen.
It’s also recommended that you use the conventional settings on your oven when using a pizza screen. This will allow the heat to travel from the bottom of the oven up, helping the heat cook the dough thoroughly before heating up the cheese and the rest of the toppings. You’ll get a more even cook throughout the pizza, making every bite delicious.
When cooking your pizza, place it on the bottom rack of the oven if you like an especially crispy crust. Otherwise, placing it on the second bottom rack or middle rack will do if you like your crust softer. Cooking with a pizza screen doesn’t often take very long, so be sure to watch the pizza in the oven until you learn your personal preference for cook time.
Is A Pizza Screen Better Than A Pan?
The cooking method you choose for your pizza is going to be dictated by your pizza preferences. Any method of cooking pizza works, but if you want a crispy, well-done crust, a pizza screen is your top choice. Pans can still cook a pizza well, but depending on the pan used, you may have to cook the pizza for longer to cook your pizza evenly.
Pizza screens are highly recommended for cooking pizza because of how well they accomplish an even cook. The small holes in the screen allow the hot air from the oven to penetrate the pizza from the bottom up, ensuring your crust gets a nice, crispy finish.
If you’re a fan of making homemade pizzas, a pizza screen is a much better option than a pan. When you make pizza with fresh dough, it has a high moisture point that can be difficult to bake out when using a pan. Pizza screens allow that moisture to evaporate out of the dough properly so it can crisp up.
Pizza screens are also a very inexpensive way to cook a high quality pizza at home. Even frozen pizzas are extra delicious when cooked using a screen. Seasoning a couple of pizza screens at a time is an affordable way to have a perfect screen available to cook pizza that doesn’t stick.
Should A Pizza Screen Go On A Pizza Stone?
If you don’t want a crispy crust, you can place the pizza screen on a pizza stone. You will still get an evenly cooked, delicious pizza cooking this way. However, your dough will have a softer bite. If this is your preference, using a screen and a stone will help you accomplish a softer crust.
You don’t have to use a pizza stone or another pan with a pizza screen. While some might worry that pizza dough and cheese will fall through the cracks of the screen, this shouldn’t be a concern. When making homemade dough, you want to ensure it’s not too wet before shaping your dough on the screen.
Final Thoughts
If a pizza screen is your pizza cooking method of choice, pizza sticking to a screen can be avoided with a seasoning process. While it does take a few steps to season your pizza screen, the effort is worth it so you get a perfectly cooked pizza every time that doesn’t stick to your screen.
Should you want to try out a pizza screen for the first time, season it well and clean it appropriately to ensure it lasts you as long as possible. Pizza screens are a top choice for pizza lovers who want restaurant quality pizza in the comfort of their own homes.
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