Should you use a wooden peel to build your pizza and set it in your oven, or should your make it on a flat surface, and use a metal peel to place it in your oven? There are two schools of thought. The mainstream method is build your pizza on a counter or short wooden peel, then use a metal peel to set your pizzas in the oven. Aluminum is the metal of choice for the placing peel you use to set you pizzas, as it is slippery, and your bread and pizza will slide right off. If your oven is large enough for multiple pizzas, and you want to put pizzas in the back or sides, you will want a peel with long handle. Extruded (hollow aluminum is a good handle choice, as it is lighter than steel and wood and lasts longer. Make sure your placing peel is large enough to hold the pizza size you and your guests will want to make, as an uncooked pizza will sag over the edge of the peel and make a mess. The placing peel should be square, as you will use the flat front edge to slide under the already made pizzas. It can be challenging for the home pizzaiolo to slide a round, or small, peel under a pizza that your friend (or child) has lovingly made -- we've been there. I like to use flour, rather than cornmeal, which is the Italian tradition. Besides, I don't like the cornmeal taste or texture. An alternate method is to make your pizza directly on a wooden peel, and slide it in the oven from there. This really only works if you have either a small oven, where you can place the pizzas without burning your hand, or you have multiple long-handled wooden peels (which isn't terribly efficient). We keep a number of small wooden peels around the house for parties, which guest use to make their own pizzas.That also works well for kids. You can get a small wooden peel from Amazon for about $10. From there, I use a steel peel to get the pizza into the oven. Regardless of how you placed your pizza in the oven, you will need a steel (not aluminum) peel to turn it, and pull it out -- you can't do this with a wooden peel. For turning and moving the pizzas in the oven, use a smaller peel (preferably round). It can be as small as 8", which makes it easy to turn the pizza around to cook evenly facing the fire. The small round size also works well for removing your pizza, as the cooked pizza comes out flat and doesn't sag over the edge. Many Italian turning peels have a wooden slides that moves up and down the handle, and makes it easy to control the peel around inside the oven.
About the Author

James Bairey, a former Silicon Valley marketing executive, is CEO of Forno Bravo, LLC, a supplier of Italian Wood-Fired Pizza Ovens and Brick Pizza Ovens and Italian">www.fornobravo.com/ pizza-ingredients/index.html">Italian Pizza Ingredients for home owners and restaurants.

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