For making picture-perfect pizzas with your favorite toppings or extra cheese, you need to have the best wooden pizza peel. After all, this tool is designed to reduce the hassles of loading and unloading food items without ruining the crust’s shape or displacing the carefully added toppings. However, choosing the best pizza peel is a challenging and cumbersome task, especially when you have so many options available. For this reason, we have crafted a complete buying guide, explaining all the potential factors that can impact your decision-making process.
The Benefits of Using a Wooden Pizza Peel Over a Metallic Peel
The benefits of using a wooden pizza peel over products made from stainless steel or any other metals/alloys are discussed below: A wooden pizza peel is made from natural materials that won’t contaminate food items and make them inedible. On the other hand, stainless steel or metal pizza peels may release toxins at high temperatures. Most wooden pizza peels allow the use of a knife on the surface for slicing pizza into multiple pieces. But if you use a sharp cutter or knife on a metallic peel, scratches and erosion may form in the material. There are a few wooden pizza peels that help bake pizzas at higher temperatures without suffering structural damage. However, if you expose a metallic peel to high heat, it may cause damage to the product. Most of the time, metal is only used in pizza turning wheels, which are over three feet long and designed to reach inside deep pizza ovens. If you're planning to cook a pizza peel in your kitchen oven, stick to wood.
Key Factors to Consider When Choosing a Wooden Pizza Peel
Size
As wooden pizza peels have different sizes in terms of length and breadth of the mainboard, it is crucial to choose a product that will accommodate your prepared pizza easily. For example, a product having a 16-inch length and 14-inch breadth is best for accommodating multiple small pizzas or a single medium-sized pizza. However, you won’t be able to use it for lifting a large, family-sized pizza because of its size. So, make sure to choose a product appropriately sized to meet your cooking requirements.
Material
Pizza peels are mainly manufactured from two types of wood, bamboo and birchwood. Bamboo is a long-lasting, durable, and eco-friendly material that can tolerate a high amount of heat without suffering any structural damage. Additionally, it is light and can be carried easily to and from the oven. However, you cannot lift a heavy pizza using a product made from bamboo which is why birchwood is more suited to the task. Not only is the material sturdy and durable but it also keeps food safe from contamination. Birchwood can withstand high amounts of heat without forming cracks or warping from repeated exposures to high oven temperatures.
Handle
Most wooden pizza peels are equipped with a seamless handle that won’t break or snap off at the joint. When choosing the ideal product, you need to ensure that its handle is strong and sturdy enough to help you carry different types of pizzas of varying sizes and thicknesses. Apart from this, make sure that the handle is thick enough to prevent the pizza peel from wobbling while lifting up the food from your kitchen countertop.
Grip
To ensure that you won’t have to face any form of trouble when loading, unloading, and maneuvering cooked or uncooked pizzas, go for a product with an anti-slip handle. This will improve your grip and prevent you from losing control over the kitchen accessory and, more importantly, your homemade pizza. You can easily carry around a heavy pizza using such products without ruining the food item or creating a mess in the kitchen.
Heat tolerance
Even though the wooden pizza peels can tolerate a high amount of heat, you still need to check their tolerance level. Some products can withstand a temperature up to 350 degrees Fahrenheit while others may have a heat tolerance limit of 1472 degrees Fahrenheit. Based on your cooking requirements, or what kind of pizza you want to prepare, you should make sure to choose a pizza peel that can withstand the designated oven temperature without suffering from damage, such as cracking or warping.
Front edge structure
Usually, most pizza peels come with a beveled or sharp front edge so that you can slide the product underneath the dough base and lift the food with ease. Make sure that the edge is not razor-sharp because that may cause tears in the pizza dough.
Average Cost of a Wooden Pizza Peel
The wooden pizza peels usually cost between $19.99 and $34.99 depending on multiple factors like size, material, and more. For instance, a large wooden pizza peel will cost more than a medium-sized product. Similarly, bamboo peels are much less expensive than products made with birchwood or any other hardwood.
How To Use the Wooden Pizza Peel Like a Pro
When using the wooden pizza peel like a pro, you can follow these below-mentioned steps and start cooking pizzas and more:
- After you are done with the prep work, i.e. adding sauce to the pizza base, toppings, and the cheese of your choice, slide the front edge of the wooden pizza peel underneath it.
- Once you slide it through all the way, slowly lift the pizza from the kitchen counter.
- Make sure to hold the handle properly with a strong grip so that the pizza peel doesn’t wobble while loading the food item.
- After you are sure the pizza won’t slide from its position, carry the kitchen tool to the oven and place it inside.
- Set the correct temperature and wait until the pizza is cooked.
- Once cooking is complete, take the pizza peel out of the oven. Make sure not to touch its handle with bare hands.
- Place the front edge on the kitchen countertop at an angle and slowly shake the peel to unload the cooked pizza.
