Gear
Make Pizza Like a Pro with These Tools
Whether it be Chicago-style, Detroit-style, New York-style, or Neopolitan-style, we Americans love our pizza, eating some 3 billion pies a year—roughly 46 slices per person. (To our surprise, we learned the U.S. is actually second to Norway in the number of pizzas consumed: 11 pies per person per year. Who knew?)
While there’s no denying the convenience of take-out, delivery, or pizzas from the frozen food aisle, it’s immensely satisfying to make your own pizzas from scratch. In all likelihood, your grill—charcoal or gas—is the only appliance in your life that can attain the temperatures required to turn raw dough, your choice of toppings, and cheese into a thing of beauty. (Pellet grills that can attain temperatures higher than 550 degrees also make excellent pizzas. Some, like Green Mountain Grills, offer pizza attachments that channel heat from the pellets to the enclosed pizza stone, attaining temperatures over 800 degrees.)
Are you ready to expand your grilling repertoire to include homemade pizza? It’s easier than you think. For Steven’s favorite dough recipes and suggested toppings, click here.
Though you can likely make pizza-from-scratch using equipment you already have, there are tools that will help you improve your game:
RAPICCA BBQ Gloves: Because pizzas are cooked over high heat, hand protection is critically important. These well-designed gloves, made from food-grade neoprene, are long enough at 14 inches to protect your forearms. Textured palms improve your grip whether handling a pizza peel or a pizza cutter. They are easy to clean and are heat resistant up to 932 degrees.
Hans Grill Pizza Stone: This high-quality 15-inch pizza stone can be used on the grill or in the oven and will help you achieve a crisp, but tender crust. It’s accompanied by a wooden pizza peel to help you maneuver the pizza on and off the stone. When preheated, the stone can cook pizza in as little as 2 minutes.
KitchenAid Classic Pizza Wheel: A classic roller cutter is indispensable when portioning your homemade pizza, whether it’s round or rectangular. Super-sharp, well made, and dishwasher-safe, this cutter comes with a limited lifetime warranty.
Checkered Chef Pizza Peel: Large enough to accommodate a 16-inch pizza, this thin-bladed pizza peel can also be used as an extra large spatula when turning large steaks, ribs, whole batches of chicken wings, and multiple burgers. And its handy folding handle makes it easy to store.
BakerStone O-AJLXX-O-000 Portable Gas Pizza Oven: Fueled by a 20-pound canister of LP gas, this portable pizza oven with 25,000 BTUs can reach temperatures over 800 degrees. The oven box itself is removable for easy cleaning and transport. Perfect for families that love their pizzas!
POLIGO Charcoal Grill Ash Hoe: Clean your wood- or charcoal-burning pizza oven with this long-handled adjustable hoe or use it to manipulate piles of burning wood or charcoal. You can even use it push a baking pizza closer to the fire, or pull it to a cooler part of the oven floor.
