LifebyMikeG
4 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2019–2021
6:46 · 1.1M views · Apr 21, 2017
A short, nearly wordless demonstration of making sourdough pizza at home using a cast iron pan and the oven. It shows a Neapolitan-style result without a pizza steel or stone.
HN commenters recommend it as a practical, home-bakable sourdough pizza method that gets close to stone-oven quality.
4 comments from Hacker News
This is the best video on making neapolitan style at home with an cast iron pan and oven: this video I've used this method a few times to superb results.
> what part of the rest of the pizza-making process can you do better than the restaurant? A determined home pizzaiolo can make a perfectly decent pizza. But you are right about the temperature. Household ovens simply can't reach the temperatures used in a proper pizza oven, about 700F. I have had success with heating a large cast iron pan on the stove top to ~700F, dropping the dough in that, adding toppings when it's ready and then finishing it in a broiler or well preheated oven. These guys show how it's done, without words, better than I can describe: this video It is pretty damn good technique. They're using 00 flour, high protein (available at Italian markets in any big city). One thing you can do at home better than the pizza shop, however, is to use crazy good artisinal toppings, dialed in exactly how you like it.
No love for iron skillets? I've had some pretty good results cooking pizzas in a home settings with it. It sounds weird but it gets decently close the the quality of a stone oven, something to do with the heat conductivity of cast iron: this video You cook it on the hob for a few minutes to cook the bottom, constantly shuffling the skillet round to get that random charring, then a few more minutes in a pre-heated oven as close to the broiler as possible. Great for deep dish pizza as well, if you're into that.
For a practical, home-bakable, sourdough recipe I can vouch for: this video Top comment: "There is more drama in this video than in the entire Transformers franchise."