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Welcome

Welcome to the new Lobel’s Culinary Club.

In the years since we launched our Web site and online butcher shop, the Lobel’s Culinary Club has become the cornerstone of our communications with our customers old and new. Our e-mails span the latest news about products and promotions to help you plan peak dining experiences for family meals, special events, and casual entertaining.

A fundamental part of the Culinary Club content comes from our unique perspective as butchers on meat handling and preparation. And while there are many recipes to share, we want to help you go beyond specific recipes to a wider world of in-depth explorations of cooking techniques. When you understand the fundamentals, you are free to invent your own culinary masterpieces.

We believe the more you know about preparing the finest meat money can buy, the more you will enjoy serving it to your family and friends.

With the launch of our expanded Culinary Club, we’ve created a living archive of knowledge that is gleaned from past e-mails and will grow with future e-mails.

Within the Culinary Club, we hope you’ll find numerous and useful resources to enhance your confidence in preparing the finest and freshest meats available, and ensure your absolute delight with the results.

For your dining pleasure,

lobels Signature

Stanley, David, Mark, and Evan Lobel

Lobel Family at the Carving Station

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Articles by Subject:

  • 175th anniversary
  • about lobel's
  • ask the butcher
  • autumn
  • bacon
  • barbecue
  • beef
  • braising
  • christmas
  • cinco de mayo
  • cooking tools
  • culinary classics
  • culinary diy
  • cut of the month
  • easter
  • entertaining
  • food history
  • food pairings
  • grilling
  • guide to meat
  • ham
  • hanukkah
  • holidays
  • lamb
  • lobel's prime meats in manhattan
  • new products
  • new year
  • passover
  • pork
  • poultry
  • recipes & techniques
  • recipes & techniques
  • roasting
  • sausage
  • seafood
  • seasons
  • smoking
  • social media
  • spring
  • stewing
  • summer
  • super sunday
  • thanksgiving
  • t-roy cooks
  • turkey
  • valentine's day
  • veal
  • videos
  • winter
  • yankee stadium

Grilled Pizza: You Might Never Want Store-Bought Again

On July 2,2015 In grilling , recipes & techniques

“As American as apple pie” is often heard to convey our deep and abiding affection for a bakery staple that is symbolic of everything entwined with our national identity and patriotic pride.

But as history proves, apple pie isn’t originally American at all. And given the run of popularity, we could just as easily claim that another import tugs at Americans heart strings and palates: “As American as pizza pie.”

pizza

 

Do we love pizza? Obsessed is probably a better way to put it.

According to the USDA, Americans spend $37 billion on pizza each year, or about 1/3 of worldwide pizza expenditures, consuming 100 acres of pizza every day for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.

Yet despite our love of consuming the pie, very little gets made at home and even less is made on the grill.

Making grilled pizza is relatively simple, inexpensive, and yields a delectable pie with unique flavors and unlimited possibilities for toppings that rivals even the best and most inventive parlor-made creation.

The Foundation

Great dough makes great pizza. Of course, you can make it from scratch in about 20 minutes, plus the time for rising. Here’s a great pizza dough recipe from grilling master extraordinaire, Bobby Flay.

Or if you’re more of a visual learner, watch our friend Troy of “T-Roy Cooks” make some in this step-by-step video recipe:

And if you are not the D.I.Y. type, there are plenty of shortcuts available to you, including buying fresh or frozen dough from a pizzeria, bakery, or supermarket. Now that the labor is eliminated, you are ready to hit the ground running in even less time.

Other ready-to-go alternatives to raw dough include store-bought flatbread, pita, tortilla, or pre-formed, semi-baked packaged pizza crusts.

The Toppings

When making grilled pizza, there’s no such thing as limited choices. Sure, you can use the best of the popular pizzeria options such as pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, onions, peppers, etc. But when you are making your own pizza anything goes. Your choices for toppings are only restricted by your imagination, budget, and what’s in your pantry.

Preparation Advice: Most vegetable and cured meat toppings can go on raw. Meat, seafood, and hard vegetable toppings should be par-cooked before putting  on the pie. Grilling a pizza takes a relatively short time—5 to 10 minutes—once the toppings go on and the pizza hits the fire.

The Base

While most traditional pizzas have a red-sauce base, other options range from olive oil to barbecue sauce, pesto, spice blends—anything you want.

Here’s Troy again grilling a couple of non-traditional pizzas on his ceramic cooker. When Troy makes a pizza there’s not a speck of red sauce or pepperoni in sight.

Beef Taco Pizza

Chicken BBQ Pizza

If you want to go the traditional red-sauce route, here’s a basic, all-purpose one:

Recipe: Pizza Red Sauce

Ingredients:

  • 1 (28 oz.) can whole, peeled San Marzano plum tomatoes
  • 4-5 large garlic cloves
  • 1 small onion diced
  • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon dried oregano, or 2 tablespoons fresh oregano
  • 2 tablespoons good quality basil pesto, or 4 tablespoons fresh basil
  • Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Combine the tomatoes and garlic in a blender and puree.
  2. In a medium sauce pan, heat the oil and sauté the onion until translucent.
  3. Add the tomato-garlic puree and remaining ingredients over medium-high heat.
  4. Bring just to a boil and reduce heat to medium or medium-low and simmer gently for 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally until thickened.

The Fire Source

There are slightly different techniques depending on whether you are using a gas or charcoal grill or a ceramic cooker.

Advantages of using a gas grill include convenience and speed. If you want to add a smoky essence to your favorite crust, you can always use a wood chip box.

When using a charcoal grill or ceramic cooker, use a combination of briquettes and hardwood lump charcoal. This will give you a hot fire that will last for a long while. Add wood chips or wood chunks—pecan is a great choice—to infuse your crust with a smoky flavor and an attractive golden-brown hue.

LG0001

The Equipment

Overall, for the sake of simplicity, convenience, and consistent results, using a ceramic pizza stone is the best device for creating an indirect heat source. It really gives you more control than trying to wrangle a direct-heat fire.

A pizza stone is a must and can be used by lying it on top of the grill grid.

Ceramic cookers come with a ceramic plate that acts as a heat diffuser to create a convection oven effect and is an ideal pizza stone.

If you happen to have a Weber 22.5-inch charcoal kettle or a Spirit gas grill, you can purchase a special grill grid that has a circular center cut out that fits a 12-inch pizza stone in a metal holder. The cut out allows the pizza stone to fit exactly over a direct fire to create a convection effect.

Be sure to allow the pizza stone to pre-heat on the fire for 15-20 minutes.

A metal pizza peel is essential to form the pizza and move it on and off the fire.

The Heat

As far as temperature goes, you want to maintain a running temperature of at least 500°F and up to 600°F. The point is you want a hot indirect fire so the crust cooks in about 5 to 10 minutes. At a lower temperature, the crust will become hard, instead of crisp.

The Technique

For each pizza when using fresh dough, cut a piece about the size of a softball and allow it to rise at room temperature. Sprinkle the peel liberally with corn meal or semolina flour to make it easy to slide the pizza on to the pizza stone. Once risen, punch the dough down and then roll it out or use your hands to press the dough on the pizza peel into shape—about 8 to 12 inches in diameter, depending on your preference for thin or thick crust.

Slide the formed pizza onto the heated pizza stone and let it bake for 5-8 minutes, checking the bottom for burning. If using whole-wheat dough, allow an additional 2-3 minutes.

Remove the pizza with the peel, turning it baked side up. Add the sauce base and toppings leaving about ½-inch edge. Then slide back on to the pizza stone and let it bake for 5-10 minutes (until the cheese melts), again, checking to make sure it does not burn.

The Alternatives

If using one of the no-bake pizza crust alternatives, simply warm the pita, tortilla, etc. for a couple of minutes on the pizza stone. Then follow the same steps as for using fresh dough.

 

Have you ever tried making grilled pizza? What are your favorite topping combinations? What is your favorite non-traditional pizza topping?

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