It doesn’t really matter what name you give it; a pizza peel or pizza paddle is designed so that you can easily slide a pizza out of a hot oven. If you’ve ever worked in a pizzeria kitchen, you know how hot the pizza oven needs to be to give pizza it’s crispy crust. Depending on the type of pizza and the dough, the deck oven can be as hot as 700 degrees Fahrenheit and some stone deck pizza ovens reach up to 900 degrees Fahrenheit.
Pizza paddles let the cook slide pizza in and out of the pizza oven easily and allow for some distance from the hot oven. They are also large enough to support the whole pizza so that it can go from oven to counter for cutting and then boxing if the pizza is to go. While pizza peels are designed for handling pizzas, they can also be used for other baked goods like bread loaves, and they have also found their way to the front of the house as a unique serving platter.
Most commercial pizza peels are made from wood or aluminum. Wooden pizza paddles are a favorite because the dough doesn't stick to the paddle so the sauce and topping won’t be jostled as the pizza is positioned on the oven shelf. If you prefer a metal pizza peel, aluminum is preferred as it won’t rust and is easy to keep clean. Metal pizza peels are typically easier to maintain than wooden pizza paddles, but they don’t have the natural look and feel of a wooden paddle. At Cook’s, you’ll find a variety of wooden and aluminum pizza peels from Winco.
When it comes to determining the best size pizza peel, it is dependent on the largest size pizza that you will be making. Most pizza peels average 9” to 18” long and 6-3/4” to 16” in width. If your largest pizza is 18” round then you may need to shop around for an extra wide paddle.
One of our newest products is the Portion Padl which is a commercial pizza peel with portioning lines on the paddle. This unique pizza paddle has centering circles and slicing guides to help you evenly slice up a pizza. It’s a great tool for residential use and for commercial use to ensure that slices are all evenly cut.
