So I make NY style with a 3/8 in steel near the top of my oven at 550 degrees. When I use Charlie Anderson's white sauce (ricotta, lemon juice, heavy cream), I get a nicely browned crust including along the rim for my white slices. However, when I use raw tomato sauce (Redpack) for a regular NY pizza, the bottom browns nicely but the rim is pale. Why is this happening and how do I fix it ? Thanks.
Need Advice on Baking Issue with Pizza
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1) the milk proteins and lactose in white sauce encourage the Maillard reaction.
2) the pH level of tomato sauce inhibits the Maillard reaction.
3) the lower water content white sauce produces less steam, so less interference with the Maillard reaction.
4) the high water content of tomatoes produces a lot of steam, interfering with the Maillard reaction.
For better browning:
1) make tomato sauce using whole canned tomatoes that you crush by hand and drain well.
2) use less sauce
3) place a thin layer of cheese on dough first to act as a barrier between crust and water-rich tomato sauce
4) make sure the pizza steel is properly heated. I heat mine for a full hour before using it. The last 5 minutes I blast the steel with the broil.
5) use the broiler. There are two methods for the broiler, one is with cast-iron skillet on stove to oven, the other is the baking steel. For the baking steel you preheat the steel for an hour, then turn on the broiler before you start the bake. I’ve never tried the cast-iron skillet method so can’t speak to that.
A home oven is about 300°F cooler than a commercial pizza oven, so will never produce pizzeria, quality, pizza,. Accepting the limitations of a home oven, I find the baking steel broiler method the one that works best.