Julia Child's 'Perfect Pizza' Was Cooked On These 2 Materials - Tasting Table

"When watching old episodes, much of the advice she gives focuses on using items you already have in your kitchen or repurposing other items to create gourmet meals rather than buying expensive luxury cookware or kitchen gadgets. In a Season 8 episode of "The French Chef," Child shows us how to make the "perfect pizza" using tiles or fire bricks and a cedar shingle or wooden board."

"During the Julia Child on PBS video, she explains that commercial pizza ovens typically have a surface made of tile or fire brick that prevents the pizzas from getting soggy bottoms. This is because baking the pizza dough on such a hot, porous surface allows it to develop a crust like bread. The high heat from the bricks allows moisture to evaporate quickly. This keeps the dough from retaining too much moisture and prevents homemade pizza from getting soggy."

"These bricks are usually used to line wood stoves, brick ovens, and outdoor pizza ovens, but Child says that you can also use tile. Though she doesn't specify what type of tile she means, you don't want to use any that have paint or glaze on them, as that could leach into your pizza dough. Fortunately, unfinished and unpainted clay tiles have high heat resistance and are relatively inexpensive to buy at a home improvement store."

Preheating fire brick splits or unglazed clay tiles on the middle oven rack at 450°F creates a hot, porous baking surface that mimics commercial pizza ovens. High heat from the bricks rapidly evaporates moisture, allowing the dough to develop a bread-like crust and preventing soggy bottoms. Fire brick splits are thinner and suitable for home ovens; unglazed clay tiles are inexpensive and heat-resistant if free of paint or glaze. Place the bricks or tiles in the oven while it preheats, assemble the dough on a cedar shingle or wooden board if desired, and bake directly on the heated surface for optimal crust.

Read at Tasting Table