Cooking and the Environment

I just use a flat baking tray - the same one I use for bread. On the odd occasion I have pre-cooked the base, I just stick it on the shelf. Most pizza stones are too big for the depth of my oven, and the smaller ones I have found are too small for the size of my pizzas!
The uestion is, would the pizza have a better crust if I pre-heated the tin (and then used a pizza peel to slide the pizza onto it)?
 
Mine JUST fits....I think there's maybe 1mm between the stone and the back of the oven and 1mm between the stone and door :D
You can get rectangular ones - might fit your oven better?
The maximum usable size for any baking sheet or tray is 32x37.5 cm (1200 cm2). The Lakeland one is far too big, and quite a few of the other rectangular ones are just a fraction over that. My flat baking tray is 32 cm x 33 cm, so it will just take a 12" pizza, which is ideal for me. It is a black metal tray, which is recommended for this type of oven (a turbo/convection/conventional oven).
 
The maximum usable size for any baking sheet or tray is 32x37.5 cm (1200 cm2). The Lakeland one is far too big, and quite a few of the other rectangular ones are just a fraction over that. My flat baking tray is 32 cm x 33 cm, so it will just take a 12" pizza, which is ideal for me. It is a black metal tray, which is recommended for this type of oven (a turbo/convection/conventional oven).

If I had the energy now I would go and measure my oven and what would fit. I think that will be tomorrow...
 
The uestion is, would the pizza have a better crust if I pre-heated the tin (and then used a pizza peel to slide the pizza onto it)?
I don't usually preheat mine. I usually grease the sheet lightly with butter and the baked pizza normally just slides on to the plate. Although the sheet is flat, it does have a slight lip along the long sides, which stops it falling off the sheet :laugh:
 
There are several groups on Facebook as well as sites on the internet regarding food waste. What gets me is that a lot of people don't seem to realise they can use up most of the scraps etc rather than throw them away. I was brought up in a time when there was food rationing in the UK, and I must have picked up a few tips even then. I still try not to waste any food wherever possible, because I simply can't afford to. That also extends to saving electricity by cooking meals for 2 or 3 and putting the extra portions in the fridge or freezer. If the leftovers are too small for a meal (the bits on a carcass, for example), it's easy enough to use them in a soup or eke out the dog's food. However, some of the ideas for using up leftover food, are so simple, it's quite beyond me to understand why other people just throw perfectly good food away. I usually ask for a doggie bag when I go to a restaurant, and when I visit my daughter I often bring home the scrapings off the plates for the mutt. The latter unfortunately will no longer happen - she's just bought a puppy :laugh:
 
@Elawin: I think cooking shows bear some responsibility in the wasteful approach to food. There are certainly good things about cooking shows: for one, I probably wouldn't be on this website today. Cooking shows ignited a passion that I didn't realize I had.

However, watch a cooking competition and what do you see? Chefs frantically making their food, leaving things not necessary for their preparation all over their prep table. This is essential for the show due to time, but I think it leaves an imprint on the people watching. If you want to make the perfect meal, you end up throwing out the parts that aren't perfect.

Maybe I'm going a bit far pinning this on cooking shows. But, I think there something there.
 
@Elawin: I think cooking shows bear some responsibility in the wasteful approach to food. There are certainly good things about cooking shows: for one, I probably wouldn't be on this website today. Cooking shows ignited a passion that I didn't realize I had.

However, watch a cooking competition and what do you see? Chefs frantically making their food, leaving things not necessary for their preparation all over their prep table. This is essential for the show due to time, but I think it leaves an imprint on the people watching. If you want to make the perfect meal, you end up throwing out the parts that aren't perfect.

Maybe I'm going a bit far pinning this on cooking shows. But, I think there something there.
Yes. I forgot about them. There used to be a cookery competition here where the contestants were given boxes of food for each course. Each box was different, so no two contestants cooked the same dishes, and they were meant to use all the ingredients in their boxes. If I recall correctly, there was very little waste, unlike other shows I can think of where, if it doesn't go right the first time, that food will go in the bin and they will start again :giggle:
 
There are certainly good things about cooking shows: for one, I probably wouldn't be on this website today. Cooking shows ignited a passion that I didn't realize I had.

That is probably true of me too. But not so much competition shows - more the documentary series where chefs explore different cuisines and cook up recipes. I am guilty of waste sometimes because I strive to produce visually exciting food - that sometimes means cutting things in a certain way. I do try to use the off-cuts but it doesn't always work out.
 
What gets me is that a lot of people don't seem to realise they can use up most of the scraps etc rather than throw them away.
I know how you feel.....we went around to a friends for dinner the other week and I was shocked when all the leftovers just went in the bin. We're talking leftover potatoes, sausages, burgers, chicken (it was a BBQ) - all things that could easily be made into something else, or at least just left in the fridge for snacks or quick lunches. In this house leftovers either go in the fridge to be eaten over the next few days or they're packaged up for the freezer. Even meat bones are made into stock before being discarded.
 
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