How do you get a pizza out of the oven?

By buying a pizza stone, I think.

I always use a knife or the pizza cutter to free it from the rack and slide it onto the box or the cardboard circle that was underneath it. Pretty easy.

After the allotted time, after turning the oven off I’d let the pizza sit inside for 5 minutes with the power off. And then another 5 minutes with the oven open, then I’d simply slide a plate underneath and stick a fork onto my claimed slice and slide it onto the plate.

BTW, it’s Friday here, and you’ve reminded me that pizza and Friday makes perfect sense! GQ’d

@BhacSsylan The instructions for the frozen pizza from California Pizza Kitchen that I have in my freezer now specifically says for best results not to use anything under the pizza, and it lists a pizza stone as one of the forbidden items.

@flip86 Does the pizza leave residue of any type on your oven rack?

@pleiades It sounds like the frozen pizzas you’re describing are pre-sliced. I have never seen that in any frozen pizza. You cannot bake a pre-sliced pizza on the oven rack. The cheese would melt all over the oven.

That’s fascinating, I’ve cooked frozen pizzas on my stone and it usually comes out really well. Ah, well, it was mostly a silly answer. Freeing it and sliding onto a pan as @flip86 suggested is probably the best.

@Hawaii_Jake It leaves a little cheese sometimes but nothing too hard to clean up. I cook it directly on the rack so it gets crispy. I don’t like doughy crust.

@BhacSsylan and @flip86 Thank you. I’m moving in a few months. Once I get settled in my new place, I’ll look for a pizza stone.

Can you not take out the entire rack, using oven mittens? To stop the cheese from melting messily, how about baking paper- is that forbidden?

With oven mits. Or a thick towel.

I usually use telekinesis.
But since you are just a human, try a folded up towel if you have no oven glove.

I had a cookie sheet with no sides and one end bent up. I turn the sheet upside down and slide it under the pizza to remove it.

Now I have a large pizza stone. Thick too, almost ¾ of an inch thick. Make sure the oven and stone are hot by pre-heating.

I just fold the pizza box so both insides are facing out and scoop it up with that.

Consumer instructions and safety disclaimers being what they are these days, don’t they have a warning marked clearly on the box to the effect that “Hot ovens are hot! Just-cooked pizza is hot! Hot stuff can burn ya!” or words to that effect?

Personally, my preferred pizza these days is French bread pizza that I make at home, and I heat it on a cookie sheet.

Pizza sounds good right now…. Use an oven mitt to pull the center rack out and use some sort of utensil to slide the pizza back on to the cardboard circle or a flat pan.

Whoa no one uses a pizza peel?
Here: http://www.globalindustrial.com/p/foodservice/pizza-supplies/pizzeria-essentials/pizza-peel-12x13-22-o-a-wood?utm_source=msn&utm_medium=shp&utm_term=B551779&utm_campaign=Pizza-Tools&infoParam.campaignId=WR
I wouldn’t go for 5, but they are sold all over.

I use a knife. I usually make my frozen pizzas in my toaster over so it is less of an ordeal, but even when I make one in the oven I use a knife.

I used to put the pizzas right on the rack, I’d put the second rack beneath it with a sheet of tin foil to catch any cheese drips or crumbs. When the pizza was done, I’d use an oven glove and pull the rack out a bit, then use a utensil of some sort to slide it off the shelf onto the plate.

Now that we’re making pizza from scratch, we do have a pizza peel; but I wouldn’t have bought one when I was making frozen pizzas.

Pizza peel! Like @hearkat we bought one for our homemade pizzas but have found it extremely useful for the occasional frozen pizza as well. It also looks sort of rustic-classy hanging on the wall in the kitchen.

Often frozen pizzas come with a circle of cardboard. Pull the rack out and loosen the front edge and slide the circle under the pizza, lift out and you are good to go. in the absence of the piece of cardboard, use a pizza pan or cookie sheet. Same basic principle.

I always bake my pizza on a pizza pan that I put in the oven at the time I start heating.

I also have an Airbake cookie sheet like @Tropical_Willie describes, with no sides, that I could slide under a pizza.

Since it was mentioned so often here, I have to be the naysayer and mention that you should never allow the box or cardboard circle to touch your cooked pizza, as the packaging has been in contact with the raw ingredients. I have seen this admonition on the pizza box.

Incidentally, I baked a refrigerated pizza tonight, and the directions said to cook to an internal temperature of 165°. Exactly how do you take a pizza’s internal temp? Stick a thermometer up it’s butt??

I have a clean pair of leather welding gloves solely for kitchen use. I use them to pull out the rack, then slide the pizza onto a wood cutting board.

I’m right handed. Pizzas go on the rack in our home.

With the pizza cutter in my right hand, I use the cutter to pull out the rack a bit (if needed…our pizzas are usually smaller since we’re gluten free).

In my left hand I have the cardboard round the pizza arrived on. I use the cutter to scoot the pizza forward and slide the pizza all the way onto the round.

I use the cutter again to push the rack back in and then use it to slice and serve the pizza.

BTW: I always turn the oven to 450…I don’t like oozy cheese messes. The faster the oven the better, IMO.

Spear it with a fork and slide it out onto a cookie sheet or giant plate.

I was never a fan of putting the pizza right on the rack . I generally just throw it on a sheet pan. I’ve never had any issues cooking them this way. It also makes removal a bit easier.

@El_Cadejo Hahaha..that is some f-‘ed up pizza moments. lol

@Coloma Ya, I just imagine some guy that just got really baked for first time, deciding to make himself a delicious pizza, waiting around for 30 minutes while it cooks, anticipating the pizza joy that would be his future and then….oven door opens….crushing depression sets in.

lol

I do exactly what @majorrich does. I use a large meat cleaver type knife to slide under the corner of the pizza and lift it onto the cardboard circle or cookie sheet.

I just read @SpatzieLover‘s answer. I also use my knife to slide out the rack, then push it back in. My husband thinks it odd that I do that. I don’t feel so strange now that I know someone else does this.

My first answer to the OP is…v-e-r-y carefully. I have a pizza stone and used to have a small (12”) peel.

Carefully.

You are not supposed to use the cardboard circle for cooked pizza.

@ibstubro Why the hell not? I eat the ingredients from the pizza that fall off when I take it out of the package. I eat raw cookie dough too despite the warning. Never gotten sick. Those warnings on the package are there for legal reasons. Not to protect the consumer, but to protect the company.

I’ve been using the cardboard for the last 20 years and we’ve never gotten ill.

When the kids were little and I made them DiGiorno, I would use a spatula and oven mitts, pull the rack half way out of the oven, then use the spatula to push the pizza onto a cutting board.

But now I usually just pick a slice out of the box…..

I slide a largish knife under the pizza and ease it forward off the rack. Sometimes it gets stuck if the pizza has melted and I then turn it a little to left and to right to free it.

Duh. There are cooties on the cardboard circle from it having touched the uncooked food. The only good cootie is a cooked cootie!

Would the pizza be hot enough and raised slightly above the cardboard by the ground corn that the salmonella (which dies at 140 deg. F) would be knocked out.

isn’t that what tongs are for ?

Works well for pulling out the rack a bit as well as for grabbing the edge of the pizza to slide it onto a large plate or sheet pan.

A purist wold never muss a pizza with tongs, @Buttonstc

Well I guess I’m not a purist of frozen cook-at-home pizzas then :D

But seriously, with a decent pair of tongs all you need to grab is a small bit of the edge of the crust in order to slide it out onto the plate. And I personally never eat all of the crust anyway :)

I just made my guest from-scratch pizza the other day. Used a stone warmed up to 500F. Now need to make a stat investment in a peel.