Customer Reviews

Sassafras Pizza Peel

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

When you purchase this item, make sure you either own or also purchase food-grade mineral oil, designed for conditioning butcher block and other wood kitchen implements. (I learned this by buying the wrong thing first: If the bottle says it's toxic or flammable, this is not the product you want! You can food-grade mineral oil online or possibly at your local grocery store.)

The peel will need to be treated with the oil before use. Don't substitute olive or other edible oils, as they will go rancid. Let the peel absorb all the oil it can (I did a few coats, rubbing it in with a paper towel). Then voila, you have a well-conditioned tool that won't dry out and crack. For the best care, as another reviewer mentioned, you'll want to apply mineral oil after you clean it each time.

This thing is big! My better half came up with a clever way of storing it inside one of our cupboard doors, as it's quite flat; I had thought to store it with the baking sheets, but its handle makes it a bit ungainly.

For the price, it's a great tool, and a little care will go a long way!

There are other baker's peels out there that have an aluminum base and sell for around $20. I happened to see this one on sale in a department store so I went ahead and got it. I make pizza and focaccia on ocassion so it works fine for me. I sprinkle on a little cornmeal before putting on the crust and it slides right off. I was a little skeptical about retrieving the pizza off the stone smoothly since the edges on this peel are much thicker than the aluminum peel, but it actually worked really well. I was able to slip it under the pizza and slide it onto the peel in one smooth attempt. I don't know how well it would work with a really thin crust.

Someone who is really into making pizza and bread may like the aluminum type better since it has a thinner base, longer handle and a little more weight to it.

This is in response to the review below which states that the recommended wood peel seasoning with mineral oil is an inconvenience as mineral oil is difficult to find and without other uses. An initial seasoning for an item like this is good idea for long-term use to ensure that pizza/bread will continue to slide off easily. You can find mineral oil at the grocery store in the pharmacy section. It's ... an intestinal lubricant, which should give you some idea for other uses ;-)

I have 2 of these and on the newer one the joints split after its first use. Very frustrating since it could have been a good product.
This pizza peel is thick so it is best used ONLY while loading the pizza dough with sauce and topping and putting in the oven (over the pizza stone). Once the pizza is on the stone, a thinner and sturdier aluminum peel is 100% better. The thinner aluminum peel is what you need to turn around or removing the pizza from the oven. This is too thick and it does not slide under thin crust pizza easily, so you'll end up pushing the pizza towards the rear of the oven until the back wall serves as a stopper, dirtying the oven with pizza sauce.
Also, its use is quite limited when baking bread. I find it better (and much cheaper) to use strips of 3/8" plywood for baguettes, boules, and other artisan bread. This is way too thick and big for a regular kitchen oven for bread baking. The aluminum peel is excellent for removing artisan bread from the oven.

In case anyone is wondering after reading John Henderson's review and gripe about mineral oil.....mineral oil can be found at any drug store and is very inexpensive. Use it occasionally to oil your pizza board, cutting boards, butcher block, wooden knife handles. These items will last much longer if you do. Plus, you can take it if you have a stomach ache! See? It does have more than one use!

Nice shape - form follows function. Clean lines. Typical nondescript Asian wood species. Surface finish was a bit rough. I used a palm sander and 60 grit paper to remove the "Sassafras" logo from the handle and wet sand the entire surface, front and back, followed by 220 grit wet sanding to produce a smooth surface finish.

Even if you do not sand it before use, the instructions require the user to purchase mineral oil to treat the peel. Omit this step and the peel will absorb food such as tomato sauce and stain, and even worse, will crack and split from a few washing and drying cycles. Plan on a heavy application of mineral oil, soak a day, and wipe off the excess, then apply another coat a week or two later and annually after that.

I'll probably use this functional model for a year and then copy the design and execute it in cherry for a really nice looking peel that is also functional.

It's good to make pizza on a real pizza stone, and trying to use a pizza stone without a peel is at best frustrating, and possibly dangerous working in a 500 F oven.

I use the peel mainly for bread and have had no problems. After reading all the reviews before this purchase, maybe previous users who had warping problems did not use enough mineral oil for "seasoning" before first use. Or were over zealous with cleaning. It took mine almost 3/4 cup applied over 3 days before no more oil was absorbed. Even after many uses, the peel gets an light oil rubdown once in a while. Have not needed to get any water near it for "cleaning". A light wipe with a dry paper towel works. Water and wood do not mix! As for sticking problems, if corn meal does not provide enough slide, try using parchment paper. Dust peel with cornmeal, cut parchment paper approximately the same size as bread or pizza, dust paper with cornmeal and build pizza or bread on top. Everything should slide right off. The parchment paper will not interfer with baking results, plus it provides a small grip for sliding the peel underneath when ready to take the bread or pizza out of the oven. Am absolutely happy with this product and expect it to last for many many years.

The bread peel is a paddle 14 inches wide by 15 inches deep with a 9 inch long handle. It is cut from a slab of three 1/2 inch thick boards that are joined together with the grain going lengthwise with the center board (3" x 23" x 1/2") extending into and becoming the handle.

The wood is unfinished, and quite soft. The grain on mine varies from 1/8 to 1/2 inch per year. I don't know what kind of wood it is, but it seems to be as soft as pine. There are a few patches of filler on one side of the paddle.

The handle is functional but a bit incomfortable. Holding it feels a bit like holding a board.

Pluses:
It's a decent slab of wood... a bit soft but functional.

Minuses:
Costs more than I would expect for what I got.
The wood is a bit soft.
While its functional, the handle isn't very comfortable.
It needs to be treated with mineral oil before use.
It was delivered in an obscenely large 26x19x9 cardboard box.

I'm giving 2.5 stars. It's functional, but over priced in my opinion. I'll keep it, but if I ever need another one I'll pick up a scrap of 1/4" plywood or 1/2" pine boards and make my own.

I found this pizza peel to be a TOTAL waste of money. If I got "lucky" I would successfully remove the pizza...but often would just push it further back until it hit the back of the oven...and then I could get it out. It just made a big mess!

I generally make 'lightweight' pizzas, (i.e., a normal-sized thin crust Tombstone with pepperoni) so maybe their lighter weight is the problem - with a very large, heavy pizza you might have better luck getting it to stay put during the shoving-the-peel-under-it process(?)

I found the wood to be poor quality - very rough, too soft.

And then, like other reviewers, my pizza peel warped and developed cracks after just a few months - and I am VERY CAREFUL with my wooden cutting boards - I'd only hand wash it, NEVER let it soak, dry it quickly, etc.

Possibly other reviewers received a better quality peel than I (and the others who experienced warping and cracking) did - but to me, that shows poor quality control.

The Sassafras Wood Pizza/Bread Peel is great to use when making your own grilled pizza! Just a sprinkle of corn meal over the paddle first and the dough slides right off onto the grill. The trick to grilled pizza is timing. The sharper, sloped edge of the paddle allows you get the grilled crust off the heat quickly and with ease. You'll look like a pro as you entertain fiends as you make restaurant quality grilled pizza with this product!