Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've been making homemade pizza for years. At first, we had to put up with disastrous, soggy crust made in regular pans. I upgraded to the kind of pizza pans with holes in the bottom, which was better - crust was crispy (crunchy might be the better word), but still not quite the perfect crispy/chewy combination that my brother-in-law gets with his custom-made backyard wood-fired brick pizza oven - the standard I've been aspiring to all these years. I tried a pizza stone for awhile and was underwhelmed. (Possibly I was too stingy with my energy bill to let it heat up in the oven for a whole hour before baking the pizza, as was recommended.) Then finally I got this. I put it on the bottom oven rack as close to the heat element as possible and turn the oven as high as it will go. Let it heat up with the oven. (It doesn't like quick changes of temperature.) True, I get even better results if I let the oven heat up for a while after reaching the highest temp (which for me is 525) - but more like 10-15 minutes is perfect, no need for a whole hour. I use bread flour and olive oil in my dough recipe. I build the pizza on parchment paper on a pizza peel and immediately slide it onto the grill. (Time it so that it doesn't sit on the peel too long before it gets its turn in the oven.) Because 525 is still relatively cool for cooking pizza, it still takes maybe 8-10 minutes to cook through - but the result is the best crust that I've ever gotten out of a conventional oven. Crispy, chewy, big puffy bubbles here and there - just wonderful. I take the pizza out with the peel and leave the pan in there to keep hot for the next pizza. If you are into pizza and looking for an indoor substitute for the brick pizza oven, I highly recommend this option. The pan is really heavy and high quality. I will be buying more Lodge pans. Also I use this pizza peel and it's the perfect size to go with this pan: Kitchen Supply 14-Inch x 16-Inch Aluminum Pizza Peel with Wood Handle. I buy the parchment paper in a roll (cheaper) and just cut squares to fit the pizza peel: Regency Natural non-Stick Parchment Paper for Baking 20.66 Foot Roll.