There are rumours that you can cook an egg on the hottest part of a car’s engine (though your probably wouldn’t want to eat it afterwards!) or that you can cook baked potatoes in the embers of a dying fire. But can you bake pizza on cardboard?
Well, yes and no. You can set fire to a pile of cardboard, place a pizza on top and hope for the best – but this is not guaranteed to produce a good pizza!
We are assuming you are using an oven as well, and are not simply baking the pizza on the cardboard without any other form of heating! So, can you bake pizza on it? Let’s find out.
Can You Bake Pizza On Cardboard?
The short answer is no, it’s really not a good idea.
It is not recommended that you place any form of paper – of which cardboard is one – into the oven. Oven cooking tends to use high temperatures for a long time, which can set fire to paper and cardboard and potentially cause a fire hazard.
Cardboard generally catches alight at around 400 degrees. However, every oven is different, as is every piece of cardboard! So it is best to just not risk it.
If you are cooking a pizza for 20 minutes at 200 degrees then surely it’ll be ok, right? Well, maybe. There is always the danger that a piece of cardboard can hang down into the gas jets, thus setting fire to the whole cardboard and potentially your oven.
(Worse than this, you will ruin your pizza!)
The safest way to cook a pizza is in a tray, on a stone, or, at a pinch, placed directly onto the oven’s shelf. This method brings the risk of your entire pizza melting through the gaps, however!
Best to stick to conventional ways of cooking pizza – something that is both sturdy and heatproof. Much less of a fire risk, and much more chance of getting a decent pizza at the end of it.
How To Keep Pizza Warm With Cardboard?
Now, we have discovered that it’s best not to bake your pizza on a piece of cardboard. But you can use cardboard for keeping your pizza warm, for example if you are throwing a party and don’t want it to go cold.
- Set your oven to 170 C degrees – no more than this, just to be on the safe side.
- Place the pizza into a cardboard box, or construct a cardboard box with a lid.
- Put the pizza inside its box into the oven. This will turn the box itself into an oven like environment – the pizza won’t cook any more, but it will retain its heat.
- You can turn the oven off about 30 minutes before you want to eat the pizza, and the heat leftover in the oven will keep your pizza warm and soft.
Final Words
Now you know that you shouldn’t place cardboard in the oven (even for things such as Camembert), you can go about your pizza eating career as safely and happily as ever.
But also, now you know that can keep pizza warm on cardboard, so you can create some wonderful party meals – or even reheat your own leftovers safely.
If you’re looking for more pizza tips, here is a great one on undercooked dough.
