Peel (tool)
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A peel is a shovel-like tool used by bakers to slide loaves of bread, pizzas, pastries, and other baked goods into and out of an oven. It is usually made of wood, with a flat carrying surface (like a shovel's blade) for holding the baked good and a handle extending from one side of that surface.
A peel's intended functions are to:
- Gracefully transfer delicate breads, pastries, etc into an oven where transferring them directly by hand would mangle their delicate structure.
- Keep the baker's hands out of the hottest part of an oven, or extend to the back of an oven that is deeper than the baker's arms.
Prior to use, peels are often sprinkled with flour, cornmeal, or milled wheat bran, to allow baked goods to easily slide onto and off of them.
There are peels of many sizes, with the length of the handle suited to the depth of the oven, and the size of the carrying surface suited to the size of the food it is meant to carry (for instance, slightly larger than the circumference of a pizza). Household peels commonly have handles around 15cm long and carrying surfaces around 35cm, though handles range in length from vestigial (~6 centimeters) to extensive (~1.5 meters or more), and carrying surfaces range in size from miniature (~12 centimeters square) to considerably wide (1 meter square or more).