The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

How long a handle do I need on my peel?

Yumarama's picture
Yumarama

How long a handle do I need on my peel?

I just got a new peel at a very decent price (I think, at least for up here in Canada) it's wood with a 12" x 14" blade and a 24" long handle. I was wondering if it made sense to trim that handle back to maybe 8 or 12" since I'm not using it in a deep pizza oven just a normal household oven. Cutting it would be no issue. 

There were shorter handled peels but they were metal and considerably more expensive (different brand).

Opinions? 

dmsnyder's picture
dmsnyder

I use a wooden peel with a handle that's about 8-10 inches long. It works fine.

OTOH,besides giving you more reach, the longer handle also works as a counter balance when you grasp it near the loading end. If the longer length doesn't present a storage problem or make you knock it into nearby appliances, counters or small children supervising your baking, I'd probably leave it alone.

David

Yumarama's picture
Yumarama

I could see the extra leverage being handy. I had actually mentioned that aspect in the original post but took it out so I could get "unprompted" mention of it if it was a valid idea.

Maybe a good middle ground would be to trim it to elbow length which, in my case is... (gets out tape measure) 15 inches.

Storage for any length isn't an issue, it will get hung on a bit of wall anyway. But I'm thinking that using it in our ridiculously small kitchen may prove a bother. You say "I'd probably leave it alone" - do you see the 24" length as being specifically useful then? 

Thanks for the input.

H20loo's picture
H20loo

Rainbowz- you know how hard it is to shop in Canada, especially if one has US prices in mind. Can you share your source?LOL That sounds like what I'm looking for but I haven't found any store that sells anything like it.

Doug

Yumarama's picture
Yumarama

Sorry, I had put that in another post on bread knives, forgot to add it here too.

I got it, along with said knife and (Woohoo!) a bowl scaper - impossible to find tool here - through Hubert.com, a supplier for pro kitchens, restaurants and food industry. But they'll take small orders for individuals too without problems. They have both US and Canadian warehouses. There seems to have been no "shipping" charge but there was a "small order" fee of just $5.45 CND for all three items, ordered Friday, received Wednesday. I expect if you order over $X, there's no fee at all, obviously $50 was not the magic "$X" ;).

Not the cheapest costs for items but at least they're available and aren't gouging you big time like other places just because they know you don't have much choice up here.

And the peel was their house Hubert brand $19.00 CND, vs the non-house version, same size was $28. Just type in "peel" in the search box. You will also get their rather hefty catalogues by mail (free) when you sign up. It's like kitchen tool porn.

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

When your oven door is open and if you stand directly in front of it you may like the extra length...otherwise I would think your handle could be a little long for comfortable handling.  I load my oven from the side of the door.  I have about 8 peels last I counted all different lengths...the shortest one works best for my indoor oven and the longer lengths for the really hot wood fired oven where you don't really want your hand going into the oven.  

Sylvia

BvN's picture
BvN

I have a rather small, 1/2 sized convection oven. The peel that works for me is 15" wide x 30" long, of which 12" is handle.