I love the Greek pizzas, pesto instead of tomato sauce, feta added to the mozzarella, and more than three kinds of olives. all of the rest can be whatever as long as it meets those requirements for me.
Pizza Questions
- Thread starter hmhaines
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Since we are listing pizza requirements....... It specifically needs to be called Pizza. That'll do.
True for me as well. I'll enjoy a Dominos, a Pizza Hut, a Wal-Mart take and bake - basically anything. Deep dish can be disregarded for me out of hand, as it's not a flat bread - hence, not "pizza." As MSO says, it's casserole. It's good, but pizza it is not.
I latch on to NY-style pizza because it's a specific style that is very difficult to get right, and when it is, it becomes more than pizza to me, it becomes an accomplishment. It's a complex device and many shops try and fail, all the while claiming to be "authentic NY Pizza." No.
Normally, any human that tosses out "authentic" is being disingenuous. I generally run from advertising or shops that highlight "authentic". Because,seriously, what's authentic? :mrgreen:
And would all of you reheaters PLEASE try a skillet?
Pizza is a flatbread cooked directly on a hot surface. Reheating it should be done the same way - warm air convection of reheating in an oven or whatever a microwave does is insufficient to bring pizza back to life the way it deserves. If you want it as good as it can be, the skillet is the best way. If you just want to eat, skip it, I suppose, but try the skillet for me. Just once :wink:
Pizza is a flatbread cooked directly on a hot surface. Reheating it should be done the same way - warm air convection of reheating in an oven or whatever a microwave does is insufficient to bring pizza back to life the way it deserves. If you want it as good as it can be, the skillet is the best way. If you just want to eat, skip it, I suppose, but try the skillet for me. Just once :wink:
Agreed. If you have to tell me it is, it probably isn't. Even MORE annoying is the shop here in town that stylizes their name "Nu Yalk Pizza". UGH.
...and what government agency decided that corn should always be served with pizza in school cafeterias. Does anyone else remember smothering their pizza and corn in ranch dressing to make it palatable?
I'm unfamiliar with the corn phenomenon, but it probably has something to do with the farming subsidies creating a ridiculous surplus of the stuff. Stick it anywhere you can, I suppose.
Ranch dressing - don't even get me started. Americans' food binky.
Ranch dressing - don't even get me started. Americans' food binky.
Tom, But, some forms of Ranch are delicious.....take Blind Onion....they serve Ranch and Honey for the crust....yum.....did I mention I drink too much when I go there?
The only thing that we had any control over in elementary school when it came to lunchtime was the condiments. They'd tell us where to sit, what to eat, and how much of it went on our plate, so we use the five gallon pump bottles to drench out food in ketchup and Ranch. Enough ranch dressing can make a shoe edible.
But yeh, some people never let go of that feeling of elementary school freedom and still rebelliously pump out that white splooge all over their food still.
But yeh, some people never let go of that feeling of elementary school freedom and still rebelliously pump out that white splooge all over their food still.
I thought the ranch-on-everything phenomenon was relatively new, but I guess not if you were covering your food with it back in the (insert ridiculously distant decade for comedic effect here.)
Fridge then heat it up in the oven. Usually put the heat really high, put the pizza on the lowest rack for a while to get the bottom slightly crispy and then chuck it in the top rack for a little while to get the cheese melted/browned a little.
The big thing now is to warm up left over pizza in a frying pan. Gets the bottom crispy a little and melts the cheese.
See the video: Frying Pizza.
The big thing now is to warm up left over pizza in a frying pan. Gets the bottom crispy a little and melts the cheese.
See the video: Frying Pizza.
I'm Italian. So I'm fussy about my pizza. I make my own dough, and meat sauce, for the pizza.
Once a week is a pizza in my house. Never any left overs.
Once a week is a pizza in my house. Never any left overs.
The NY stores sell their water wholesale by the tanker-load, and stores far away buy it or attempt to re-create it, so there's something to it. It is different, it's more of a textural difference. You can have great pizza without it, and you could probably screw up a pie even if you had it, and everything else that you needed.
I understand there are many that put stock in using water from NYC, but as cooking is science, the science just doesn't support it.
The PPM dissolved solid mineral content of the water in NYC is easily duplicated, but the water itself, I find, bears on the texture a lot less than many other controllable variables, IE. gluten content of the flour, kneading time, proof time and temperature, rest time in a refrigerator vs. proofing rack, oven temp and bake time (and even oven size/age)... What I can say is - I have experience with it, and the evidence to support NYC water being the "magic bullet" in creating successfully NYC pizza is dubious - though I will grant it makes for a nice story.
"We Import NYC Water" is a marketing tactic even IF the proprietor convinces himself it matters.
Water differences for whiskey, I'll buy much more easily. The product is mostly water, after all.
For anyone still following now that I've completely hijacked this thread with my pizza-geekery - maybe someone else has some experience in this arena, and some have already indicated they make pizza at home. I can make a GREAT pizza at home - I do it all the time. But my problems in recreating NY Pizza persist.
All of my failed experimentation in trying to recreate NY Pizza, I'm convinced has to do with scaling. There is some sort of un-figure-outable-by-me problem stemming from the difference between mixing a 50lb bag of flour and a one- or two-pizza batch. I don't know what a huge Hobart does at that batch-size that I can't do at home, but... maybe someday.
My best efforts have led me to determine that the closest you can get at home is actually with a food processor blade and some very careful timing between how long it kneads, rises, rests before dividing, and how you stretch and ultimately cook it.
Maybe someone else has an idea?
All of my failed experimentation in trying to recreate NY Pizza, I'm convinced has to do with scaling. There is some sort of un-figure-outable-by-me problem stemming from the difference between mixing a 50lb bag of flour and a one- or two-pizza batch. I don't know what a huge Hobart does at that batch-size that I can't do at home, but... maybe someday.
My best efforts have led me to determine that the closest you can get at home is actually with a food processor blade and some very careful timing between how long it kneads, rises, rests before dividing, and how you stretch and ultimately cook it.
Maybe someone else has an idea?
Pipesmokingtom, for several years, in my youth, I worked at a well known New York-style pizza franchise (the kind that are popular in shopping malls). A couple of secrets to that particular brands style: "custom" yeast strain, malt, temp control, cold fermenting/proofing, and know-how.
By "know-how," I mean preps get used to feeling out the dough ratios, depending on the surronding temp, humidity level, etc. It's the diffrence between a batch that is too sticky, elastic, or loose.
Somewhere around here, I still have my base recipe (scaled down and modified) for NY-style dough. I mix and kneed (w/a dough hook) in a large counter-top stand-mixer, until the dough feels 90% there, and then I throw flour down and finish by hand, before rolling (measured) dough balls, and letting them cold proof in the fridge, until I need them.
It's been several years since I went through the effort of actually doing this for my family, so I would have to refer to my aging notes.
I hope this helps.
By "know-how," I mean preps get used to feeling out the dough ratios, depending on the surronding temp, humidity level, etc. It's the diffrence between a batch that is too sticky, elastic, or loose.
Somewhere around here, I still have my base recipe (scaled down and modified) for NY-style dough. I mix and kneed (w/a dough hook) in a large counter-top stand-mixer, until the dough feels 90% there, and then I throw flour down and finish by hand, before rolling (measured) dough balls, and letting them cold proof in the fridge, until I need them.
It's been several years since I went through the effort of actually doing this for my family, so I would have to refer to my aging notes.
I hope this helps.
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