Pizza Is Life

[DigDog]

for @Kaido and everyone else who isn't a barbarian.

Pizza is life: discuss.

My first input is that the pizzamaking forum is pretty much the definitive resource online for everything pizza. It may look a bit daunting at first because it has everything, from home cooks in electric ovens, to restaurants with $30k ovens, they deal with yeasts, flours, breads, wholegrain, and you can feel like the "just give me a .exe" rant guy, that you "just want a pizza".

In brief, making a pizza that doesnt taste like it's come out of the freezer is not terribly hard, but it does require some things that if you don't have them, you're gonna have a really hard time getting it right.

Pizza - by which i mean GOOD PIZZA - cooks from the bottom up. If the bottom of your pizza has leopard spots, you made good pizza.
Pizza is bread. It is made better by the ingredients, but it's not a breadbowl to hold your slop of melted cheese.
To cook the bread which needs to be fluffy, crunchy, and tasty, the cooking process raises the dough and evaporates the water. Too much water will ruin the pizza.
You should be able to hold the pizza slice. Slop is not pizza.

Because of this you need tools that will make these things happen. You can maybe do without one, or the other, but when you start not having a whole bunch of them, your pizza fails.
For example: the planetary mixer. This allows you to get a smoother dough while using less water. Sure you can do it by hand, but most home cooks don't have the patience to work the dough for half an hour - five minutes and it's done. This means when your dough hits the stone, the stone has more work to do evaporating all that water.
And maybe you are using unsqueezed fresh mozarella. And maybe you are not charring your vegetables. And maybe you put a touch too much tomato sauce. Now your pizza is shit, and you wonder why.
The same way, you can maybe do with a lower temp than a pizza oven.

pizza is normally made between 400-450 C. If your oven can do 550F, it's not great, but it can still work. But if your pizza is full of water AND your oven is underpowered, you now have shit pizza.

And so on. Proofing the balls correctly, not too long, not too short. Adding the right type, and right amount of yeast. Having a flour that is suitable for pizza. The damn temperature of the country you live in, the air humidity.

Bread baking can be sooo frustrating. This brand of yeast doesnt do well with that brand of flour. Your country is too cold. Your oven isn't hot enough. Your water has too much calcium. Jesus christ!

but a well made home pizza can change your life.

 

[DigDog]

and also @Muse and ofc @igor_kavinski (because he's everywhere)

 

[sandorski]

My teeth can't handle crunchy, this dough recipe makes a great soft crust

 

[Muse]

I was making sourdough pizzas for a while recently but returned to yeast. I use Costco organic white flour, the yeast they sell too. My tap water suffices. I use a bread machine to make my dough, which I divide in 4, use one portion a week to make my weekly pizza, keep the other portions frozen.

I roll out my proofed dough, place on pizza screen, adjusting to the edges and place the screen over (not in) my oven, which I have just turned on to the max. The rolled dough then continues to proof while I prepare the toppings and the oven continues to heat on max.

My oven approaches 550F, at least 500F.

I have a couple of 12" pizza screens, properly seasoned.

Here's a review of the screens I use that explains how to season them:

Good Quality Professional Pizza Screens Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2017 Verified Purchase

I've made my share of pizza. Sometimes as many as 700 a day. I bought two 12" screens for my toaster/convection oven.

I'd like to offer some advice on how to handle these since there seems to be some issues in other reviews. Maybe this will help someone. These only ever need to be washed once. This is before you use them for the first time.

Before they're used they need to be seasoned. This can be accomplished in a couple of ways. After washing them, oil them with any cooking oil. Don't use pan spray. Next, either bake them in a 450 degree oven or place them on a preheated gas grill and close the lid. Bake or grill them for 30 minutes.They will probably smoke & smell so if you can do this outside all the better. This is called seasoning.

Once seasoned, just wipe them off. Don't use soap and/or water. The first time or two you use them, they may stick in any places that didn't get oiled prior to seasoning, but this will pass if you do this the way I do.

After using the screens, use a dough knife or blunt end metal spatula to scrape off any quantity of anything that stuck, not worrying about what's left in the holes of your screen. Next, just throw the screen back in your oven that's still on and bake it until the stuck on food is charred and black. Remove the screen from the oven (carefully) and let it cool.

When it's cool, take something DRY such as a wire brush or stainless steel scrubber and gently remove the burnt material. Don't wash it. Just wipe it off.

Over time, if handled properly, these screens should go from shiny, new aluminum to black. That's the right thing that needs to happen. As they grow darker, they will also become more nonstick.

I will keep the screens I bought from this vendor in my oven. Everytime I use it, my screens will get baked along with my food until they develop the patina that will be nonstick.

If these screens ever do get wet, the very best thing to do with them is put them in the oven and bake them until they're completely dry.

I have some of these screens that are at least 20 years old and this is they way they've always been handled because they came from a pizza restaurant. They are jet black and shiny like polished granite.

OH & btw.....I bought these screens myself. This is just my opinion. It wasn't solicited, I wasn't compensated.
I hope this helps.

I preheat the oven 20+ minutes. I don't mind an "undercooked" pizza. A burned pizza can be a problem, I seldom get them.

I make my own Italian sauce using fresh ingredients including my home grown tomatoes and store bought dried Italian herbs, onions, garlic and EV Italian olive oil.

I top with around 1/2 dozen excellent cheeses in chunks, ~4 kinds of meats, a variety of vegetables, pineapple.

A proper mood is essential to appreciating pizza (or anything).

He who binds to himself a joy does the winged life destroy. He who kisses the joy as it flies lives in eternity's sunrise. - William Blake

 

[Kaido]

On frozen pizza:

The Kirkland Signature Cheese Pizza from Costco comes in a 4-pack for $14. PHENOMENAL deal & you can decorate it however you want:

This is my favorite pepperoni to add tohomemade or frozen pizza:



If you buy a frozen pepperoni pizza like a Screamin' Silician, I suggest adding the mini pepperonis for salads on top before cooking to fill in the gaps. Less grease, more coverage, more flavor:



Also better pepperoni ratio on mini pizzas:



Airfryers are GREAT at reheating pizza slices! Also, this is a great hack:

If you liked OG 80's/90's Pizza Hut pan pizza, here is the super-easy recipe:

Foolproof Pan Pizza Recipe

A pan pizza recipe for those who love a thick and crispy crust that's golden on the bottom, but puffy and soft under the layers of sauce and mozzarella.

www.seriouseats.com

The tome of education is Modernist Pizza:

Modernist Pizza - Modernist Cuisine

By The Numbers Years of research in the making, Modernist Pizza takes a deep dive into the world of pizza. Housed in a red stainless-steel case, the multivolume set not only captures the history, culture, and global styles of pizza, it contains all of the essential tools both professional and...

modernistcuisine.com

I've been working my way through the 1,700+ pages for several years now. Tony Gemignani's Pizza Bible is a must-have:

https://www.amazon.com/Pizza-Bible-Neapolitan-Deep-Dish-Wood-Fired/dp/1607746050

Some of my reddit posts:

Pizza resources

Pizza recipes

Anova pizza (re: toaster oven)

You can get weird with it too:

TikTok - Make Your Day

They sell a knock-off Magic Peel for cheaper here:

https://www.amazon.com/CZHZY-Sliding-Non-Stick-Transfer-Accessory/dp/B0CRYV7VH7

They have a cheaper, thinner pizza steel here, which would still be better than a pizza stone. Just preheat for 45 minutes, acts like a battery all charged up!

https://www.amazon.com/Chef-Pomodoro-Baking-Original-Artisan/dp/B0C2D47D9Z

Steels are also great for frozen pizzas!

On the convenience side of things, this Presto gadget actually works GREAT lol:

https://www.amazon.com/Presto-03430-Pizzazz-Plus-Rotating/dp/B00005IBXJ

https://youtu.be/XSub2iJClVQ

 

[JujuFish]

Pizza is a food I can eat every single day and not get sick of.

And yet, I've never made my own pizza.

 

[DigDog]

no

 

[DigDog]

pizza steel is excellent for those who do not have other tools, IF you are happy to wait for the oven to get hot, and then again for the steel to get hot, so that you can cook 1 pizza.

Now, the problem often lies in gas vs electrical. Gas ovens are vented, as no oxygen = no combustion, no combustion = house full of gas and everybody dies.
The vent means that any moisture has an easy way to escape. Electrical ovens are NOT vented, because less holes = less money wasted on heating the back wall of the kitchen, so the moisture does not escape quite as quickly.
Also, electrical ovens are pretty much all self regulating, they always drop in temp after reaching peak, are are more concerned with lasting longer and cutting your electricity bill rather than MAKING THE PIZZA YOU BOUGHT THEM TO MAKE.

So gas ok, electrical booo. Unless you have an electrical from the 70s in which case you're golden. I had a range in a rental house whose brand i don't remember, but the heating elements were spirals and they were naked, no glass, they were not recessed either, you literally put the pan on these hot wheels of death. The big burner had 2 concentric spirals.

That thing, i tell you, was phenomenal. Could kick the ass of any gas stove i've ever used, restaurants included.*

Ovens do exist that go to 400C, i mean house ovens. Of course someone in italy would make an oven that can cook pizza. But, they cost like 4 grand or more, for a normal house oven. I can buy a restaurant oven (electrical) for less.

 

[Kaido]

no

PhD in pizza, 100% worth it! I've gone too deep over the last 20+ years...these days, I:

1. Mill my own flour
2. Cold-ferment sourdough starter dough for 72 hours
3. Use a Combi-steam oven with a custom Baking Steel

I still eat frozen pizza tho lol

 

[Kaido]

Pizza is a food I can eat every single day and not get sick of.

And yet, I've never made my own pizza.

This is a good starter recipe:

Jim Lahey's No Knead Pizza Dough Recipe

Just mix flour, salt, and yeast, add water, stir it all together, then let it sit in a covered bowl for eight or nine hours. That's the trick to Jim Lahey's no-knead pizza dough.

www.seriouseats.com

4 standard ingredients & all you do is let it rise overnight!

 

[Kaido]

Gas ovens are vented, as no oxygen = no combustion, no combustion = house full of gas and everybody dies.

Most American gas stoves & ovens are NOT ventilated, which is...very bad:

Scientists sound the alarm after linking popular home appliance to cancer risk: 'Risks for the children are [approximately] 4-16 times higher"

The study found that the risks were significant.

www.yahoo.com

 

[Kaido]

Ovens do exist that go to 400C, i mean house ovens. Of course someone in italy would make an oven that can cook pizza. But, they cost like 4 grand or more, for a normal house oven. I can buy a restaurant oven (electrical) for less.

Monogram has a indoor electric oven that goes up to 1,300F:

https://www.monogram.com/product/monogramzep30frss/01t4P00000BHyHqQAL

Downside is 9k USD lol

 

[DigDog]

Yeah ok lol.

I don't go that far for one reason, which i can summarize as so:

$

any money that i can divert to my hobby, will first need to go to a french-door fridge, then a planetary, a couple of decent japanese knives (i have a endgame sharpening stone), because aside from being a pizza maniac, *sigh* i'm also a sushi maniac. I really am cursed.

i find these mini-ovens, like the Witt, or the Ooni, to be a great solution both because of results, but also because of portability. And i throw in that also the fact that they dont take an hour to come to temp, and that they don't need me to have a shack out back where i keep my wood.

^ this guy gets away with *just* thirty bucks worth of oven.
and a yard.
and he needs to age his own wood.

 

[mindless1]

Having worked at a pizza place in my youth, I made plenty of pizzas from scratch to finished, but am glad that I am not that picky.

That brings back a life memory, as I also delivered some pies during the worst cicada brood that I can remember, in a manual Ford Escort Pony, one of the worst cars I've ever driven.

I usually add some homemade sauce, vegetables, meat and cheese to a Red Baron brickhouse frozen pizza while the electric oven is heating to 425F, on an aluminum baking sheet, then 20 minutes later I'm happy.

If I want a lot of veggies on it, then I add some dry TVP crumbles, which soak up extra moisture and add protein without more sodium or fat.

 

[IronWing]

TTIWW @bigboxes .

 

[IBMJunkman]

Worked in Milan for a time. Went to a friend of a friend’s house for pizza. They had an out building with a wood fired dome style oven. And a large marble table. It was winter. The room was cold even with the oven fired up. Good heat retention. We made our own pizza. They had the dough ready but we had to flatten it and add ingredients. Learned how to use a peel. It was fun. And good.

 

[bigboxes]

I'm not going to explain everything ITT. I'm a Top 1% poster on r/pizza on Reddit. I make my own dough, own sauce and use quality ingredients. My dough slowly does its magic in my fridge for 72-hours. This process is called cold fermentation. It's what separates good pizza from mediocre pizza. I put up pics weekly in the NEF thread here in ATOT if you ever want a fix.

 

[bigboxes]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Pizza/s/d38aic9cIE

 

[Kaido]

Yeah ok lol.

I don't go that far for one reason, which i can summarize as so:

$

any money that i can divert to my hobby, will first need to go to a french-door fridge, then a planetary, a couple of decent japanese knives (i have a endgame sharpening stone), because aside from being a pizza maniac, *sigh* i'm also a sushi maniac. I really am cursed.

i find these mini-ovens, like the Witt, or the Ooni, to be a great solution both because of results, but also because of portability. And i throw in that also the fact that they dont take an hour to come to temp, and that they don't need me to have a shack out back where i keep my wood.

^ this guy gets away with *just* thirty bucks worth of oven.
and a yard.
and he needs to age his own wood.

The first pizza oven I built was with cinder blocks, but the I learned that they release chemicals and can, uh, explode lol. Then I built one with fireplace bricks, similar in style to that Youtube vide. It was ugly, but it worked! I still want to build a $20 Cobb oven someday:

Build Your Own $20 Outdoor Cob Pizza Oven | The Year of Mud

Learn how to build your own outdoor, wood fired cob oven for $20 -- amazing for great homemade pizza and bread!

theyearofmud.com

Get yourself some sushi-grade fish!

https://www.reddit.com/r/CombiSteamOvenCooking/comments/stl8z5/comment/hxbxhc0

Make some sushi rice in your Instant Pot!

Best Instant Pot Sushi Rice | Tested by Amy + Jacky

You'll love this Super Tasty Sushi Rice for making your favorite sushi at home! Amazing texture, perfectly seasoned, & beautiful shiny gloss.

www.pressurecookrecipes.com

More on rice:

https://www.reddit.com/r/instantpot...utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1

 

[Kaido]

I'm not going to explain everything ITT. I'm a Top 1% poster on r/pizza on Reddit. I make my own dough, own sauce and use quality ingredients. My dough slowly does its magic in my fridge for 72-hours. This process is called cold fermentation. It's what separates good pizza from mediocre pizza. I put up pics weekly in the NEF thread here in ATOT if you ever want a fix.

Please share your sauce recipe!

 

[bigboxes]

Please share your sauce recipe!

Click on my Reddit link. Link to sauce recipe is in the comments!

 

[dank69]

 

[Muse]

I'm not going to explain everything ITT. I'm a Top 1% poster on r/pizza on Reddit. I make my own dough, own sauce and use quality ingredients. My dough slowly does its magic in my fridge for 72-hours. This process is called cold fermentation. It's what separates good pizza from mediocre pizza. I put up pics weekly in the NEF thread here in ATOT if you ever want a fix.

That's funny. I do that sometimes, wasn't aware that it improves the pizza. I remove a dough-ball from my freezer and by virtue of circumstances don't prepare the pizza for several days, leaving it meantime in the refrigerator.

Here's a detailed description of my usual methodology:

Page 126 - NEW: List some movies you've watched recently. Theatre, rental, TV... and give a */10

Page 126 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

forums.anandtech.com

 

[Kaido]

That's funny. I do that sometimes, wasn't aware that it improves the pizza. I remove a dough-ball from my freezer and by virtue of circumstances don't prepare the pizza for several days, leaving it meantime in the refrigerator.

Here's a detailed description of my usual methodology:

Page 126 - NEW: List some movies you've watched recently. Theatre, rental, TV... and give a */10

Page 126 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

forums.anandtech.com

The power of cold fermentation!

Better No-Knead Bread Recipe

You can modify this recipe to fit many different baking situations and improve your bread's flavor. Here, we explain the science behind no-knead bread.

www.seriouseats.com

It's like eating homemade chili, where it tastes better the next day lol

 

[Muse]

The power of cold fermentation!

Better No-Knead Bread Recipe

You can modify this recipe to fit many different baking situations and improve your bread's flavor. Here, we explain the science behind no-knead bread.

www.seriouseats.com

It's like eating homemade chili, where it tastes better the next day lol

It's like eating homemade chili, where it tastes better the next day lol

I have never succeeded in making a chili that satisfied me. My idea of terrific chili s Hormel Chili with No Beans. IMO, it's ideal!