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The Food Lab: Why Does Pepperoni Curl?

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Re: The Food Lab: Why Does Pepperoni Curl?

#21
Oddly while growing up in Ohio it was a long time before I ever saw pepperoni cooked on a pizza so that it curled and darkened. The popular local chain; Cornersburg Pizza only put the pepperoni on the pizza after it was done cooking.

still its nice to read articles who go out of their way to find out something you didn't think you needed to think about

Re: The Food Lab: Why Does Pepperoni Curl?

#22

Haha! My friend is in the Chicago Tribune today for his new pizzeria in Chicago and he managed to sneak in a reference to the grease chalice: http://www.chicagotribune.com/dining/restaurants/ct-paulie-g...

That image of the square cut deep dish is so very NSWH. Heck, I'm fully sated at the moment and I want that in my mouth right now. I may have to plan a trip to Chicago.

Re: The Food Lab: Why Does Pepperoni Curl?

#23
He didn't address one of the most important aspects of pizza making, though: the heat source itself!

Other pizzas use a variety of heat sources, but Neapolitan pizza is baked at between 750 and 1,000 degrees in wood-burning ovens. I can't imagine even an improperly-packed pepperoni wouldn't curl a bit under 800+ degrees of real flame. Of course the stuffing causes density changes, but at a certain point the surface tension/temperature differential will simply have to cause some curling. Next time i'm at my friend's house for a bonfire i'll toss a couple different forms of pepperoni in to test this.

Re: The Food Lab: Why Does Pepperoni Curl?

#24
post #16

If you have any beyond-superficial interest in food, Serious Eats columns by Lopez-Alt are a guaranteed treat. A personal favorite is the article on getting perfect french fries in McDonalds style, including managing to get a bag of still-frozen fries for in-depth analysis. A true food hack. http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/05/the-burger-lab-h...

Kenji's (cook)book, The Food Lab , is also great, though it doesn't include everything he has on the blog. It's also inexpensive enough to make a great random gift for foodie friends, despite being a hefty hardcover: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0393081087 If you like his stuff, you might also enjoy the Cooking Issues podcast, particularly the earlier episodes. It's a bantercast mixed with food science, cooking cal…

This is unbelievable. The last months I've been enjoying his crazy good lasagne and ragu recipes. Like the best I've ever had, made by me. Yesterday I bought this book and now it's in hn...

If you love food and try to be a better cook, here's some good material. Too bad some ingredients, like chilies are a bit tough to find in Germany...

Re: The Food Lab: Why Does Pepperoni Curl?

#25
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kenji's (cook)book, The Food Lab , is also great, though it doesn't include everything he has on the blog. It's also inexpensive enough to make a great random gift for foodie friends, despite being a hefty hardcover: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0393081087 If you like his stuff, you might also enjoy the Cooking Issues podcast, particularly the earlier episodes. It's a bantercast mixed with food science, cooking cal…

This is unbelievable. The last months I've been enjoying his crazy good lasagne and ragu recipes. Like the best I've ever had, made by me. Yesterday I bought this book and now it's in hn... If you love food and try to be a better cook, here's some good material. Too bad some ingredients, like chilies are a bit tough to find in Germany...

Chilies are pretty simple to grow yourself, even just by using the seeds from a dried one. A happy plant produces lots of chilies and the freeze fine for most uses. They don't like the cold, though, so depending which part of Germany you're in you might need to keep it indoors (but still with access to a few hours of sun a day).

Re: The Food Lab: Why Does Pepperoni Curl?

#26
post #25
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is unbelievable. The last months I've been enjoying his crazy good lasagne and ragu recipes. Like the best I've ever had, made by me. Yesterday I bought this book and now it's in hn... If you love food and try to be a better cook, here's some good material. Too bad some ingredients, like chilies are a bit tough to find in Germany...

Chilies are pretty simple to grow yourself, even just by using the seeds from a dried one. A happy plant produces lots of chilies and the freeze fine for most uses. They don't like the cold, though, so depending which part of Germany you're in you might need to keep it indoors (but still with access to a few hours of sun a day).

Planning to do that chili con carne next Sunday, so no time to grow the plants... Also electricity is super expensive in Berlin, so any artificial growing lights will break my monthly budget.

Re: The Food Lab: Why Does Pepperoni Curl?

#27
post #4
post #3

This isn't a hard question. There's two reasons pepperonis curl. One is that the top is cooking faster than the bottom, and as with any piece of meat that will cause it to curl towards the surface being cooked faster. The other reason is that the edge of the pepperoni cooks faster than the middle, that means that the edge experiences tension which causes the pepperoni to fold.

And a third reason is simply because pepperonis can't be bothered to wget

For this application, I feel you'd be better off with HTTPie.

No really, it's ace: https://github.com/jkbrzt/httpie

Re: The Food Lab: Why Does Pepperoni Curl?

#28
post #26
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chilies are pretty simple to grow yourself, even just by using the seeds from a dried one. A happy plant produces lots of chilies and the freeze fine for most uses. They don't like the cold, though, so depending which part of Germany you're in you might need to keep it indoors (but still with access to a few hours of sun a day).

Planning to do that chili con carne next Sunday, so no time to grow the plants... Also electricity is super expensive in Berlin, so any artificial growing lights will break my monthly budget.

I'd love to visit (or work in) Berlin. Can you find whole dried chili peppers, or canned? They're obviously not as good as fresh, but they'll still be delicious.

Dried chiles are very lightweight, so probably not very expensive to have shipped to you in bulk. They're easy to rehydrate (and you can use hot stock instead of water for extra flavor):

http://www.chilipeppermadness.com/cooking-with-chili-peppers...

Re: The Food Lab: Why Does Pepperoni Curl?

#29
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kenji's (cook)book, The Food Lab , is also great, though it doesn't include everything he has on the blog. It's also inexpensive enough to make a great random gift for foodie friends, despite being a hefty hardcover: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0393081087 If you like his stuff, you might also enjoy the Cooking Issues podcast, particularly the earlier episodes. It's a bantercast mixed with food science, cooking cal…

This is unbelievable. The last months I've been enjoying his crazy good lasagne and ragu recipes. Like the best I've ever had, made by me. Yesterday I bought this book and now it's in hn... If you love food and try to be a better cook, here's some good material. Too bad some ingredients, like chilies are a bit tough to find in Germany...

According to Google, there's a place called Pfefferhaus in Berlin, all things hot.

http://pfefferhaus.de/de/Pfefferhaus-Berlin.html

Re: The Food Lab: Why Does Pepperoni Curl?

#30
post #3

This isn't a hard question. There's two reasons pepperonis curl. One is that the top is cooking faster than the bottom, and as with any piece of meat that will cause it to curl towards the surface being cooked faster. The other reason is that the edge of the pepperoni cooks faster than the middle, that means that the edge experiences tension which causes the pepperoni to fold.

You didn't read the article. You're partly wrong. He explains why you are partly wrong and much more.
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