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Jeff Varasano's Famous New York Pizza Recipe (2008)

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Re: Jeff Varasano's Famous New York Pizza Recipe (2008)

#31

Post by NoGravitas »

ashark wrote: post #28
MikeTaylor wrote: post #4

Folks who know pizza: What can those us with regular ovens do? You know, the sort of oven you find in most kitchens that top out at 250C (500F)?

I get ok results even with thin crust at 550F. Baking stone is a must. Cover with parchment paper right before putting the pizza on, optionally (we had issues with our stones cracking before we started doing that). You want a peel. Coarse ground cornmeal, coarse Durham wheat flour, and other course-ground wheat products all work well to keep your dough mobile. Make sure you can shake it on the peel before trying to t…

Going to agree here. I get "OK" results at between 550F and 600F (preheat gas oven which runs a little hot on 500, then turn on broiler). This is about a 6 minute pizza. It's not perfect, but it's almost as good as the best NY-style pizza place in my small city, and much better than any of the chains.

Re: Jeff Varasano's Famous New York Pizza Recipe (2008)

#32

Post by ashark »

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #29
JustSomeNobody wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been making my own pizza at home for around a decade now and your 5 points are very good advice. I think 5 is probably the most important. I have recently been on a calzone kick[0] and have been experimenting with different ratios of cheeses. [0] Not sure why I've never tried before. I guess because the pizza's been so good.

What kind of results are you guys getting? I tried for a while but then gave up. Just not hot enough. I actually found Jeff's recipe waaay back before he opened his restaurant, I remember him announcing it, and I was really upset when I got to the oven temperatures.

Better than anything but the fancy, expensive pizza joints around here. 550F max oven. Even bread machine dough pizza comes out pretty damn good. Hard to do worse than major chain pizza, certainly, unless you accidentally leave out crucial ingredients or have some similarly disastrous mishap.

Re: Jeff Varasano's Famous New York Pizza Recipe (2008)

#33

Post by teh_klev »

huhtenberg wrote: post #18
MikeTaylor wrote: post #4

Folks who know pizza: What can those us with regular ovens do? You know, the sort of oven you find in most kitchens that top out at 250C (500F)?

Baking Steel can _sort of_ get you close to a proper pizza oven, but it's expensive, exceptionally heavy and still not quite "it" - http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2012/09/the-pizza-lab-... Pizza stones or ceramic tiles don't work well in the ovens, even though they are often marketed for oven use. They are great on BBQ grills though. OTOH, the Fool Proof pan pizza is excellent and works every time - http://www…

A buddy of mine has an uuni3 which has baked quite few lovely looking pizzas for him:

https://uk.uuni.net/collections/frontpage/products/uuni-3

He also takes it on holidays and trips.

Re: Jeff Varasano's Famous New York Pizza Recipe (2008)

#34

Post by rlonstein »

ashark wrote: post #28
MikeTaylor wrote: post #4

Folks who know pizza: What can those us with regular ovens do? You know, the sort of oven you find in most kitchens that top out at 250C (500F)?

I get ok results even with thin crust at 550F. Baking stone is a must. Cover with parchment paper right before putting the pizza on, optionally (we had issues with our stones cracking before we started doing that). You want a peel. Coarse ground cornmeal, coarse Durham wheat flour, and other course-ground wheat products all work well to keep your dough mobile. Make sure you can shake it on the peel before trying to t…

> You can probably get away with a lower oven temp with > pan pizza. Oil cast iron pan, preheat oven

I've been making homemade pan pizzas for years using aluminum half sheet pans (like this https://www.webstaurantstore.com/bakers-mark-18-x-13-half-si...) and a convection oven set to 550 or whatever it'll heat to. My observations:

* dough should be cool but close to room temp

* let the oven stand at the set temperature for at least ten minutes before using it.

* lightly bake the dough without toppings first on the lowest rack setting or directly on the bottom of the oven so the pan heats and the bottom of the pizza crisps.

* if using a tomato sauce, apply sparingly and bake again for a few minutes to drive off some moisture.

* use less toppings than you think

Re: Jeff Varasano's Famous New York Pizza Recipe (2008)

#35

Post by Dowwie »

camperman wrote: post #15

I've been using this recipe for a good seven or eight years now and it has never let me down. But you really do need an oven that is capable of 800F. I eventually knuckled down and bought a small dedicated pizza oven with a thermometer.

How often do you make pizza?

Re: Jeff Varasano's Famous New York Pizza Recipe (2008)

#36

Post by rlonstein »

dsr_ wrote: post #8
MikeTaylor wrote: post #4

Folks who know pizza: What can those us with regular ovens do? You know, the sort of oven you find in most kitchens that top out at 250C (500F)?

1. Make great dough. The ingredients are cheap, it doesn't take much manual time -- but you want to let it ferment in your refrigerator at least overnight. 2. Make your own sauce. The ingredients are cheap, and a little experimentation will get it to the taste that you want. 3. Don't overtop it. The natural tendency is to want more - more sauce, more cheese, more whatever else. Start off very simply. Scatter little b…

> 5. Experiment.

This.

I improvised a pan "pizza" that the whole family likes that's non-traditional but delicious... Dice 1/2lb of thick bacon or pancetta. Dice a few yellow potatoes. While the meat bits brown in a pan, parboil the potatoes. Chop a bunch of rinsed kale. Drain the potatoes. Set aside the meat, reserving the fat in two portions. Cook chopped garlic with a dash of salt in one portion of fat, about a minute, then cook down the kale until it softens and reduces in size, a few minutes. Get a second pan very hot, add the second portion of fat, and fry the potatoes until golden. Before removing the potatoes from the heat, toss with garlic, rosemary, oregano, and a little salt, cooking a minute. Now use these to top a dough and sprinkle with just a couple of ounces of shredded mozzarella and fresh grated romano.

Re: Jeff Varasano's Famous New York Pizza Recipe (2008)

#38

Post by blehn »

shaklee3 wrote: post #22
subpixel wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree - not about Una Pizza in particular but about the Neopolitan style in general. When pizza crust resembles naan (overly soft, pliable after baking) things have gone too far.

This is from the Italian 00 flour. I think it's a nice alternative.

It's not from the flour — most of those other places use 00 flour as well. It's from the dough not being stretched as thin.

Re: Jeff Varasano's Famous New York Pizza Recipe (2008)

#39

Post by princeb »

lhl wrote: post #6

Here's a couple interviews from a few years back on what it was like to transition from basically an extremely dedicated hobbyist to a pro (Varasano opened his first restaurant in 2009): http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2014/04/jeff-varasano-... http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2014/04/the-slice-inte...

this guy reminds me of Ken Forkish whose book "Flour Water Salt Yeast" is a James Beard award winner (like J Kenji's "The Food Lab") and is considered one of the bibles of bread making. he also owns a bakery in Portland that is supposed to be very good (never tried, can't say).

also reminds me of the microsoft solitaire guy who eventually left software and started an apple farm and a cider brewery.

i am personally quite into bread baking, which is apparently quite a curiousity among my friends. "oh, computer guys don't bake do they?" but i think i'm personally attracted to music or cooking or baking or programming in the same way because they all involve creating something new. The process of getting from nothing to something is miraculous. creating both bread and software gives me the same sense of satisfaction. maybe bread moreso because of how tactile the process is.

Re: Jeff Varasano's Famous New York Pizza Recipe (2008)

#40

Post by Eric_WVGG »

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #29
JustSomeNobody wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been making my own pizza at home for around a decade now and your 5 points are very good advice. I think 5 is probably the most important. I have recently been on a calzone kick[0] and have been experimenting with different ratios of cheeses. [0] Not sure why I've never tried before. I guess because the pizza's been so good.

What kind of results are you guys getting? I tried for a while but then gave up. Just not hot enough. I actually found Jeff's recipe waaay back before he opened his restaurant, I remember him announcing it, and I was really upset when I got to the oven temperatures.

I've found that you can coax some extra heat from an uncooperative oven via a cast iron "cookie sheet" (flat side of a griddle). https://www.amazon.com/Lodge-LDP3-Reversible-9-5-inch-16-75-... (flat side)

Preheat the oven with the cookie sheet inside, prepare your pizza on a lightweight cutting board. The trick is to slide the uncooked pizza onto the hot sheet. A dusting of cornmeal on the cutting board will make the pizza positively glide off, but purists will bicker…

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