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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)

#91

Post by mb22 »

There is some good stuff in this recipe. It's a great starting point for learning.

I built a wood burning pizza oven and have been doing experiments for 5+ years, and what I've discovered is only certain things make a taste-able difference.

1. Oven. 900 degrees baby. Pizza cooks fast, and tastes delicious. You can get the "leoparding" on the edges. 100% worth it if you have time and space.

2. Yeast. Get the Ischia: https://www.amazon.com/Italian-Ischia-Camaldoli-Sourdough-Cu... it's a very light sourdough that imparts a delicious almost floral taste. I put a little bit of IDY in the mix to help sometimes, but this yeast is delicious.

3. Autolyse. Let everything but the salt sit for 30-45 minutes to generate gluten.

Here's my dough spreadsheet that auto calculates ratios and hydration %: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1b46NnndcrK9ImRXx5BW8...

I'm happy to answer more questions if people are interested.

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

#92

Post by damnfinecoffee »

tribby wrote: post #3

surprised to see this here, but it doesn't have style sheets, so maybe not too surprised ;) jeff varasano's website is a great resource for pizza hackers and lays a lot of myths to rest (like proofing). my own process (which I cook in a blackstone pizza oven at ~800°) has a bit more in common with tony gemignani's basic neopolitan (described in his pizza bible ), with the addition of the earlier and longer autolysing…

Have you found any good places in the south bay? I have so far been unsuccessful and would love an option that doesn't require a trip into the city

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

#93

Post by olleromam91 »

To me...These do not look like traditional New York Style Pizza. The solid chunks of Mozzarella are pretty direct Naples style.

If you want a SERIOUSLY thin crust NY style pizza from a hole in the wall shop in the Bay Area, I highly recommend Arinell in the Mission. Nice big 3 dollar cheese slices, served on a piece of parchment paper. No bells and whistles...just delicious

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

#94

Post by ccmonnett »

tribby wrote: post #3

surprised to see this here, but it doesn't have style sheets, so maybe not too surprised ;) jeff varasano's website is a great resource for pizza hackers and lays a lot of myths to rest (like proofing). my own process (which I cook in a blackstone pizza oven at ~800°) has a bit more in common with tony gemignani's basic neopolitan (described in his pizza bible ), with the addition of the earlier and longer autolysing…

Awesome! I saved every one since I've never been to any... can you do the South Bay/Peninsula (anyone else too)?

About the OP: I effing _love_ pizza but struggle to make it at home. The quality and quantity of knowledge in this post is fantastic!

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

#95

Post by [deleted] »

aeromusek wrote: post #59
jbigelow76 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get why other areas of the country have such a hard time making decent pizza. I was on a neighborhood tour of the Lower West Side a few weeks back and this came up when we sampled slices from what I think was the 2nd oldest pizzeria in NY. The guides attributed it to two things. One, the water used, the NY water supply comes from springs in the Catskills Mountains which have some sort of environmental protect…

Freakonimics (great podcast!) did a test a few years back that pretty convincingly dispelled the whole 'it's the water' argument: http://podcastnotes.org/2015/11/09/freakonomics-food-science...

[deleted]

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

#96

Post by stevep98 »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #40
2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

When I tried cornmeal in a pizza oven, I ended up with what looked like black styrofoam. I think the corn 'popped' then burned. What did I do wrong?

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

#97

Post by mastax »

contingencies wrote: post #84

FYI for Americans: when you describe pizza as pie and non-American English speakers are listening, their inner child recoils in horror. pizza = flat thing with cheese on top, pizza base at bottom pie = closed thing with significant vertical component, pastry on top and bottom Otherwise, every flatbread or similar thing on earth is a pie. Observe: "Oh, I really dig these Indian roti -pies". "Pass me another naan -pie"…

pizza pie is an NYC-ism, as far as I'm aware. It sounds strange to me, at least.

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

#98

Post by mrkgnao »

contingencies wrote: post #84

FYI for Americans: when you describe pizza as pie and non-American English speakers are listening, their inner child recoils in horror. pizza = flat thing with cheese on top, pizza base at bottom pie = closed thing with significant vertical component, pastry on top and bottom Otherwise, every flatbread or similar thing on earth is a pie. Observe: "Oh, I really dig these Indian roti -pies". "Pass me another naan -pie"…

My first exposure to this was Kramer on Seinfeld talking about how people want to make their own "pizza pies".

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

#99

Post by MegaDeKay »

princeb wrote: post #39
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 qu…

Do what I do and put all your formulas and methods into a spreadsheet. This a) gets back some of your geek cred, b) makes it trivial to scale the recipe up and down, and c) makes it easier to share recipes with friends if you use something like Google Sheets. I also make many different breads, and found that with a spreadsheet I was much better at putting notes for next time ("try with 15g less water next time"), updating my method ("a cookie sheet on the bottom rack of the oven helped prevent scorching"), or adding links to a bread I want to try in the future.

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

#100

Post by ccgus »

mb22 wrote: post #91

There is some good stuff in this recipe. It's a great starting point for learning. I built a wood burning pizza oven and have been doing experiments for 5+ years, and what I've discovered is only certain things make a taste-able difference. 1. Oven. 900 degrees baby. Pizza cooks fast, and tastes delicious. You can get the "leoparding" on the edges. 100% worth it if you have time and space. 2. Yeast. Get the Ischia: h…

I 100% endorse these recommendations (I say this as someone who makes 3-6 pizzas a weekend, with an oven that does 900+ degrees as well).

I'll also put in a little plug for my dough calculator here: http://maybepizza.com/calc/ , which is a bit more accessible on hand held devices.

I like that you're keeping a historical record on your spreadsheet- that's a neat idea.

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