Or learn from the master:
The physics of baking good pizza
61–70 of 159 posts
Re: The physics of baking good pizza
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having worked in Italian Pizzerias (in Italy), 2 days minimum for a decent crust, but the cheap places don't all do that.
2 days in the fridge? How many hours out after that? Tell us the secret!
At least two days, I'd say 5+ is best if you have the foresight.
To use, just take it out a few hours ahead of time so that it can warm up to RT and rise again.
Re: The physics of baking good pizza
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
My wife and I just made 4 pizzas on this last night. It is great but the edges around the pizza were golden brown and not that bubbly crispy crust you get in pizzerias. I am convinced now more than ever that the dough is the critical procedural element we were getting wrong. She used a 1 hour dough where even the pizza steel recommends a 72 hour one. Needless to say, she has one in the proofer for Wednesday night.
I highly suggest this recipe (From here: http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm ) Ingredient (grams) 1 Pie 3 Pied 5 Pies Filtered Water 110 330 550 King Arthur Bread flour 168 510 850 Kosher or Sea Salt 6 18 30 Sourdough yeast culture 15 45 60 Instant Dry yeast 0.5 1.5 2.5 All ingredients into mixer except 25% of flour. Mix on lowest speed for 1-2 minutes or until completely blended. Cover and Let it rest for 20 mi…
Good recommendation! Big fan of his work...
Re: The physics of baking good pizza
#64This paper is so oversimplified. If you're actually curious in the physics of food, check out the journal of food engineering. We use much more complex physical models to simulate the physics of food. Fun note, this is my job and it is pretty cool to really dig into the science behind cooking and then apply that to an industrial scale.
Related: I highly recommend the Cooking Issues podcast with Dave Arnold [ http://heritageradionetwork.org/series/cooking-issues/ ].
And this great book:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Food_and_Cooking
The science and history of food! Great illustrations too.
Re: The physics of baking good pizza
#65My Pizza Rules (not that anyone asked, but...) 1. Don't "Moat" your pizza. The barren expanse of dried sauce and over-sized crust is the classic sign of "moating" the pizza. Spread the majority of the toppings as close to the edge as you'd like your crust to be, and reduce the amount of toppings (cheese, sauce, etc.) at the center. As the pizza cooks, the crust will rise, and the toppings will naturally flow to the c…
"You can put a touch of sugar in the dough, or you can put a touch of sugar in the sauce, but don't put it in both. Corollary: If you put pineapple or other sweet toppings on the pie, don't put any sugar in the sauce or dough." As an Italian, I feel the urge to jump in here. Sugar in dough is used to kickoff/boost yeast levitation, while sugar in sauce is used to affect tomato acidity. In both cases, they are not int…
I use sugar in the dough for making it slightly brown and a tiny bit crunchy.
Re: The physics of baking good pizza
#66This post encouraged me to make account and leave a comment after couple years of read-only /sorry for bad english/ Long ago, in yearly middle-school time I am argue with friends about optimum(by combined simplicity and taste score) way to bake frozen pizza, and all about with electric heating oven VS microwave. After some time oven was chosen, but I thinked that made oven pre-heaten was waste of time and try to appr…
1) Frozen pizza is awful 2) To properly bake a pizza you need 350/400 C 3) Normal electrical ovens arrive to 220/240 C and the pizza becomes dry and crunchy 4) If you put a frozen pizza in a cold oven it will always be burnt because by the time the inside is cooked the outside has become overcooked and burnt 5) Please don’t make me cry writing pizza misadventures :’(
>4) If you put a frozen pizza in a cold oven it will always be burnt because by the time the inside is cooked the outside has become overcooked and burnt
This seems backwards. The hotter the oven, the less time for the heat to diffuse inwards before the outside is burnt. The lower the temperature, the more even the heat.
I'd imagine the reason not to put it before it's done preheating is standardization. If my oven takes 5 minutes and yours takes 10 to get to 400, there's no way to write one single set of directions for how long to cook it from the time of powering it on. It's hard enough with everyone's different freezer temperatures.
Re: The physics of baking good pizza
#67This paper is so oversimplified. If you're actually curious in the physics of food, check out the journal of food engineering. We use much more complex physical models to simulate the physics of food. Fun note, this is my job and it is pretty cool to really dig into the science behind cooking and then apply that to an industrial scale.
Any specific fun recommendations for a similar target audience as OP?
Re: The physics of baking good pizza
#68For anybody interested in making pizza at home, /r/pizza is a fantastic resource.
Making your own pizza is fun and you can make some decent pies with only a little bit of practice.
For home ovens use bread flour. If you end up getting into making pizza, then go down the 00 flour + wood fire oven route.. but until then your home oven can produce some really outstanding pies.
Re: The physics of baking good pizza
#69Re: The physics of baking good pizza
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think there's probably some cultural assumptions in your list. I tend to assume Neapolitan style when talking about pizza, but I know this is not the default for most people. That is - 450C (at least), cooking time under 90s, thin / crisp crust, with minimal toppings. In AU this is not hard to find, but there certainly are plenty of chain pizza restaurants that go for the heavy, piled-on, thick crust, 10 minutes to…
They also import Manitoba flour in Italy to make pizza. High gluten is a must or it will just fall apart if it is the right thickness / cooked correctly. 90 seconds is faster than usual, but yes it is cooked fast. Neapolitan in Italy means thicker crust than other regions, but you are probably right that is what you are eating. Outside of Italy I am not sure many people would be able to recognize the difference.
The 90s maximum thing was told to me by the bread chef at River Cottage (woo!) ... I did subsequently check, and it seems to be legit in terms of being able to be called a Neapolitan style pizza [1] -- you need to have it cooked in under 90s.
There's some other quite specific requirements, around thinness of dough, and flour type.
I gather the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana is a bit like the Comité Champagne - eager to protect their good name, and for good reason.