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The physics of baking good pizza

arxiv.org

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Re: The physics of baking good pizza

#71

Post by Larrikin »

bwoodward wrote: post #68

For 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. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Pizza/wiki/rec…

The reddit probably has decent content, but the community at the pizza making forum is one of the most dedicated I've seen for something unrelated to gaming or software. Post have slowed down but it seems like that might be because they've figured out how to recreate nearly every pizza from every restaurant you can think of.

[1] https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php

Re: The physics of baking good pizza

#72

Post by kovek »

chaosbutters314 wrote: post #42

This 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.

I realized that some frozen meals must be better than others. Thus, there must be a frozen meal that is best. I think cooking methods relate to that. I really appreciate those because they can be very cheap yet nutritious. However, I don't know if it's healthy to consume them too often.

Re: The physics of baking good pizza

#74

Post by dboreham »

fnordsensei wrote: post #73

Does anyone have any tips on how to use buffalo mozzarella on a pizza (baked in a normal oven)? The lower fat content means it doesn't spread very effectively.

It isn’t supposed to spread. Just tear it into chunks spaced apart and roll with it. There will be pizza real estate with no cheese, don’t panic. YouTube has videos showing how it’s done.

Re: The physics of baking good pizza

#75

Post by dboreham »

jazoom wrote: post #65
mahesh_rm wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

Olive oil is for that purpose. Sugar is to feed yeast. It won’t be there by the time the dough is fired.

Re: The physics of baking good pizza

#76

Post by shaklee3 »

Obi_Juan_Kenobi wrote: post #60
bobbybroadcast wrote: post #33

Earlier 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.

Good dough is easy: * Use bread flour * Let it sit refrigerated for a few days before use. 1-2 weeks is pretty ideal. Compared to a fresh dough, you'll get that nice crispy crust and chewy, flavorful interior.

1-2 weeks is far too long for a yeasted dough to sit in a refrigerator. 2-5 days would be the max.

Re: The physics of baking good pizza

#77

Post by mtd »

gry wrote: post #47
chaosbutters314 wrote: post #42

This 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/ ].

See also this edx course: https://www.edx.org/course/science-cooking-from-haute-cuisin...

Re: The physics of baking good pizza

#78

Post by PhasmaFelis »

numbol wrote: post #13

This 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…

I am very curious if you had any success baking pizza starting from a cold oven.

Re: The physics of baking good pizza

#79

Post by PhasmaFelis »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #36
tigershark wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :’(

I've actually had some really good frozen pizzas. The best ones I ever had were actually $4 frozen pizzas from the supermarket that were made in Italy. I'm not sure how they made a pizza in Italy and shipped it to NZ and managed to sell it for $4, but they were great, or at least the quattro fromaggio ones were. The ones with any frozen vegetables like mushrooms were sort of crap, the mushrooms went all watery. In my…

I really, really love Red Baron frozen pizza. I dunno, I think it's the crust maybe? It's crisp but not cracker-like, a bit buttery, almost pastry-ish.

(Geez, I sound like a shill. After 5 years and 8000+ HN karma, Red Baron's sockpuppet account finally pays off!)

Re: The physics of baking good pizza

#80

Post by dopeboy »

Long time pizza enthusiast here. I've just gotten into the pursuit of making Neapolitan pizza after buying a pizza oven. I'm still coming up short and would love some tips.

I've documented more on my blog but I'm still getting wrinkles, uneven leopard patterning, and stiff edges on the crust.

[0] - http://dopeboy.github.io/roccbox-pizza/

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