The physics of baking good pizza • Hacker News Board

Re: The physics of baking good pizza

#131

Post by Freak_NL » Mon, Jul 02, 2018, 1:42 PM UTC

jules wrote: post #117

Jaruzel wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> However, I don't know if it's healthy to consume them too often. Frozen meals tend to have very high levels of salt in them. They also have poor quality ingredients, so are not as nutritional as you think. If you must live on frozen meals, try making them in large quantities yourself over a weekend, and freeze them. Most basic 'meat & vegetables' meals can be frozen and re-heated.

Is salt still considered bad for you?

When you eat too much of it, certainly.

It is generally thought that we eat way more salt than is considered healthy. Too much salt increases the risk of high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases, and kidney failure.

The Dutch government — to cite just one example — states that 80% of people in the Netherlands eat too much salt¹; i.e., more than 6 grammes per day, and lists the health issues mentioned above.

Conversely, eating too little salt is quire rare nowadays due to the high amount of salt in store bought products.

1: https://www.voedingscentrum.nl/encyclopedie/zout-en-natrium....

Re: The physics of baking good pizza

#132

Post by ms512 » Mon, Jul 02, 2018, 1:48 PM UTC

I recently read Ken Forkish's Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza and found his discussion about how to use temperature and time to produce good bread and pizza enlightening.

Re: The physics of baking good pizza

#133

Post by sdiepend » Mon, Jul 02, 2018, 2:15 PM UTC

panabee wrote: post #83

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.

this is very cool! 1) what's the most helpful physics-based cooking tip most people aren't aware of? 2) are there efforts in food engineering to apply machine learning to recipes in the same way some projects are trying to automate other creative functions like graphic design?

2)https://www.foodpairing.com/en/about-foodpairing

Re: The physics of baking good pizza

#134

Post by sgc » Mon, Jul 02, 2018, 2:33 PM UTC

exhilaration wrote: post #52

sgc wrote: post #48

Earlier 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!

It's not a formula! Take it out when you start prep for the evening, so it's at least 90 minutes before first use. But pizza made at close will be different than pizza made at the beginning of the shift.

Re: The physics of baking good pizza

#135

Post by sgc » Mon, Jul 02, 2018, 2:40 PM UTC

Jedd wrote: post #70

sgc wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 -…

I can tell you straight up that in the real world that is not what happens most of the time. It's also not always Oak, many places use Beech or similar woods. It's virtually impossible to run an oven with 20 pizzas in it at that pace, and I have worked with some incredible Pizzaioli. I am also far from convinced that keeping it under 2 minutes makes the best pizza, and there were many times where we considered the oven too hot and had to damper it to cook properly. A lower temp--but very well heated for appropriate thermal mass--oven was the bee's knees.

Re: The physics of baking good pizza

#136

Post by sgc » Mon, Jul 02, 2018, 2:41 PM UTC

sgc wrote: post #134

exhilaration wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2 days in the fridge? How many hours out after that? Tell us the secret!

It's not a formula! Take it out when you start prep for the evening, so it's at least 90 minutes before first use. But pizza made at close will be different than pizza made at the beginning of the shift.

Forgot to mention: It is a perpetual starter--take a pizza worth of dough to start the next batch (for maybe 100 pizzas).

Re: The physics of baking good pizza

#137

Post by Tomte » Mon, Jul 02, 2018, 2:47 PM UTC

chrissnell wrote: post #7

Tomte wrote: post #5

I relented and bought a pizza steel. Best thing ever. And not as over the top as a dedicated wood-fired oven (single use: pizza) for garden or balcony. It's my 80% solution.

My plan is to get a pizza steel and do the cooking in my Big Green Egg. I can get the egg up to at least 700 F and I should be able to cook the pizza in a few minutes at that temp. The kamado ceramic body of the BGE will retain heat well and cook from both top and bottom. The oak wood should add nice flavor, too.

Never heard about a "Big Green Egg". Thanks for mentioning it.

Are there versions that don't cost the equivalent of a small car?

Re: The physics of baking good pizza

#138

Post by numbol » Mon, Jul 02, 2018, 2:49 PM UTC

tigershark wrote: post #18

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…

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 :’(

1) agree, probably between awful and tolerable 2) yep, but in most home it isn't available(maybe in most homes in all remembered areas, excluding countryside) 3) yes(but one another time i have pyroelectric autocleaning oven and accidentally burnt accesories in it) 4) partly agree, but partly have ideas like ihm and franciscop https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17439057

sorry for slow answer

Re: The physics of baking good pizza

#139

Post by numbol » Mon, Jul 02, 2018, 2:54 PM UTC

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #78

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.

Yes, at least not worse than made-by-guideline freezed\simple recepies. This branch have some similar thoughts https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17439057

Re: The physics of baking good pizza

#140

Post by numbol » Mon, Jul 02, 2018, 2:56 PM UTC

pen2l wrote: post #30

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…

No problem about bad English. But hey, can I ask you what your first language is? Very curious to know!

Cyrillic based east european ._.