Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to make pizza like a Neapolitan master

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 297 posts

Re: How to make pizza like a Neapolitan master

#281

Post by 1123581321 »

toyg wrote: post #66
teekert wrote: post #63

I'm surprised they use yeast and not sourdough as that would add more flavor. Sourdough is surprisingly easy to make and maintain btw. During these wfh days especially: Just mix 50grams of flour with 50 grams of water and leave in an open container for a couple of days, when you see bubbles, put half of is (50gr) together with 25gr of flour and 25gr of water, repeat. In a bread of 500 grams of meal and 250 ml of wate…

For the daily "HN teaches you to" segment: HN teaches Neapolitan pizza master how to make pizza.

This comment lessens the discussion; the one you replied to does not, even if it is not the best suggestion.

Re: How to make pizza like a Neapolitan master

#282

Post by perl4ever »

albmoriconi wrote: post #64
slow_donkey wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would instant yeast have an effect on slow rising? You'd just use a smaller amount than AD or cake yeast? I can't think of any significant difference especially compared to AD.

It seems that I wrongly thought that "instant yeast" was what we call "lievito istantaneo", i.e. baking powder, that would give a a pretty different end-product. It looks like it can also refer to instant active yeast, i.e. dehydrated beer yeast, that should actually be fine as far as I can tell (I have no idea of exact proportions however).

As far as I know, beer yeast is different from bread yeast these days. Instant yeast for baking is said to be dried using a process that is gentler and kills fewer cells.

Re: How to make pizza like a Neapolitan master

#283

Post by perl4ever »

systemvoltage wrote: post #214
ggsp wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Grams are a thing ;)

Most people have a hard time measuring 0.02% baking percentage of 200g flour. Not because they don't know what grams is, but because they don't have the equipment or means to measure it. Everytime I hear someone say things about units, it is not that people don't understand - there are other issues around that. For example, Americans know that metric system is better but they can't just switch solo until the entire n…

In my opinion, the only way to cook/bake is with a digital scale, and as far as I know, any scale you'd buy in the US has the option of grams or ounces at the push of a button.

In practice, I constantly use both. To some extent it depends on the packaging of the ingredients, which may use either unit.

When measuring small things, it's only practical to use teaspoons and fractions, but otherwise I weigh everything. I even tend to weigh liquids in dry ounces sometimes, as I've memorized 8 fluid ounces = 8.337 dry ounces.

Using different measuring systems is no more of a mark of inferiority than using different languages. And similarly to languages, modern technology makes it fairly easy to translate even if you don't know.

It is definitely a misconception that you don't see metric measurements in the US. They're everywhere, including your car, school, stores...

Re: How to make pizza like a Neapolitan master

#284

Post by alanfranz »

phonypc wrote: post #277
alanfranz wrote: post #25

Norther Italian here: the recipe for the dough is reasonable. I usually go for 500g flour (typically a mix of 0 and 00 which I find at my grocery store) and 300ml water. If you want a much quicker fermentation, You can use between 15g and 25g of yeast. Put a couple teaspoons of sugar to let the yeast work better, and make sure the water is between 20°C and 45°C. But the most interesting idea for home baking is the "d…

> Norther Italian here No offence intended, I'm genuinely curious; isn't pizza a southern thing? This reads to me like a person from the northern US weighing in on BBQ. It's perfectly allowed, but why qualify with northern?

> This reads to me like a person from the northern US weighing in on BBQ

The US is much larger than Italy, you know!

By the way, I qualified as "Northern" exactly for the "southern thing" reason. Pizza is an italian staple and, as such, different regions have different recipes and dough styles - not just trying to imitate the "original" version. Such original version is Neapolitan pizza, which is indeed very good.

But it's hard to bake a true Neapolitan pizza at home. Would you prepare your dough 24 hours before? Have you got the right temperature where to leave it? Does your oven reach 450°C ? So I chimed in with some suggestions to bake a good pizza at home - and, as far as I know, most people use a variation of such recipe when at home. Including people from Neaples!

I wasn't commenting on the perfect dough for the perfect Neapolitan pizza for a pizzeria; that's far beyond my competence levels.

EDIT: after all, from my comment it COULD look like I was commenting on the "Neapolitan master" pizza recipe; that was not my intention. My bad. My suggestion is valid for HOME BAKING.

Re: How to make pizza like a Neapolitan master

#285

Post by alanfranz »

alanfranz wrote: post #25

Norther Italian here: the recipe for the dough is reasonable. I usually go for 500g flour (typically a mix of 0 and 00 which I find at my grocery store) and 300ml water. If you want a much quicker fermentation, You can use between 15g and 25g of yeast. Put a couple teaspoons of sugar to let the yeast work better, and make sure the water is between 20°C and 45°C. But the most interesting idea for home baking is the "d…

CLARIFICATION: those are suggestions for a dough for a good home-baked pizza. Don't take as a guideline for a professional Neapolitan dough.

Re: How to make pizza like a Neapolitan master

#286

Post by toyg »

1123581321 wrote: post #281
toyg wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the daily "HN teaches you to" segment: HN teaches Neapolitan pizza master how to make pizza.

This comment lessens the discussion; the one you replied to does not, even if it is not the best suggestion.

Sometime the discussion needs a reality check.

Re: How to make pizza like a Neapolitan master

#287

Post by Arnt »

perl4ever wrote: post #283
systemvoltage wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people have a hard time measuring 0.02% baking percentage of 200g flour. Not because they don't know what grams is, but because they don't have the equipment or means to measure it. Everytime I hear someone say things about units, it is not that people don't understand - there are other issues around that. For example, Americans know that metric system is better but they can't just switch solo until the entire n…

In my opinion, the only way to cook/bake is with a digital scale, and as far as I know, any scale you'd buy in the US has the option of grams or ounces at the push of a button. In practice, I constantly use both. To some extent it depends on the packaging of the ingredients, which may use either unit. When measuring small things, it's only practical to use teaspoons and fractions, but otherwise I weigh everything. I…

For this sort of dough you may need e.g. 1.8g of yeast (that's the actual quantity I used for the last dough I made). It depends on how much flour you make, of course, but pizza doughs with long fermentation use minute amounts of yeast. If you use 1.6g or 2.0g instead of 1.8g, your pizza may be ready twelve hours too soon or too late.

I bought a second kitchen scale to deal with the minute quantities, since my old one is accurate to only 1g.

Re: How to make pizza like a Neapolitan master

#288

Post by misiti3780 »

bearzoo wrote: post #196
airstrike wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try Pizzarte and Naples 45 in Midtown And for a different type of pizza but honestly my favorite pizza on Earth, try the Portobello pizza at Mediterraneo on the UES. They have no idea how good that pizza is otherwise they'd turn the whole place into a pizzeria and just do that everyday

in NYC una is the best i've found. it easily competes with the best in naples (in my opinion)

i second this, una pizza is delicious, but you can find a slightly better pizza at song e napoli on west houston

https://songenapule.nyc/

Re: How to make pizza like a Neapolitan master

#289

Post by misiti3780 »

pachico wrote: post #234
misiti3780 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ciao, Come siete ? I'm not sure if you have ever been to NYC but an interesting observation I have had with Gino Sorbillo is the pizza in Napoli is very good, but he/they opened a restaurant in NYC and it's absolutely average at best. I assume they import everything, but quality wise, the places are polar opposites. Also curious your thoughts of Da Michele?

"come state" :)

opps, grazie

Re: How to make pizza like a Neapolitan master

#290

Post by earth_walker »

albmoriconi wrote: post #52

I am from Naples and eat regularly at Gino Sorbillo's and Ciro Salvo's places. As it often happens here, everyone will swear by its pretty small and obscure "favorite place", but they are masters without doubt ;) The dough recipe from the article is pretty legit and exactly the way I do it at home; the main problem I see is that it would be pretty hard to find good Mozzarella or Fiordilatte cheese (Fiordilatte di Age…

Those ratios looked off to me so I tried it out today.

Now, the amount of moisture a flour will absorb depends on many things, including its age, source and your climate. I'm in an arid region of Canada, and our flours are typically harder than most. Having said that, I'm lucky enough to have access to relatively fresh, locally milled flour.

So as I said, this moisture ratio looked off to me compared to what I usually bake with.

At 300 ml of water, I didn't even get a dough that would combine. I added about a tablespoon and a half of extra water, and still got a much firmer dough than I would usually want. After resting for 20 minutes, folding it left creases as it wouldn't stick to itself.

I've got it rising now, so we'll see if it still turns out, but if you're trying this with typical American store-bought 0 or 1 flour, I would recommend starting with 5-10% more water and adding flour if necessary once it's combined.

Post reply on HN