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Kenji López-Alt spent 5 months studying Chicago thin-crust pizza

nytimes.com

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Re: Kenji López-Alt spent 5 months studying Chicago thin-crust pizza

#211

Post by tptacek »

chitowneats wrote: post #208
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Into what? I never claimed expertise around Chicago pizza. The thread I responded on [1] concerned New York pizza. You asked for recommendations [2], ignored and mischaracterised them, and then went on a tirade on a tangential thread. Your throw-out on $1 pizza was shot down by Kenji himself—I’m honestly confused if there is a point underneath this all that I’m missing. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=352139…

You trotted out the most tired New Yorker meme of all time. "Chicago pizza isn't real pizza, it's pie". Despite the fact that the headline of TFA is clearly about thin crust pizza. How lazy can you be? You absolutely offered an uninformed opinion in the form of a wall of text like you often do on this website. Your attempt to pretend you didn't is pathetic. The general reputation of New Yorkers in every corner of thi…

I think you're on tilt.

Re: Kenji López-Alt spent 5 months studying Chicago thin-crust pizza

#212

Post by safety1st »

AlbertCory wrote: post #206
staticautomatic wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps because everyone here thinks, as I do, “who needs Tex Mex when you have real Mexican food?”

easy there. I'm not Texan and never even spent much time there. But texmex is its own thing. If you look up "queso recipe" it often begins "take a pound of Velveeta."

Go easy on your parent, they're just parroting the 2005 version of Mexican food snobbery

Re: Kenji López-Alt spent 5 months studying Chicago thin-crust pizza

#213

Post by [deleted] »

wtf_is_up wrote: post #205
chitowneats wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well put. That being said, the Chicago version is still better. NYC pizza is a bad joke. As long as you're only paying $1 it's not that bad for the price. That price point and the places that offered it are going extinct unfortunately. The "slice" is dead. Imagine having to fold your "pizza" because it's just a nasty mess of sauce and cheese.

Folding pizza is insane to me. I'll eat it with 2 hands if I have to. Even a fork and knife is preferable.

[deleted]

Re: Kenji López-Alt spent 5 months studying Chicago thin-crust pizza

#214

Post by telchior »

stevenwoo wrote: post #197
AlbertCory wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Semolina's better than cornmeal, but yeah: parbaking or parchment paper sounds much better.

One issue with parchment paper is the max temperature rating is 425-450 and I've gotten best pizza crust results with temperature of 500 with my oven and that scorches the none food covered parts of parchment paper when I tried it. I don't know if it's toxic when overheated and burned like that but it is super convenient for lower temperature usages.

At my house we routinely scorch parchment paper (the edges away from food) and use it for all sorts of purposes. It should be perfectly safe because the coating is just silicone. However, white parchment paper has some amount of dioxin in it (I'm not sure how much), which is bad stuff; possibly also fluorine. I've also heard that some parchment may add plastics for extra non-stick, exposing you to PFAs and the like.

Probably a good idea to stick with the hippie-looking brands / made in Western countries like If You Care, which use unbleached paper and silicone and presumably don't douse the paper in other chemicals.

Re: Kenji López-Alt spent 5 months studying Chicago thin-crust pizza

#215

Post by makeset »

recuter wrote: post #177
analog31 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best way is to sit at the dining table with a glass of cheap wine, watching pizza being made in the kitchen, as I happen to be doing at this very moment.

Ah, the cycle of pizza. Broke, Single, Drunk, $1 Slices, Diarrhea, Regrets ↗ ↘ Divorced, SVBed/FTXed, Weight gain Gym, Steak & Eggs, Productivity, Redemption Arc ↖ ↙ Vested, Married, Primo Pizza, Carbs

I feel hacked.

Re: Kenji López-Alt spent 5 months studying Chicago thin-crust pizza

#216

Post by kenjilopezalt »

wirthjason wrote: post #89
antihero wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best way to make pizza better is to drink more. I’ve eaten some fantastic artisan sourdough wonders here in London but nothing compares to being wasted as fuck and finding the one place that’s open at some ungodly hour after a heavy night of eating fuck all and getting your teeth into some greasy monster made of the worst possible ingredients.

Interesting comment from an interesting username. Antihero, a somewhat strong IPA, from Revolution Brewing in Chicago is my favorite beer. I’ve definitely craved pizza after downing one too many antiheros.

That’s fitting because John Carruthers, who founded Crust Fund Pizza in Chicago works for Revolution Brewing as his day job.

Re: Kenji López-Alt spent 5 months studying Chicago thin-crust pizza

#217

Post by kenjilopezalt »

Balgair wrote: post #165
kenjilopezalt wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s ironic because those $1 slice places that popped up in the mid 2000s are what actually destroyed decent NY slices which couldn’t compete because transplants and students would rather pay $1 for garbage than $1.50-$2.50 for a true classic NY slice. Very few of them remain now. Instead there’s this divide with crappy $1 joints (that are now a little more expensive) and good $4-5 slice joints that had to differenti…

Just want to say that I love your videos on YT, thanks for all the hard work you put into everything. You've really helped me and my family learn to cook better. My SO has a few dietary issues [0] that limits the ingredients we can use down to ~1 side of a double spaced page. So really learning how to cook and prepare those few ingredients in a LOT of ways has been super important to keeping the simple diet workable.…

Thanks for this note. It’s always nice to know you’ve made a positive impact.

Re: Kenji López-Alt spent 5 months studying Chicago thin-crust pizza

#218

Post by kenjilopezalt »

myrandomcomment wrote: post #171
kenjilopezalt wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s ironic because those $1 slice places that popped up in the mid 2000s are what actually destroyed decent NY slices which couldn’t compete because transplants and students would rather pay $1 for garbage than $1.50-$2.50 for a true classic NY slice. Very few of them remain now. Instead there’s this divide with crappy $1 joints (that are now a little more expensive) and good $4-5 slice joints that had to differenti…

Kenji, Have your books, watch your YT. Love the science behind the food aspect of it. My whole family does. I am proud to say my daughter, now in college, cooks a few nights a week because she grew up in a family that cooks. I have a challenge for you. In my 40s they figured out my heath issues turn out to be Celiacs. Fun. So do you think you could come up with a closes as possible recipe for NYC style pizza that is…

Oh geez that’s a tall order!

Re: Kenji López-Alt spent 5 months studying Chicago thin-crust pizza

#219

Post by kenjilopezalt »

joshu wrote: post #121
kenjilopezalt wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This thin crust recipe is time consuming but actually solves a lot of those problems. Rolling witb a pin and letting it dry out overnight actually makes it really easy to slide off the peel.

I will try this but as a native New Yorker I just want to get the style I am most comfortable with working first. I have never even had the Chicago thin-style pizza, actually. Someone got me a “super peel” which has a cloth gadget to drop the pizza. I wonder if it will work or incinerate. (PS I am one of the people that matched your donation on twitter a few years ago. I miss you there but in retrospect leaving was a…

I’m a New Yorker as well. For NY style I strongly recommend getting a wooden peel and a metal peel. Wood to launch and metal to turn and retrieve. You also need to top and launch fast to keep the dough from sticking.

Re: Kenji López-Alt spent 5 months studying Chicago thin-crust pizza

#220

Post by kenjilopezalt »

therealdrag0 wrote: post #116
kenjilopezalt wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually talked with Jim Ellison who is a historian of Columbus style pizza. He also confirmed the style started in taverns on the south side of Chicago and spread from there, including to Columbus where it took on its own regional differences (particularly swapping sausage for a ton of pepperoni, and using a different style of pan). We had to cut some bits from the article for length.

Kenji, I noticed you show up once every few years on HN when your article is posted. How does that happen? Do you set up alerts? Does your publisher let you know or ask you to engage with the comments? Do you read HN any other time? Thanks.

I have a lot of friends (mostly from college) on here who inevitably tell me when something of mine shows up.
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