The Physics of baking good Pizza (2018)

Italians may use mozz made from water buffalo milk. I guess I spelled it wrong: two f's:

https://www.delightedcooking.com/what-is-buffalo-mozzarella....

I don't think it's very often used in the US.

It all depends on the size of the pizza. Make one with a diameter of 3 cm and those 44 watts are more than sufficient.

Most ovens, including mine, have a child lock function, but at least on mine it does not engage the physical door lock (ie. you can still open the oven door), it just locks out the controls.

Arancini? Never heard of it! Via Google found

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/ara...

WOW! They look good. Would be nice to take to the big family Christmas dinner -- we will have one if we are not all snowed in!

While the video looks good, making it good doesn't look easy:

First, uh, at least in that recipe are three cheeses, mozzarella, fontina, and parmesan. I get mozzarella in 5 pound bags, Sam's Club, plainly intended for PIZZA, just pizza, US style pizza, largely independent of whatever is/was done in Italy, but the recipe may prefer the fresh version of mozzarella I've heard about, seen on video clips, but never seen in the real! I've never used or even seen fontina! Parmesan? Okay. Not so cheap. I have some Pecorino Romano I could use as a substitute. It wasn't so cheap, either. And not all Parmesan is the same -- should shop for an appropriate version, maybe in some New York City Italian grocery -- again I've seen on video but never in the real! And should avoid making substitutions -- once start on that are on a road to a lot of work to poor results. Only need 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan -- with the driving, looking for a good version of the real stuff, buying maybe only 2 pounds of it, etc., are looking at the 1/2 cup of Parmesan in the actual dish as served at, what, $100 a pound???

Pine nuts? Heard about them. Don't think I ever saw or ate any!!!

Then there is the "fresh parsley" -- hmm, in the winter? I have a big bottle of Tone's dry parsley and include some of that in my rough guesses at tomato sauce for pizzas, but it doesn't seem to add much flavor. So, I'd want fresh parsley instead of the dried. Maybe some high end grocer would have a good version of that. Could drive all around town looking for that! For the parsley in the final dish, looking at what, $500 a pound???

Then there is the arborio rice. Gee, I have some rice. It's just -->>RICEarborio. I've never seen it and don't know what it is!!!

And the chicken broth -- yup, that can be good! I try to avoid the salty little cubes or even the canned stuff and, and for this recipe with pine nuts, etc., would want to start with, gee, some actual chicken! In the US that should be really, REALLY easy since there are lots of retired hens from the egg industry and since the grocers like to sell just chicken pieces, especially skinless, boneless, breast pieces, chicken wings, and each of those should generate lots of backs, necks, ribs, and skin great for broth. Grocers could be selling 5 pound sacks of frozen necks, backs, ribs, skin for broth, but they don't! And I don't have any chickens running around in my back yard!

The broth situation is much the same, not easy, also for beef broth, and finally I just gave up and use canned beef consomme -- definitely the high end, Monte Carlo, 5 star Michelin, platinum version of "beef broth"!!!

Similarly for beef for stew: There is a remark in one of Escoffier's books that old cattle give better flavors for broth, stock, stew, etc. AND the US has plenty of old cattle, retired from dairy farms. Sooooo, for beef stock, where to buy the leg bones of old cattle? For beef stock, are supposed to roast and brown the leg bones and then put them in the water. Or for beef stew, where to buy, say, a bottom round roast from old cattle? Uh, not from USDA Prime, Choice, or Select -- all from young cattle!

Yup, the old cattle are, say, USDA Commercial. Google it all you want -- can't find it at retail and can't even find it mentioned for sale anywhere.

Once I just called a packing house and asked what happens to old cattle, and the answer was "think fast food". Soooo, Burger King gets what Escoffier recommended, and I can't!!

Uh, Walmart sells 80% lean ground beef in 5 pound plastic wrapped tubes. They are not packed locally but are shipped from some plant in Missouri. Hmm .... Bet they use the cheapest beef they can, e.g., USDA Commercial, Cutter and Canners, etc. Soooo, that ground beef is likely some of the best flavored beef available at retail at any price, and that means that the Fake Steak Diane I outlined has an advantage!!!

Ah, to honor Escoffier, go to Walmart!!!

The mozzarella cheese I use is from Sam's Club. I just checked, and what I use is

"Maker's Mark Part Skim Shredded Mozzarella Cheese (5 lbs.)

$14.67 $2.93/lb"

Soooo, a lot less than $10/pound!

What if anything that Maker's Mark cheese has to do with anything from/in Italy, I don't know!

To have the cheese keep without mold, I keep it frozen. When I'm making a pizza and put on the mozzarella, it is still frozen. Right, when the heat for the cooking starts, still frozen! Works fine! The Teflon sheet lets the top of the pizza and the cheese get hot before burning the bottom of the crust.

In the US, pizza, in all its versions, is a big industry, a significant part of the diet of 300+ million people. BIG!

So, we're not talking a grandmother in a rustic kitchen in the hills of a small, rural town in Italy!!!

I omitted but might include: For applying the heat, I put the cast iron frying pan, covered, on one of the large burners of my 4 burner US electric stove. The burners are, as I recall, from GE or some such -- some big US company anyway. And I've seen them from the same source on other electric stoves. Soooo, if you have an electric stove, there's a good chance you have the same burner elements.

Then for the burner there is a dial. Viewing the dial as a clock face, 12 o'clock is OFF. 1 o'clock is the highest power. 6 o'clock is medium power. For cooking pizza, I use about 8 o'clock and 22 minutes. Then the toppings are hot. The cheese is melted. The crust is cooked with the edges puffy. And the bottom of the crust is browned but not burned. 23 minutes can be too long, burn the bottom crust and have the melted cheese running over the sides of the crust. 20 minutes, maybe the cheese is not yet melted. On your stove, likely you should watch carefully until you have the time and temperature about right!