This documentary is very interesting about a man's obsession with pizza:
Scott's Pizza Tours
A History of Pizza
81–90 of 103 posts
Re: A History of Pizza
#82Quick note: caciocavello is not horse milk cheese. It's a pasta filata cheese (stretched curd cheese) that is aged. It's formed into jug shaped cheeses with a string tied to the top to age it. Normally there are 2 cheeses tied to either end of the string and you hang them. It's called "cavello" (horse) because you could put it on horse back with one cheese on either side of the horse. It's essentially a drier version…
It's actually: - "cavallo" (horse) - "caciocavallo" (cheese) - "provolone" (cheese)
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Re: A History of Pizza
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
When you say "pizza traditionalist" you seem to mean 'someone with functioning tastebuds'. :)
Why is it always pineapple in pizza? Why not lemon for example? I don’t understand the whole pineapple pizza lobby, it’s just not a particularly good fruit for pizza.
I've done mango, and it's pretty good. I could see lemon being nice. Dried Fig is also great on pizza.
Re: A History of Pizza
#84When I was a kid in the summer my dad would take me with him for the day on his sales route. One of my favorite places for us to stop for lunch was Detroit's first pizzeria.
When it opened in the late thirties pizza was totally unknown in Detroit. The founder was an immigrant from Naples. An Italian friend of my father's introduced him to the place and he took my Mother there on one of their first dates.
The owner and his wife were by then good friends of my Dad and it was almost like being in someone's kitchen, if things were slow they'd sit at the table with us.
Re: A History of Pizza
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Having said that, there is a lot of good Pizza in the US Northeast region pizzerias are a given. Varasano's down south in Atlanta is pretty fantastic however.
Looks like a neapolitan style, which is maybe the third wave of pizza in the US. Lots of neapolitan style places have opened in in the last 15 years. I like that style, but I wouldn't say its my favorite. I would probably put a well done Regina's pizza (Boston) or a Prince Street (NYC) spicy pepperoni square slice ahead of any neapolitan pizza, and I say that as someone who owns a pizza oven and makes a lot of neapol…
> Lots of neapolitan style places have opened in in the last 15 years.
Yep! But not in the American south.
Re: A History of Pizza
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have eaten those style of pizza. They are tasty. Not everything must be Neapolitan to be edible. I think it may depends on local ingredients - since Italy has amazing ones it is just a matter of putting simple toppings with minimal heat processing not to fuck them up and serve. If there were no good local substitutes you have to pump up the grease and toast the ingredients a bit more to make it flavorful enough.
Oh I know it can be tasty, I have eaten my fair share of greasy pizzas too. And I’m not saying neapolitan is the only possible pizza style, although in my opinion it’s the best one. Neapolitan is actually charred on the crust too, but it’s not that extreme - the crust from the pizza above is basically coal... Don’t get me wrong, I would eat it anyway (maybe skipping the crust), but it definitely doesn’t look like a “…
imo what makes neapolitan pizzas so outstanding and difficult to reproduce is the quality and freshness of the tomatoes. there are lots of pizza joints with the same kinds of ovens that they use in naples. but the tomatoes in naples are grown in the volcanic soil of mt vesuvius, and iirc they don't use tomatoes out of a can; only fresh. neapolitan tomatoes are exported abroad (san marzanos) but they're canned and not as tasty.
Re: A History of Pizza
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
When you say "pizza traditionalist" you seem to mean 'someone with functioning tastebuds'. :)
Why is it always pineapple in pizza? Why not lemon for example? I don’t understand the whole pineapple pizza lobby, it’s just not a particularly good fruit for pizza.
It's a question of ingredient quality. Most Hawaiian pizza is made with canned pineapple and thick-cut deli ham. Fresh pineapple and also any other pork aside from that ham is a big, big upgrade.
Re: A History of Pizza
#88Boo, no mention of New Haven's early contribution. Not that I'm biased (I am, they have the best pizza in the world, objectively speaking, of course) http://www.ctvisit.com/articles/new-haven-apizza-history
If we're comparing regional variations, I defy anybody to exceed Regina-style, as taken to it's extreme by Vern's: https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x531c1ec8469aabe... Truly an abomination.
That, like Chicago style, is lasagna. No one can convince me otherwise
Re: A History of Pizza
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Toast Hawaii That's interesting to know. I recently saw this dish on a TV show set in 1950s Germany, and I had questions about it. Starting with "wat?" and "But why?" and "was that really a treat?" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toast_Hawaii
> "But why?" Perfectly valid question. One thing that is true is that it is extremely easy to prepare for many people. When I was a child in the 90ies, we often ate Toast Hawaii at my grandparents at birthday parties. Just open a pack of toast, a can of pineapple, a pack of ham and a pack of cheese, place it on top of each other, put it in the oven, done. > "was that really a treat?" As a child, I never liked it, and…
In my childhood in the 90ies, we had a toast-hawaii night at home like once a month. My parents and my sister ate it, I stuck to toast with grilled cheese and ham as I didn't like pineapple (and still today I am not a fan)
Re: A History of Pizza
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not burned, its charred. And that is New Haven style. It's pretty good.
English is not my native language, but to me charred is a type of burned?
Some places with a high heat brick oven will char a pizza. I like a pizza "well done" because a few burnt spots on the crust and topping is worth the extra crunchy crispy crust