Whahappun?
Sorry about yesterday. I was on the road with the family. We headed up to Chicago foa couple of days. It was a short stay and we had no pizza. Sometimes things just go that way.
READ ONAuthor: joepastry
Preparing your ingredients.
Since Neapolitan pizzas must be small to bake up properly, you’ll likely wind up making several of them in a row for you and any guests you might have. This isn’t a big deal since they cook up so quickly, even in a home oven. The big things are the dough (which I’ll show you […]
READ ONDoes pizza crust really need much flavor?
What with all the strong-tasting ingredients on top of it do you mean? I think so, especially for a Neapolitan-style pie, since the flavors are fairly austere compared to an American pizza. On which note, while I am deviating from the letter of D.O.C. guidelines, I do hope to honor them at least in spirit. […]
READ ONFarewell to all that.
Well it didn’t take long for me to lapse into D.O.C. pizza apostasy. After scouring the web in search of a link-able Neapolitan-style pizza dough recipe, I finally settled on this one by Mario Batali. Now, a close follower of what I was saying yesterday will note several discrepancies between this preparation and the ideals […]
READ ONWhat is D.O.C. pizza?
Interesting you should ask, since I don’t really know the answer. Or at least I don’t know the full extent of the answer, which is spelled out to last detail in a 42-page scholarly paper on the subject that resides in some Italian governmental filing cabinet. However I do know the gist of it. First […]
READ ONAbout Face
Having tackled the fully Americanized version of pizza, I think it only makes sense to turn around and go the other direction: to the hyper-authentic Neapolitan style. Neapolitan pizza, as the name implies, is that which comes from the city of Naples, and in fact there’s evidence people have been eating pizza there for a […]
READ ONSo what’s up with the corn?
Good question, since if any one ingredient can be said to be unique to Chicago pizza, it’s corn (or rather corn meal). How did it get to be that way? Well my own guess is that it started out as a peel lubricant. Like traditional Italian semolina, corn meal has a particle size big enough […]
READ ONSo what’s up with the potato?
It’s a bit of an oddity in a pizza crust, isn’t it? The main function it serves is to inhibit gluten formation. Gluten, as you may well remember is a type of protein that’s specific to grains derived from grasses (wheat, barley, rye…those sorts of things). Gluten proteins are long spindly molecules that bond to […]
READ ONOckham’s Pizza Cutter
Recipe “busting” is a favorite pass time of just about every accomplished cook and/or baker I know. It’s not hard to understand why, since oh what a devious thrill one gets from unlocking the mysteries of a top restaurant or chef’s “secret” recipe all by one’s self. You can’t hide from me Wolfgang, oh no […]
READ ONChicago-Style Pizza
The first thing to do when setting out to make a Chicago-style deep dish pizza is to disabuse yourself of the notion that what you are about to make is in any way Italian. It’s American fast food, and if you want it to be good, you must treat it as such. That means premium-quality […]
READ ON