It almost is, but the super large picture of the guy holding a pizza base might give up the game.
On a serious note, Github could be a good place for blogging because you can get CI to check your code examples, and even to lint your spelling, as well as get readers to supply PR's to fix any errors they see.
I always dream of being able to discreetly inform people of minor mistakes in their posts/comments in a way that would make it dead easy for them to accept the change. PRs sound very appealing!!
I think we need a new infrastructure for this on the internet. At least some place to say where content is stored, and where to do pull requests against.
EDIT: GIT+Blockchain+Blogs for the future (patent pending)
I was actually working on something similar for my blog. I want to abstract away github though (average visitor might not have a github account), but whatever suggestion / fix the web visitor makes gets saved and turned into a PR so that the author can easily merge.
I use it so that I can keep track of my own iterations. It's an excellent way to visualise the way for a given recipe. A person usually never makes the perfect recipe right away.
Can I ask why exactly? I happen to be a dev (non-web), but honestly most big blog sites are a pretty bad experience. Full of ads, giant media banners, and irrelevant "related-articles" sections.
Sure, Github's repo interface probably isn't optimal, but it's not much worse than a minimal personal blog/template. And if you're not concerned with the dev pieces you've at least got the actual no-frills content right there in front of you.
Pro tip for making pizza at home: Use a food processor to knead the dough; it will come together quicker and prevent oxidization, resulting in much better flavor in the finished pie. Restaurants make large batches, exposing only a small surface area of the dough.
You should use a stand mixer with a dough attachment if possible. Food processors are very rough on the dough, especially if you use a metal blade. They also can't handle a lot of dough at once without burning out the motor.
Interesting. Maybe that advice only applies to pizza, but America's Test Kitchen, at least for making dough for bread recommends against using a food processor. I usually make dough in fairly large batches, so I don't know if the effect Kenji talks about would have changed anything for me. I've probably made several hundred pizzas at home, and it definitely took a while to perfect the crust.
Thanks for sharing - lots of detail on the process and the pictures look really helpful, although honestly I have no familiarity with pizza dough making to judge by. Great read regardless.
I love the idea of Github becoming a more popular place for recipes. I translate many of the recipes I end up cooking into Markdown files[1], and love that Github renders them in a way that I can still share with my relatives.
The real win though is that with git for VC, you can update these recipes with the smallest changes and notes each time you cook it, knowing that each time you're getting closer to the perfect version of each meal. I hope this idea catches on enough that people might one day submit issues / PRs for each others recipes much like we do with open-source code.
May try this dough out myself soon since I'm still on a baking kick from all the Christmas cookies. Will open a PR / issue if I have any suggestions from the experience!
I've been storing recipes in git for years, also in markdown so I can edit/view on pretty much any device with a markdown viewer/editor. This post has made me interested in using a markdown rendered to display them on my personal site!
Is there an open recipe format? There really should be, if you think about it, a recipe is basically a program: pragmatic, universally interpretable and should produce identical output (provided similar input and execution...)
I would be satisfied with any recipe format that doesn't include several paragraphs of text about how the author feels about the food, what they did the last time they made it, why they are writing about it, etc. Ingredients, steps, period.
He. That's one of the things I love most about seriouseats. They separate in different pages the recipe, as terse as it can be, and the "how it works", that includes all the other fluff, and I read if I'm in the mood.
If you are patient, you can do your bulk fermentation for 72 for additional flavor. Bonus if you also add some "discard" sourdough starter at the beginning for a more sourdough tang.
Oh yes, this is a great tip. In fact you can also use sourdough right away for the pizza, it creates a different flavor. Can't say it is better, it is different. With the sourdough you have to be careful with not having a too acidy dough. At some point the acid will attack your gluten matrix and result in your dough becoming super sticky.
Oh boy, a couple years ago a took the deep dive in to neapolitan pizza. Like any niche people are passionate about, there's tons of different and sometimes conflicting ideas about how to do it best. Along those lines, I love the disclaimer on this post.
Haha :) I think I originally found it somewhere on this site. I didn't try to hack my oven but I did buy a blackstone pizza oven a few years ago after reading about people using it on the pizzamaking.com forums.
Try to use a pizza stone. That's already good. If possible, go for a pizza steel. However, in a traditional Neapolitan oven you also have a particular air circulation that is very hard to reproduce.
A great source to learn about pizza is reddit. I also frequently post my results over there and receive valuable feedback: https://reddit.com/r/pizza.
Regardless you have to be careful, since people are very opinionated and might not know all the variables of your pizza. An experienced baker understands the dough and can react with changing variables.
Somehow I always end up with to stringy dough after it has risen and it would tear to easy when handling. I might give it another try with these instructions, thx.
Another great tip I wanted to share is to use a pizza stone. Even better than a stone is a pizza steel. The steel releases the heat faster to the dough than the stone. If you had a stone brick oven at 450°C you would not need this. At a regular oven at home, a steel does wonders. I got my pizza from 80% Neapolitan style to 95%.
The steel releases the heat faster than the stone. Yes, heat it up as much as possible. Still you will not manage to have the same air circulation as in a stone brick oven. Thus you can not reach the same result. But it can get close to a 95% version. I sometimes use a blow torch to sizzle my pizza further.
The < 3 minutes is from Neapolitan style pizza, which is in a 900F+ oven. Home ovens won't get anywhere near that unless you modify their cleaning cycle, but almost nobody does that. You can get to 900F pretty easily with some inexpensive outdoor ovens.
Have you experimented with placing a pizza steel on a rack above the pizza? I'm wondering if this would trap the heat more. Maybe my intuition is wrong.
I'd go for the broiler instead, but two baking steels must be the best I've read, one at the bottom and one on the top below the broiler... then go from putting the pizza on the top steel and broiler on to the bottom steel for another minute or so
I got a cast iron Lodge pizza pan (iron, not steel), admittedly in large part because I have a cast iron fetish. It was cheap, has served excellently for making pizzas, and doubles as an extraordinarily large griddle for making bulk pancakes or broiling steaks.
Another pro tip is to make your own homemade mozzarella. It really ups the game (takes 1 hour).
Regardless for the Mozzarella, stretch it into really small pieces and wrap it in kitchen paper for at least an hour. That way you don't create a watery mess on the pizza.
Don't know about ditching altogether, but I had a pizza with a lot of Gorgonzola in Italy (Among other cheese): 'twas very good
The whole joy of making Pizza at home, is that it's pretty easy so you can really just yeet any old ingredients available on and just see what sticks (Or more realistically, smells right)
In terms of watery mess, I have personally never had any problems with just putting it in the fridge (Or freezer, for a shorter amount of time) until it dries a bit and firms up. Easier to grate too
Make sure you add all the toppings on top of the cheese. You want to achieve a good crispy salami. That happens because of the Maillard reaction if there is enough heat available in the oven. Plus it looks more beautiful in my opinion if the toppings are visually viewable.
In addition I can only recommend The Pizza Bible from Tony Gemignani. He even recommends letting it rise in the refrigerator for 36 to 48 hours and it's great (very cold around 3 degrees and probably don't add the amount of yeast Tony recommends). I'd say about 4g per 1000g flour when you also add poolish. He also recommends using warm water mixing the yeast in but ice cold water when mixing the water with the flour. And around 2% baking malt if your oven doesn't go beyond 350°. It gives a better browning effect in my opinion than olive oil and has some kind of sugar molecules in it.
I've had best results with a 8mm thick backing steel and the broiler method in a home oven, but some day I want a wood fired oven :-)
Oh and for the toppings I'd go for mozzarella di buffalo, some parmegiano and for instance Mutti tomatoes for the sauce. I'd also sometimes add Burrata after around two minutes in the oven :-)
Oh yes, and make the tomatoe sauce in the morning when you eat in the evening, adding extra virgin olive oil, pepper, salt, oregano, whatever you like, but I think the flavors are getting better with more time, just like the dough. That said some pizzaiolos from Napoli seem to make the dough at room temperature or 18° with around 8 to 12 hours rise, which is not that much. I've had great problems last summer, even with 2g fresh yest per 1000g flour it was crazy how fast it has risen... way too fast at around 24 degrees room temp... then in the basement at around 19, but still
For me the refrigerator works way better with a constant temperature :)
Another good tip, ask your local pizzaria if they'll sell you a dough blank - usually they'll do this for $2-3 and then you can dress it the way you want, bake it and have great quality pizza with top choice ingredients with a 25 minute wait, which is roughly as long as it takes for delivery. Most good pizzeria's will have already let the dough sit for a day or so.
Beat me to it. After many years of pizza dough failure a quick stop at my favorite pizzeria and presto - perfect dough with great flavor and soft as a baby's bottom. 8-)
I also get my sauce from them also.
Not that I wouldn't get a great satisfaction from making the perfect dough myself but there's plenty of other activities in life that once can work on for satisfactions. Dough isn't a top priority for pizza.
(Now for the perfect sourdough loaf that's another story).
I have a dumb question: what part of the rest of the pizza-making process can you do better than the restaurant? I ask because the big issue in home pizza production is that your oven is unlikely to reach the temps commercial pizza ovens hit, and people go to all sorts of weird lengths to rectify this.
At the point where you're getting the dough from the restaurant, why not just get the pizza from the restaurant?
> what part of the rest of the pizza-making process can you do better than the restaurant?
Customize it to your personal liking. Tastes differ greatly re: salt, tomato variety, amount and kind of cheese, presence or absence of olive oil or basil...
1) the kids love putting "their" toppings on "their" quadrant of the pizza, and wow, like a lot of things in life, when you make your own there are 0 complaints.
2) You can really put premium toppings that no pizzeria would spend on our even stock.
3) You can get it fresh out of the oven, like "burn the top of your mouth (again, you dummy) cheese napalm" fresh.
4) You can put as much or as little of any combination of cheese as you like, and it doesn't have to be the powdery pre shredded dry-frozen stuff that a lot of pizza places use.
5) Really it takes like 5 minutes to dress a pizza, heating your oven up to whatever it's highest settings is takes longer.
6) You can barbeque your pizza.
7) It's usually pretty cost effective when you consider most delivery places are charging $15+ for a large (14") pizza with a few toppings. Plus you save the tip and the emissions from a delivery driver (provided you buy a few and pick them up on the way home!
> what part of the rest of the pizza-making process can you do better than the restaurant?
A determined home pizzaiolo can make a perfectly decent pizza. But you are right about the temperature. Household ovens simply can't reach the temperatures used in a proper pizza oven, about 700F.
I have had success with heating a large cast iron pan on the stove top to ~700F, dropping the dough in that, adding toppings when it's ready and then finishing it in a broiler or well preheated oven. These guys show how it's done, without words, better than I can describe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXAW2GseICs It is pretty damn good technique. They're using 00 flour, high protein (available at Italian markets in any big city).
One thing you can do at home better than the pizza shop, however, is to use crazy good artisinal toppings, dialed in exactly how you like it.
I’ve also had good luck in the oven. Line the rack with proper fire bricks and set the oven to 500 F - and convection if you have it. Place the pizza directly on the brick using a pizza paddle.
I’d say it’s as good as the 1000 degree pizza places,
Most large scale pizza places will have trays full of pizza dough already prepared and sized for a single pizza. This is what I was referring to. Some places have a large roll/ball that they cut off of to make their individual pizzas. I've not found a place that offers them already flattened into a pizza shape, they're usually in a ball.
Better than pretty much any book out there on pizza, is reading through the pizzamaking.com forums. They have people that have been on there for over a decade, making thousands of pizzas, and know every last detail of what does and doesn't work. They're also very helpful if you post pictures, and if you get really into it, there's a whole subforum for wood-fired ovens (WFO).
I have not found a better site than pizzamaking.com if you want to dive into pizza styles and methods. The gluten free forum was a great resource for me.
Is there someone out there who is familiar with business listings and could tell me which city has the most pizzerias per capita? I lived in Hoboken, New Jersey for 8 years. There are so many pizzerias there and the city is home to about 50,000 people. I suspect Hoboken has the #1 slot but require confirmation.
If you really wanted all the listings I know the national-restaurant-association (NRA) has all of this data. You can also find the full data set on yelp as well. https://www.yelp.com/dataset/documentation/main. the json data set indicates a category value you can use too. Zomato didn't have the data source, kaggle's datasets were limited, didn't find anything on data.gov worthwhile. You can also find number of people living per zipcode from public datasets on data.gov
Source? I've lived here for years and only know one. USPS.gov seems to agree :)
Anyway, re: your first link, the data source sounds very questionable:
> Scoring of the Top Ten U.S. ‘Pizza Hoods’ in 2016 was determined by internal data on number
> of pizza restaurant redemptions through Welcomemat Services as well as the number and
> strength of pizza restaurants and businesses in each zip code covered by the brand
Welcomemat seems to be a company that sends mailers to people upon moving to a new address. In the NYC metro area, those new-address mailers rarely include restaurants. Margins are already tight for restaurants here, and many restaurants can rely on foot traffic without any need for this type of advertising.
I too question the source of "pizza hoods". I found no other better sources online though compiling the information though. Going through yelp's dataset would probably yield the best results, since its not as biased.
The two zipcodes, google (itself) stated there were 2 zipcodes, 07030 and 07086 . That has a lot of merit to it to me at least
I adore Neopolitan pizza and have always considered it better than anything else. However, judging by the ratio of "regular" pizza places vs Neopolitan pizzerias it would seem i'm in a minority.
I was never quite sure if the relative lacking number of Neopolitan pizzarias in the US is due to different taste preferences of the consumer, it simple hasn't caught on yet or it maybe more difficult/expensive and therefore prohibitive?
In my book the alternative to Neopolitan isn't 'regular' but a good sourdough base that has far more in common with a baguette than a piece of naan.
There's a fetishization of Neopolitan technique that, while natural, has diminishing returns in terms of variety and innovation. Small brewers don't all slavishly recreate age-old European beer recipes...
The main difference is the sugar he adds which will generate a lot more gas to puff up the base.
If you knead your rested dough balls just before rolling it reactivates the yeast without needing to add sugar to the mix. Just make them a little thicker and they will puff up the same.
Quoting the article "There is no need for performing any sort of kneading.", this is wrong, nearly every pizzaiolo (the person who makes pizza in a restaurant) will tell you that you need to kneed for at least 25 minutes, this is to reach what is called "punto pasta" and by kneading you will help the dough to form gluten structure that will give elasticity and will preserve the air inside.
A little tip, if you want to make Neapolitan pizza, and you don't have an oven that can reach 460 Celsius, you should add extra virgin olive oil, this will raise the amount of time in the oven before the pizza becomes biscottata (crunchy and hard), in a professional oven the Neapolitan pizza cooks for around 2 minutes, and if the oven is not in the right temperature and so you need to cook it more the pizza becomes crunchy.
The repeated stretching/folding/waiting process develops the gluten like kneading does. You can tell that his gluten development is fine from the windowpane effect in first picture.
142 comments
[ 4.9 ms ] story [ 221 ms ] threadIf so, thank you for your service. It's working.
On a serious note, Github could be a good place for blogging because you can get CI to check your code examples, and even to lint your spelling, as well as get readers to supply PR's to fix any errors they see.
EDIT: GIT+Blockchain+Blogs for the future (patent pending)
Not sure what to call it. Crowd-typos? Crowdfix?
I have yet to get any comments, but I suspect that's because most people don't know it's there.
- As Outlook: https://pcottle.github.io/MSOutlookit/
- As Word: http://pcottle.github.io/MSWorddit/
- As Code: http://codereddit.com/
Sure, Github's repo interface probably isn't optimal, but it's not much worse than a minimal personal blog/template. And if you're not concerned with the dev pieces you've at least got the actual no-frills content right there in front of you.
https://slice.seriouseats.com/2010/10/the-pizza-lab-how-to-m...
I love the idea of Github becoming a more popular place for recipes. I translate many of the recipes I end up cooking into Markdown files[1], and love that Github renders them in a way that I can still share with my relatives.
The real win though is that with git for VC, you can update these recipes with the smallest changes and notes each time you cook it, knowing that each time you're getting closer to the perfect version of each meal. I hope this idea catches on enough that people might one day submit issues / PRs for each others recipes much like we do with open-source code.
May try this dough out myself soon since I'm still on a baking kick from all the Christmas cookies. Will open a PR / issue if I have any suggestions from the experience!
[1]: https://github.com/rocheio/recipes
Would set us up nicely for automated chefs :)
Useful app if you go down the pizza dough rabbit hole: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pizzapp/id1228158792
http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm
But I have the feeling a good oven that can get really hot is just as important for good pizza as the dough.
I don't think there are many consumer grade ovens that get to pizza-oven temperature :(
1. Use a preheated pizza stone or similar (e.g. cast iron pan) to get as much radiant heat into the crust as possible.
2. Position the pizza stone close to the upper heating element and/or switch to broil for the last few minutes of cooking.
Regardless you have to be careful, since people are very opinionated and might not know all the variables of your pizza. An experienced baker understands the dough and can react with changing variables.
How about a docker container for baking pizza?
Somehow I always end up with to stringy dough after it has risen and it would tear to easy when handling. I might give it another try with these instructions, thx.
Real pizza ovens are much hotter.
I have a new oven, so my time estimates are still fairly approximate.
Regardless for the Mozzarella, stretch it into really small pieces and wrap it in kitchen paper for at least an hour. That way you don't create a watery mess on the pizza.
The whole joy of making Pizza at home, is that it's pretty easy so you can really just yeet any old ingredients available on and just see what sticks (Or more realistically, smells right)
Heathens! shudders
I've had best results with a 8mm thick backing steel and the broiler method in a home oven, but some day I want a wood fired oven :-)
I need a farm with water buffalos, and enough space to grow my own grain, haha!
For me the refrigerator works way better with a constant temperature :)
I also get my sauce from them also.
Not that I wouldn't get a great satisfaction from making the perfect dough myself but there's plenty of other activities in life that once can work on for satisfactions. Dough isn't a top priority for pizza.
(Now for the perfect sourdough loaf that's another story).
At the point where you're getting the dough from the restaurant, why not just get the pizza from the restaurant?
unless it's about the topping selection
If you want top quality ham, organic tomatoes, etc, there is no restaurant in town who does that.
For $17 you can get decent dressing though.
If you put the decent dressing on top of your (great) $3 dough you bought from the restaurant, you get a decent pizza ($17 street value) for $9 spent.
Customize it to your personal liking. Tastes differ greatly re: salt, tomato variety, amount and kind of cheese, presence or absence of olive oil or basil...
For me it's a few things.
1) the kids love putting "their" toppings on "their" quadrant of the pizza, and wow, like a lot of things in life, when you make your own there are 0 complaints.
2) You can really put premium toppings that no pizzeria would spend on our even stock.
3) You can get it fresh out of the oven, like "burn the top of your mouth (again, you dummy) cheese napalm" fresh.
4) You can put as much or as little of any combination of cheese as you like, and it doesn't have to be the powdery pre shredded dry-frozen stuff that a lot of pizza places use.
5) Really it takes like 5 minutes to dress a pizza, heating your oven up to whatever it's highest settings is takes longer.
6) You can barbeque your pizza.
7) It's usually pretty cost effective when you consider most delivery places are charging $15+ for a large (14") pizza with a few toppings. Plus you save the tip and the emissions from a delivery driver (provided you buy a few and pick them up on the way home!
You can work each biscuit into a mini pizza, top it as you see fit, and cook the lot for 8-12 mins (based on the biscuits instruction).
It was a great treat when I was a kid and I've kept it up as an adult because dangit adulting has to have some perks.
I have had success with heating a large cast iron pan on the stove top to ~700F, dropping the dough in that, adding toppings when it's ready and then finishing it in a broiler or well preheated oven. These guys show how it's done, without words, better than I can describe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXAW2GseICs It is pretty damn good technique. They're using 00 flour, high protein (available at Italian markets in any big city).
One thing you can do at home better than the pizza shop, however, is to use crazy good artisinal toppings, dialed in exactly how you like it.
I’d say it’s as good as the 1000 degree pizza places,
https://vimeo.com/34433092
No pun intended
Pun intended
I made a few searches online and was surprised that new york / new jersey was not among top 10 zipcodes.
https://welcomematservices.com/top-10-zip-codes-for-pizza-re...
If you really wanted all the listings I know the national-restaurant-association (NRA) has all of this data. You can also find the full data set on yelp as well. https://www.yelp.com/dataset/documentation/main. the json data set indicates a category value you can use too. Zomato didn't have the data source, kaggle's datasets were limited, didn't find anything on data.gov worthwhile. You can also find number of people living per zipcode from public datasets on data.gov
Also, Hoboken, NJ is technically two zipcodes.
Anyway, re: your first link, the data source sounds very questionable:
Welcomemat seems to be a company that sends mailers to people upon moving to a new address. In the NYC metro area, those new-address mailers rarely include restaurants. Margins are already tight for restaurants here, and many restaurants can rely on foot traffic without any need for this type of advertising.The two zipcodes, google (itself) stated there were 2 zipcodes, 07030 and 07086 . That has a lot of merit to it to me at least
http://www.varasanos.com/pizzarecipe.htm
I adore Neopolitan pizza and have always considered it better than anything else. However, judging by the ratio of "regular" pizza places vs Neopolitan pizzerias it would seem i'm in a minority.
I was never quite sure if the relative lacking number of Neopolitan pizzarias in the US is due to different taste preferences of the consumer, it simple hasn't caught on yet or it maybe more difficult/expensive and therefore prohibitive?
There's a fetishization of Neopolitan technique that, while natural, has diminishing returns in terms of variety and innovation. Small brewers don't all slavishly recreate age-old European beer recipes...
If you knead your rested dough balls just before rolling it reactivates the yeast without needing to add sugar to the mix. Just make them a little thicker and they will puff up the same.
A little tip, if you want to make Neapolitan pizza, and you don't have an oven that can reach 460 Celsius, you should add extra virgin olive oil, this will raise the amount of time in the oven before the pizza becomes biscottata (crunchy and hard), in a professional oven the Neapolitan pizza cooks for around 2 minutes, and if the oven is not in the right temperature and so you need to cook it more the pizza becomes crunchy.
I recommend watching this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq90lUQUCUo (it has English subs).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5h3uzIs4C2w&list=PLURsDaOr8h...