Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: JB73 on October 04, 2004, 06:00:18 PM
-
for me MUST be tons of great sauce, and a pizza is not a pizza without green peppers on it.
none of the fru-fru spinach-goat cheese- sprouts garbage. thats not a pizza, thats a travesty.
-
Good crust, and fresh ingredients. Pizza can have just about anything on it, which is what makes pizza great.
-
Anchovies and olives need to be nearby if not actually on the pizza. Chicken on the other hand, should be kept well away.
-
Great crust just enough sauce massive amount of cheese and massive amount of pepperoni cooked untill pepperoni is browned and crispy.
UMM pizza!!!
-
Grilling Pizza sure is a great option. I wish I could find a truely great Chicago style deep recipe through.
-
Dammit, now I gotta make pizza.
-
The ONE THING I wish for more than anything in the world...
is for Chicago-Style stuffed pizza to be available in the rest of the country.
-
Reguardless of anything else thats on it the two most important things are the crust and the sauce.
Its the Sauce that makes all the difference
-
In a good pizza everything is in balance, crust, sauce, cheese, toppings, and cooking method. If any one of them is wrong you will get a bad pizza.
-
The best pizza is Chicago stuffed pizza, with sausage, peppers, onions, and mushrooms.
-
"You ask for pineapple....I keel you!
You want brocolie ? What the he** is brocolie anyways ? "
-
OK,
There has to be someone here who knows a top notch deep dish pizza recipe.
U guys should try grilling a pizza.. comes out great.
-
There is not but one thing that will make or break a pizza. Beer. Have enough of it and even CiCi`s pizza is edible.
-
Great thread 73!!!
I like a tasty sauce but hate when a pizza place cuts corners on the crust.
If you start w/ a great crust and sauce, you can add just about any of the traditional pizza toppings and make me happy.
-
Try using beer instead of water in your crust..
-
Good crust, not too thin, not too deep. Sauce with just a little bit of zing. Tons of cheese. Lots of pepperoni. Lots and lots of grease. Cook until pepperoni starts to crisp :)
My favorite pizza comes from this little mom and pop hole in the wall that's been around forever. The sauce is unique, has a hint of sweet to it. Pizza always starts to leak thru the box before you get it home. :)
-
Since I own a pizza restaurant, I can authoratively comment on this subject. The right sauce, toppings, crust et all are vital to a great PIZZA, but there's more then just the pizza. You should strive to create the best pizza experience. It's a combination of textures & flavors. An oft overlooked part of a great pizza experience: The right drink.
If you're a soda drinker, Root Beer makes any pizza taste better. Even if you don't like Root Beer, there's something about the combination.
If you're into other stuff, the right beer can make a pizza just about perfect. Even an unevenly cooked frozen pizza with a black bottom tastes ok if it comes with the right beverage.
That aside, a simple but good pizza combo I enjoy is pepperoni & green peppers. The pepperoni must be on top of the cheese, at least half of it, so that they cook crispy.
-
I see that you are in LA, Chairboy. You know of any stuffed pizza places around here? Hell, I'll go to San Diego for it. Or maybe you want to start making it at your place? :)
-
Some time, if you ever get the chance, try a Pizza Marguerite at a good pizza place in Europe. I've never had anything close in the US, even though they might call it Marguerite.
The best I ever had was at a place in Nice with a wood-fired oven. Served right from the oven with various bottles of olive oil flavored with herbs or red peppers as garnish.
It's a very simple pizza but it is EXCEEDINGLY good.
-
yes toad, you would be kicked in the balls for putting anything other than sauce and cheese on a pie in most of italy.
-
i would kill for a good slice right now..
-
Gourmet Pizza.. mmm mmmm.
(http://www.kato.co.nz/images/pizza.JPG) :aok
-
Last time when I ate pizza, they made the wrong pizza, one digit above the one I wanted - it had otherwise same stuff, except ham was replaced with salami. (but ate it since i got it for a discount... guess I could've as well asked it for free..)
I will never ever want salami in my pizza again!
Pizza does need cheese.. without cheese it ain't pizza.
Of course I dont want too much of it, thats exageration ;)
-
When it's free...and no olives, they suck.
-
Bread, cheese, canadian bacon, pineapple. :aok
-
GIORDANO'S. DOWNTOWN CHICAGO. NUFF SAID.
-
Originally posted by Sandman
Bread, cheese, canadian bacon, pineapple. :aok
Yanno I remember hearing on the news that Italy just passed legislation defining what was "allowed" to be called pizza.
Curious how many of these new screwy toppings that are al the rage as of late woudl be allowed under itallian law and still have it called Pizza LOL
-
Originally posted by Octavius
GIORDANO'S. DOWNTOWN CHICAGO. NUFF SAID.
Ya, anyone toss me a cookie on how to make a good deep dish like that?
-
Balzano's ...Downtown Warren R.I. Best Pizza I ever ate in my life.
-
Originally posted by DREDIOCK
Yanno I remember hearing on the news that Italy just passed legislation defining what was "allowed" to be called pizza.
Curious how many of these new screwy toppings that are al the rage as of late woudl be allowed under itallian law and still have it called Pizza LOL
Well... I dunno about this "all the rage" stuff... pineapple has been put on pizza for decades.
As for the italian law... IIRC, tomatos are a new world discovery... so... um... enjoy your pizza with white sauce. :p
-
All this pizza talk reminds me of the days before I was married. when I considered Wrm beer and cold pizza to be the breakfast of champions LMAO
My Favorite pie
Sausage and Onion. reheated.
I've been know to go into a pizza joint and see a sausage and cheese pie pizza ready to be sold by the slice and telling them just to reheat that one and give me that one instead.
for some reason the flavors just seem to be blended just a tad better when its been reheated. Specially in a Brick oven
-
(http://www.onpoi.net/ah/pics/users/52_1096949034_pizza.jpg)
-
Dominos circa 1983 had the best crust. Fresh dough, very thin, and run through the cookinator for 6-10 minutes to an almost cracker texture, unlike todays 4-6 minute, doughy Bill-Murray-In-Stripes type cardboard.
Best ever was at a local joint in Lafayette Lousyana, called Bisbanos. He had two secrets which I learned when I worked there:
1. Don't use too much cheese, and always use it at close to room temp. Heavy on the edges, thin in the middle~it all flows down there anyway.
2. On Vegetable (I know! I know, but there are cretins out there who do not put dead animals on their pie) only pizza, sprinkle a little flavored olive oil, again, around the outer edge.
Ideal ingredient mix is Japaroni, but it is hard to beat a pit-pizza.
-
Originally posted by Octavius
(http://www.onpoi.net/ah/pics/users/52_1096949034_pizza.jpg)
Giordano's PWN5 J00!!!!
Best day evar at my job in IL was a party at Giordano's. All you can eat... They just kept bringing out pies.
-
stop teasing me with that.. someone gotta have a recipe thats hits the mark.. Don't they use some biscuit dough with the crust?
-
I'm no chef, I just eat the stuff. But I do know they use only two ingredients: 1) mountains of cheese, and 2) pizza
-
Pizza is just like sex. No matter how bad it is, it's still pretty good.
-
Originally posted by Seraphim
Pizza is just like sex. No matter how bad it is, it's still pretty good.
LOL I dont know if I'd go that far.
I've had some pretty bad Pizza in Fla. One place after two bites I upped anf left and refused to pay for it
Come to think of it. most of the Bad pizza I've had was in fla.
Not that All pizza joints in Fla are bad but
You would think that with all the New Yorkers down there more places would get it right
-
Where the hell do they serve a backwards pie like that?
that chicago style?
Gotta admit it looks good.
just never seen one like that before
Originally posted by Octavius
(http://www.onpoi.net/ah/pics/users/52_1096949034_pizza.jpg)
-
For national chains Godfather's was hard to beat. The best "small shop" pizza I've had was Peter's Pan Pizza in Seattle. It was 4 inches thick.
-
http://aboutpizza.com/history/ (http://aboutpizza.com/history/)
-
Originally posted by rabbidrabbit
someone gotta have a recipe thats hits the mark
Just google it, all kinds of recipes online(dough and sauce). We have a 16"x 3/4" stone and 2 peels(14 & 16"), and we have not had a bad recipe yet.
A good thin crust makes it for me. Just about any combination of sauce, cheese, meat and veggies won't be turned down.
Try processing some fresh garlic and olive oil and mixing that with the cheese you will use on your pizza. Spread the cheese over the sauce and top with sliced tomato(I use the whole peeled cooked in a can and slice them in half), green pepper(red, orange or yellow will work too), fresh mushrooms, olives, onions. Good stuff.
My 7 year old likes sardines on her pizza.
-
Originally posted by DREDIOCK
Where the hell do they serve a backwards pie like that?
that chicago style?
Gotta admit it looks good.
just never seen one like that before
That's a stuffed pizza, Chicago style. Crust, cheese/toppings, crust, sauce. You put the sauce on after it comes out of the oven. The crust is a lot firmer than normal pizza crust, crispy on the outside, chewy in the middle.
This is not pan pizza - if anybody calls it that I will kill them.
-
PS Oct you do know about this (http://store.yahoo.com/cyberstang/mailorder.html) right?
-
Originally posted by Seraphim
Pizza is just like sex. No matter how bad it is, it's still pretty good.
That is untrue.
-
Originally posted by FUNKED1
PS Oct you do know about this (http://store.yahoo.com/cyberstang/mailorder.html) right?
Holy ****ing ****. I'm ordering one. Right the **** now.
A thousand blessings unto you and your descendants for 7 generations.
-
Wow, too bad they won't ship a meat pie. :(
-
Yep the no meat part is a tragedy. The spinach pies are pretty good though.
-
The "Law" in italy isn't that restrictive.
It basically states that if you want to put on a menu something called:
Pizza Napolitana D.O.C.
it needs to be certified as having:
A) A crust made from wheat flour, water, olive oil and yeast, of a certain size and thickness.
B) cherry tomatoes (I could be wrong about this) on the toppings
C) Mozzarella di Bufala (Mozzarella made from water buffalo milk)
D) Baked in a wood-fired oven.
Nobody believes this is the _only_ pizza out there. It is, however, the original, and, if I might say so, damn tasty.
Chairboy is right about texture and flavors. Many fast-food pizza places in the US love to emphasize the cheap parts of pizza making: the toppings, for example, at the expense of the others.
Central to the pizza experience are a series of contrasts:
In terms of flavors:
First there's the classic acid-fat tension between the cheese and the sauce. Acid-fat mixtures are what make marinades tangy, and salad dressings tasty.
This is where a practically raw tomato sauce comes in handy. Cooking tomatoes reduces their flavor complexity considerably. For best results, I use garden-fresh tomatoes, run them through a vegetable mill, and spike them with Huy Fong sriracha, garlic, salt, pepper, and some chopped fresh basil.
That gives you a nice, bright sauce, full of flavor and youth and brassy tones.
Otherwise, just get a can of crushed tomatoes and cook it down with garlic, some red wine and sriracha -- the tones will be darker, of course.
Many pizzerias cheat by adding sugar to the sauce, since people tend to mistake sweetness for goodness.
The cheese needs to be fatty; it also needs to be fresh. Most of the "mozzarella" sold in the US is this part-skim crap that's not worthy of the name. While Mozzarella di Bufala is ideal (it has a higher fat content than regular Mozz, so it's richer and creamier), I find that regular fresh mozzarella (the kind they sell in balls floating in water) does pretty darn well. The key is the high moisture. When it cooks up, the mozzarella should be roughly the same consistency as the sauce, so that, instead of having distinct layers of cheeze and sauce, the one blends into the other (of course, the proteiny stringiness of the cheese and its higher heat retention make it immediately distinguishable in the mouth from the boiling acidity of the tomatoes).
I also like to sprinkle some pecorino romano or even parmigiano reggiano on the top to give it a certain saltiness.
The preparation of the dough likewise needs a lot of consideration. Some fast food pizzerias use chemical leavening agents (such as baking soda) because they're easier to train 16-year-olds how to use than proper yeast. This is heresy.
Pizza dough is a bread, not a pie crust. The distinction is important. Pie crusts get their flakiness through care being taken not to develop the gluten in the dough to long protein strands. With a pizza, we want those proteins. This crust has to stand firm underneath the weight of the toppings; and we're counting on it to provide a dry and crispy counterpart to the wet and chewy sauce and cheese.
So I look for a flour with a somewhat elevated gluten content; also be sure to pick flour that has a predictable gluten level (Pillsbury and Gold Medal, for example, tend to vary from bag to bag). Some will pick bread flours for this; I usually go with King Arthur general purpose unbleached white flour. Its gluten level is higher than the normal GP flours, and it's predictable.
Alternatively, you can buy a box of wheat gluten and mix it in.
Anyway, be sure to use good filtered water, and live yeast. My ratios of water to flour tend around the 2.5:1 area. Throw in lots of extra virgin olive oil too. That'll help it bake up crisp.
I usually go for two risings, though I'm rarely at the proper 110 degrees F.
How to bake the pizza matters a helluva lot too. Many pizzerias use abominations such as conveyer ovens, which produce a flaccid and unimpressive crust. Ideally, you want a wood-burning stove, but if you're like me, you're not that much of a snob that you'll go out and buy one. Instead, I use a baking stone. These have become somewhat popular lately, but unfortunately most are cheap and thin rocks that break easily. If you can, get one that's at least a half-inch thick, if not more.
The idea behind the baking stone is that the rock gets hot first (hence you run the oven with the rock in it for 30-45 minutes before the pizza goes on), and the bread is placed on the rock instead of a metal pan. Since metal's an excellent conductor, the surface of the crust is actually cooler than the oven, and the crust doesn't get so crisp as when it's sitting on a rock, a massive heat sink. Moreover, the porosity of the rock absorbs some of the moisture from the dough, giving a nice thick crust on the bottom of the pizza.
I usually run my oven at 450F, but the exact temperature depends on environmental circumstances, as well as the moisture of the ingredients themselves (if you get a really wet cheese, you'll have to go pretty darn hot). Of course, a proper pizzeria with the wood stove runs very hot indeed.
Oh yeah, a few other things: roll the dough out and slap it on a wooden peel that's been liberally coated with corn meal. Cornmeal in the oven doesn't burn like flour does, and it adds a distinctive taste to the pizza.
A word about toppings: make them good, and pick them welll. Again, it's an overall experience, not a competition to see how much crap we can pile up. Also, some will need to be put on towards the end so they don't fully cook (As in the famous prosciutto crudo (aka "speck") and arugula mix -- put the arugula on at the last minute).
Some other combinations I love;
pepperoni: make sure it's cut thick, and stuck under the cheese, otherwise it comes out tasting like ash. Onions or pepperoncini go good on this too.
quality anchovies (not the sawdust variety), capers, onions and extra pecorino (umame baby) -- the italians would object that fish and cheese is heresy, but it's good here.
Artichoke hearts (not-marinated, I found out) and mushrooms. Slip in some gorgonzola dolce to finish this one off.
Merguez and Grilled Eggplant, with Argan oil drizzled on the top is great as well.
As for accompaniments: beer is good; the italians prefer white wine, going for the hot/cold effect; much of the rest of hte world recommends a light red.
and avoid trendy pizza folks who do obscene things to their pizzas. respect tradition, but enjoy your meal.
-
Originally posted by DREDIOCK
LOL I dont know if I'd go that far.
I've had some pretty bad Pizza in Fla. One place after two bites I upped anf left and refused to pay for it
Come to think of it. most of the Bad pizza I've had was in fla.
Not that All pizza joints in Fla are bad but
You would think that with all the New Yorkers down there more places would get it right
Florida pizza BLOWS, bro. It's quite sad really when you think about it. I just moved back to Ohio and here I am at 8:15am I just had two small slices from 'East of Chicago' and an IBC root beer (hows that for irony while I'm reading what chairboy wrote!)
All the national chains couldn't even manage any sort of QC on their pizzas, I never had any good pizzas when it came to delivery or eating at a resturant. Dominos, Donatos, Pizza Hut and the always-faithful Papa Johns defied my quest for good pizza. Thank god in Palm Beach county there is an abundance of Quizno's resturants.
I had this discussion once with a New Yorker I met while playing golf, his girlfriend had called him on the course and left a message. To summarize the message went like this "neener neener neener I'm in Chicago up north in the land of good pizza" and boy was he furious! He called her back and in a great Brooklyn accent "Hey, dawnt you eveaa leaa dhat kind of message on my fonn again" all the while I'm laughing my bellybutton off and salivating at the thought of a good pizza.
burp...East of Chicago with "2 scoops" of sauce, pepperoni and extra cheese does the job at my house. During deer season, the tradition is a Stuffed Crust with extra sauce under a layer of pepperoni and extra cheese. I haven't had a chance to sample "real" pizza in chicago...but that photo sure makes me want to fly up there. Someone fill in the X's at Meigs and I'm there!
-
That Picture looks like Uno's or Duo's (giodorno's is good too..)downtown Chicago..
http://www.digitalcity.com/chicago/pizza/
Pretty good stuff.. Catch a cubs game and Loop into the downtown area for some Pie...
Florida pizza BLOWS, bro. It's quite sad really when you think about it. I just moved back to Ohio and here I am at 8:15am I just had two small slices from 'East of Chicago' and an IBC root beer (hows that for irony while I'm reading what chairboy wrote!)
just becuase you dont know where the real pizzeria's are at doesn't mean there is not good pizza down here.. I live down here and there is plenty of variety in quality and price of the pizza's. (From rotten, Domino's/pizza hut Franken pizza.. To Quality..) Considering that ive had NY style, Chicago style hell even northern italian style.. I prefer chicago.. (the hearty stuff.) But there is excellent NY style pizza down here in south florida you need to know where to look..
Just becuase cobra commander hid all the good shops from you, doesn't mean they don't exist..
And knowing is half the battle...
;)
DoctorYo
-
Damn, it's been a while since I've gotten a stuffed pizza. I think I'll make the call tonight! Geppetto's (http://www.geppettos-restaurant.com/gepmenu.html#pizza) in Salem! Yum, yum.
-
a reasonably thick crust is always good, all the thin crust ones ive had tasted like cardboard.
-
A great pizza has to have a solid foundation to work from: Good crust and sauce = great pizza!! Anything with TONS of cheese and sauce is my pizza. Leave off the artichokes and the foo-foo cheeses. A great sausage works very well, NOT that rabbit pellet processed crap most chains use. Gotta have pepperoni, olives and schrooms too!!
I worked in a local pizza joint in high school ( Deno's (http://www.denospizzeria.com/ourstory.html) ) , I'm still trying to loose the weight gained from eating pizza three or four days a week!
UUUUUMMMM PIZZA....D'OH!!
(http://www.geocities.com/polo_jr81/Phmrdrl.gif)
-
I just got back from lunch and now I'm frigging hungry again after seeing that pic Oct posted.
Goat cheese on pizza is teh awsum btw. With procuitto.
-
LOL - I'm slow to join this thread - thought it was going to be a map whine! :lol
Originally posted by Mr. Toad
Some time, if you ever get the chance, try a Pizza Marguerite at a good pizza place in Europe. I've never had anything close in the US, even though they might call it Marguerite.
The best I ever had was at a place in Nice with a wood-fired oven. Served right from the oven with various bottles of olive oil flavored with herbs or red peppers as garnish.
It's a very simple pizza but it is EXCEEDINGLY good.
2004 is almost over, and I thought I'd break with tradition by agreeing wholeheartedly with Mr. Toad. (http://www.zen33071.zen.co.uk/xmas.gif)
He's right, of course. I'd lived in the Chicago area before I'd even visited places like France and Italy, so I believed that Chicago was the pizza capital of the world. What they serve as pizza there can be an excellent meal - what with so much choice of toppings, but after having had my first pizza in Sorrento, Italy, I came to realise that pizza is actually a snack. It evolved into a meal in America. Crucial to the pizza is the quality if the dough - much better if you see it being hand made, ie. none of that ready made crap from packets. I had a really good pizza this week in High Wycombe (where Mechanic/Batfink lives). First time at this place, but I chose pizza on the strength of the natural ingredients, and whose base was freshly made right there at the restaurant. However, as Mechanic knows, there's also a "Domino Pizza" thing near the High Wycombe multiplex cinema. I wouldn't go there if you paid me.
Pizza Margherita - that's the basic model, with tomatoes.
-
unless you are fighting ice bears for that $60 frozen pizza with no veggies on it.... you are soft and flabby.
I have like 5 pizza places in my little village. The mexicans bring us tomatoes to put on em and other stuff that grows in the ground.
lazs
-
"What makes or breaks a Pizza..."
Part A: the pizza man
Part B: my teeth
eskimo
-
Oh, it's the Norwegian $50 pizza what makes the pizza... :)
(Haven't seen any, so I don't know what they're like.. the best pizza I've had was in Hamburg, Germany, from an Italian restaurant with an Italian chef - near the railway station there).
-
I'm lucky enough to live in one of the pizza hothouses, northeastern PA. I've written extensively about it at Chowhound and Roadfood, but I'll ALWAYS have time to write about food.
Here we have MANY different styles. You can get stuffed pizza... as in, the double crust, stuffed with ziti, meatballs, ricotta, and sauce, if you want. You can get white double crust stuffed with mashed potatoes, or with cheese and onion, or with ricotta, all seasoned with rosemary and garlic.
Revello's in Old Forge makes a unique square pie that is far greater than the sum of its ingredients; it uses an Agostini Bakery shell, a mild sweet sauce heavy on the onion and garlic, and Monterey Jack cheese. It doesn't sound like much, but they ship frozen ingredients all over the country. Google it, if you don't believe me. Here is a good link, (http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11128274&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=450444&rfi=6) but Google turns up nearly 300 instances, on one little neighborhood bar/restaurant that doesn't take credit cards. Brutico's is a bit of Little Italy in Old Forge; it's where the wise guys met when they had the high conferences in the Poconos in the 60s and 70s, the favorite restaurant of Russell Bufalino. Arcaro & Genell is the best place for Old Forge style stuffed or white. And those are just three of the restaurants; there are over a dozen, any one of which could claim to be the best. If you are ever travelling on 81 passing by, and looking for a place to dine, you owe it to yourself to drive the few hundred yards off the interstate to find the unique culinary delight that is Old Forge pizza.
Wilkes-Barre is no slouch for pizza, but it tends to be more conventional. The exception is the Victory Pig/Three Guys style, which is a sweet thick crust pizza that is fried in about a quarter inch of olive oil producing a crust that is crispy on the bottom and chewy on the top, a slice that is light on cheese and heavy on sweet sauce and onions.
Mountain Top, my town, can't support a decent family style restaurant but has SEVEN Italian/pizza restaurants in a 2 mile stretch of otherwise nondescipt highway. We ate at Tony's the other day, I had an eggplant parm that was absolutely sublime, the eggplant sliced sooooo thin but still firm, the sauce just perfect. The best pizza is at Luigis; Luigi makes a pie, sometimes round and sometimes Sicilian style, that is sauce and seasonings but no cheese; instead he cuts thick slices of fresh plum tomatoes and layers them on top of the sauce, then bakes it. I just can't get enough of Luigi's all tomato pies!
For food, Hazleton is the unsung gem of the area. There are probably more great restaurants and pizza joints in Hazletin than anywhere else in NEPA. Off the top of my head, I can name Brother Bruno's, Zola's Italian House, Castiglione's, Alta, Alba, and Amici's. The Ovalon is another of those wise guy joints. Scatton's is a little shack of a building with a Mobil travel guide 3 star rating. In Hazleton you can get pizza in a style I've never seen anywhere else, championed by Senape's ("snaps") and Longo's; cold square slices on shell crust, with a garlicy sauce and sharp sharp cheese, like an aged romano, or maybe Asiago. It's sold not in pizza shops, but in gas stations, drug stores, and convenience stores, individual slices wrapped in saran wrap next to the cash register! But dang, it's GOOD! Hazleton is also the local home of Scamorza cheese, locally spelled and pronounced "scamutz"; it's a drier, slightly sharper mozzarella. So if you see a hot sausage or meatball sammy on the menu, it will say, "meatball and scamutz", and that means "with cheese".
There's not a lot here in this forgotten coal cracker country, just lots of good people and the food they've kept with them.
Tom
-
Traveling and want to know where the good pizza is when you get there?
http://pizzatherapy.com
Tom
-
Originally posted by FUNKED1
PS Oct you do know about this (http://store.yahoo.com/cyberstang/mailorder.html) right?
why no meats?
-
Franks Red Hot...
Pour it on, Then Feel Sorry that you did around 4AM.
When I was in college, My Roomies and I would get a college special discount (XL One Topping with a large Soda) and a case of Mickeys Tall Cans. We had a big bottle of Franks, We would literally cover the Pizza until it was Bright Red.
-
id take boobs over pizza.
funked1, i want to play with your avatar.