Goooood Pizza

[Way2slow]

[Deleted account]

Looks good, but why so stingy with the mozz?

[Deephaven]

I am jealous of your pizza oven!!

[Way2slow]

BassWhole, actually there is more on there than it looks like.  Everything else is just sitting on top, covering it up to make it look like there's less.  By the way, the picture was an after thought.  The pizza was cooked on the hearth and sat on the metal tray afterwards, I had already taken a bite out of a slice.

 

Deephaven, that was another one of those things it took me two years of research before I actually built it.  I started with the brain fart idea of making one out of clay, since there's plenty of it near me, and was thinking I could do it for less than $200.  Yea Right!  When I retired and got into baking, I was actually wanting to build it for baking breads more than pizza, and it's actually design to be more suited for bread.  If I had gone just for pizza, the inside dome would have been a several inches lower.  Another thing I learned doing my homework before actually building it. 

Not one to do anything half**s, I researched each idea and the different methods, weighing the pro's and cons of each.  First idea of clay was shot down after learning about it, then it two making my own fire clay, then homemade refractory, then refractory brick and finally, to castable refractory, which is what this one is.  $75 a bag x 20 bags, a little more than my original $200.  Then you learn it needs to be insulated, five inches of insulation blanket makes it so It can be 1,000f inside and barely even warm on the outside.  Then you have to make it weather proof, so I had to stucco it.  Next it has to be up high enough off the ground to use it, that's a few thousand pounds, and you need a place to store the wood.  That required a 6'x6' steel base, with stucco on it to match the dome, plus a reinforce concrete slab on top of it to hold all the weight of the oven.  Then, you have to pour a 6" thick, rebar reinforced slab for all that to sit on. 

Well, naturally you need a place to stand and eat, so I pour a 12'x12' slab with the oven in one corner of it so we had a place to put a picnic table. 

Wife says that's not big enough, we also need a place to sit and talk, so I added 10 more feet.  

Then the wife decides we needed some shade.  That came in the form of a 14'x16' pergola.  

Before I even finished the pergola, we needed a larger slab and bigger pergola.  

That was another 14' for slab and another 12'x 14' section onto the pergola

Since we were going to be doing pizza's we needed a concrete counter top with a sink in it to make pizza's and we had to have a refrigerator there to keep drinks and food in.  

All this was caused my my original brain fart of making me a $200 wood fired, clay oven.

Can't forget, the pergola ended up having a painted metal roof on it for when it rained and better shade.

This was all done by me, myself and I.   Of course the wife naturally has to say "WE" built it.

[slonezp]

Love the oven....

But I hate to burst your bubble, good pizza is about the ingredients, not the oven.

[Deephaven]

15 minutes ago, slonezp said:

Love the oven....

But I hate to burst your bubble, good pizza is about the ingredients, not the oven.

ROFL.  You can't make good pizza in a crappy oven.  Even with GREAT ingredients, but you can make a killer pizza with just cheese, flour, salt, yeast/starter, tomatoes and some herbs if you have a great oven.  

 

As for the oven, I had the same hairbrained $200 idea years back, but it hasn't exploded into the spiral yours has only because I researched the d**n spiral.  Jealous of yours!

[jbsoonerfan]

Looks amazing!!!

[Way2slow]

The very first ingredient for a good pizza is the dough.  The dough is the heart of the pizza.  No matter how good of a dough recipe you have, you can't cook it right without a good oven.  If you think you can cook a good pizza in your average home oven, you need to wake up out of that dream.  All you will do is have a dry something to put your toppings on.  I can cook them faster than I can make them.  Depending on how thick the crust is and how heavy the toppings are, 1 1/2 to 3 minutes is all it takes.

After living in Italy for six years, I know what real pizza is supposed to taste like.  Pizzeria's are like hamburger joints here. 

[slonezp]

8 hours ago, Deephaven said:

ROFL.  You can't make good pizza in a crappy oven.  Even with GREAT ingredients, but you can make a killer pizza with just cheese, flour, salt, yeast/starter, tomatoes and some herbs if you have a great oven.  

 

As for the oven, I had the same hairbrained $200 idea years back, but it hasn't exploded into the spiral yours has only because I researched the d**n spiral.  Jealous of yours!

I'm in the pizza capital of the world. There's plenty of bad pizza to be found and it all goes back to the ingredients, primarily the dough and the sauce which will make or break any pizza.

[Deephaven]

5 minutes ago, slonezp said:

I'm in the pizza capital of the world. There's plenty of bad pizza to be found and it all goes back to the ingredients, primarily the dough and the sauce which will make or break any pizza.

Again, you CANNOT make a good pizza in a bad oven.  It isn't possible.  I also didn't realize you lived in Italy.

 

If you can make a great pizza in your home oven or something other crappy oven please share pics.  All of us would love to see that.

 

 

[Way2slow]

Yep, and the base of any good sauce is the tomatoes, that's why I use these.

Plus a lot of people don't realize you don't cook a pizza sauce, the oven does that, and they make it more like a pasta sauce than a pizza sauce.  

Should also mention, a big no, no in pizza sauce is tomato paste, and tomato sauce, yet a lot of places load it down with that stuff. 

 

[bulldog1935]

 

on a camp out once we compromised with hot dog pizza - Randy wanted the gucci dogs sourced from his butcher, Steve bought the pizza oven w/ stone and sourdough.  

It was quite good.  

 

so was the fishing

 

and yes, we always eat well

[Way2slow]

My $200 oven idea went from that to the first  and then from that to the bottom pic

[bulldog1935]

well yes, but you can't take it on a camp out

 

Stevo has the wood-fired at home.  

[Jigfishn10]

Love making pizza. The dough, the sauce and have made mozzarella cheese as well. The cheese process is a bit messy and somewhat time consuming, but you can't beat fresh moz.

@Way2slow, that pizza look awesome!

I don't have an oven like that but I'll be looking to break this in soon.

Every now an then I have to have a slice of Chicago.

[Way2slow]

The biggest think is how fast an oven will cook one.  When it starts taking five minutes or more, it's drying out the dough.  

The thing about a wood fired and why they are so desired is they have a naturally higher humidity level from the moisture burning out of the wood.  That makes a big difference in the rise and texture of the crust.  

Brick ovens a nice, they get very hot and cook fast, but a good wood fired are the best.  Most commercial brick ovens are gas fired because there is an art to maintaining just the right heat when burning wood and they don't want to mess with that, they just set the thermostat or burner and forget it.  

Most of the big chains have gone to forced air ovens that's blowing a super heated jet of air onto the pizza to cook them faster but most of those are on a conveyer belt that's feeding them in one end out out the other.

[Jigfishn10]

Agree with the above.

 

You can up the hydration level of the dough for the home oven to maintain moisture levels as well. 

[TOXIC]

Moral of the story....  I’m going to Keith’s house for pizza.  ??

[E-rude dude]

2 hours ago, Jigfishn10 said:

 

Every now an then I have to have a slice of Chicago.

Not pizza if you eat it with a fork. That’s called lasagna with a crust.

The Pizza Capitol of the world is NYC not Chicago. Just like NYC bagels it the water that makes the crust. 
Try and get a slice of that goop above without wearing it. Yuck??

2 hours ago, Jigfishn10 said:

 

 

[Way2slow]

I'm already using a dough with 70% hydration, get it any wetter and I will be pouring it out like pancakes for dough.

[slonezp]

3 hours ago, E-rude dude said:

The Pizza Capitol of the world is NYC not Chicago. Just like NYC bagels it the water that makes the crust. 
Try and get a slice of that goop above without wearing it. Yuck??

 

Deep dish baby....I like a well done thin crust. There's a new pizza joint my dad and I have been going to on a regular basis that has a Detroit style which I had never heard of I guess it's trendy in Chicago. Tried it last Tuesday. I guess I would call it focaccia pizza. It was more like a pizza bread. Good but not my cup of tea.

[Way north bass guy]

I’ve never cooked pizza in an outdoor oven, but I’ve built a few for customers over the years and they all absolutely love them. One guy uses his year round, even shovelling 2’ of snow off it in the winter to cook pizza, roast chicken and do steaks on the wood fired side grill. 

[Deephaven]

11 hours ago, Jigfishn10 said:

Love making pizza. The dough, the sauce and have made mozzarella cheese as well. The cheese process is a bit messy and somewhat time consuming, but you can't beat fresh moz.

@Way2slow, that pizza look awesome!

I don't have an oven like that but I'll be looking to break this in soon.

Every now an then I have to have a slice of Chicago.

 

Let us know how the Ooni is.  It is on my list of highly likely summer purchases....and as an alternative to a true pizza I love a slice of Chicago as well.

[Deplorable Fisherman]

On 4/18/2021 at 7:19 AM, Deephaven said:

Again, you CANNOT make a good pizza in a bad oven.  It isn't possible.  I also didn't realize you lived in Italy.

False and ... they don't make pizza in Italy, just so you are aware. 

 

22 hours ago, E-rude dude said:

The Pizza Capitol of the world is NYC not Chicago.

Another false statement...where have you folks been!? ? NY pizza is TRASH! I was born on the south side of Chicago...and I've lived in New Jersey and had plenty of both styles of pizza. You cannot even compare a slice of NY trash to a good Chitown pizza. 

 

I lived in Missouri for a couple of years...now if you like pizza, avoid MO at all costs! They wouldn't know pizza from a manhole cover! Their big deal was freakin' Pizza Hut! They also couldn't produce any real Mexican food...when we first moved there we went to a "Mexican" restaurant and I ordered a burrito...when the waitress brought it out, I thought they brought me the wrong thing. She said no...that was their burrito...pathetic! LOL

But the Chinese restaurants in MO were everywhere and some were out of this world good. 

 

BTW, my little jabs are all in good fun and the NY vs Chicago pizza debate may be perpetual. But this Sicilian will stand firm in my opinion that you cannot compare the two. Chicago style pizza all day long! ?

[Deephaven]

5 minutes ago, Deplorable Fisherman said:

False and ... 

 

Temp control is huge on all breads and pizza is a bread.  Cooking the sauce and melting cheese doesn't take much, but that is not what is tough.

 

You are completely right on NY though.  Terrible pizza there.  Detroit may even be better, lol.