NJ Pizza!

[Elmer]

On vacation, staying in Englewood Nj for the night.
Grabbed a 12" veggie pizza from some local place (name of place escapes me due to vacation brain aided by piña coladas!)

I know I rag on NJ a lot, but damn this was good!
NJ may make the second best pizza, next to NY (of course)




Sent from my iPhone using Wine Making

 

[JohnT]

dude! as an life long jerseyman, i have to say it is so heart warming to see the unenlightened see the light. nj pizza is simply the best (unlike that stuff they call pizza in california and chicago)!

 

[seth8530]

I dunno, a true Chicago style pizza is pretty amazin....

 

[Geronimo]

I've traveled all over the place, and I never met a pizza I didn't like.

I've had 5 different pizzas in NY... you really can't say one city has the best without being specific.

My favorite style by far is the wood fired oven, with the hand tossed dough stretched and shaped on cornmeal. Then generous zesty rich tomato sauce, low fat Mozzarella and cool meats like Andouille sausage or homemade fennel seed sausage. One place in town makes their own pepperoni that's so strong they slice it paper thin. I have dreams about that stuff

 

[JohnT]

I dunno, a true Chicago style pizza is pretty amazin....

You Mean that stuff that needs to be eaten with a knife and a fork?? Why, that's not pizza...

 

[cmason1957]

I have to be honest, I don't think I have ever had a pizza I didn't like. They all have good points to them. Something about the dough, the acidity of the sauce and the melted cheese.

I suppose I need to point out I was pretty much raised on what they call Greek Style pizza (and then schooled on St. Louis Style pizza), both of which involve very thin crusts and heavily melted cheeses. Umm. I think I hear the local St. Louis Style place calling my name for lunch today.

 

[Tom_S]

I have to be honest, I don't think I have ever had a pizza I didn't like.

You obviously haven't been to Pizza Hut lately.

 

[JohnT]

Pizza hut is to pizza as subways is to real NY deli....

 

[Tom_S]

Back in the 80's they were pretty good*... but it's sad to see what 30 years of decline can do to a once-popular and decent food chain.


*At least from my memory, but I was a teenager at the time and could have just thought it was really good.

 

[francois_du_nord]

*Chicago Style*

Yeah, we call it pizza. Deep dish. And while completely different than that floppy crusted, fold over and eat it on the run stuff that passes itself off as pizza out east, there are those who think it is the only real pizza around. Unless of course it's stuffed, which is deep dish with a crust on top as well.

And while I'm busting chops about your east coast pie, many people think 'deep dish', Chicago style and thick bready crust are all the same thing.

Chicago style crust has a higher oil content than NY style (I'm assuming NJ is a variant but I honestly don't know). The added oil, from corn and olive oils, and butter create a flakey, biscuit like texture as opposed to the normal flour and water crust.

Chicago style comes in two broad classes, thin crust or deep dish. Thin is pretty much what you'd think it would be. REAL Chicago style deep dish has a very thin crust, even at the outer edges. Should be 1/8" to 1/4" thick max. The other major difference is deep dish is made backwards from what most pizza lovers think: crust, topped with cheese (ideally sliced, not shredded) then the meats and veggies, with the sauce added last.

The reason it is built this way is because there is so much thermal mass, that it takes quite a bit of time in the oven to cook the crust and heat the ingredients. I cook mine for 40-45 minutes in a 425 degree convection oven. If you did that with a pie made in the usual order with cheese and toppings on top, they would be black and crispy long before your crust was done.

Any you got yourselves a 1/4" slab of steel in your ovens to make your NY pies? I'm thinking about getting a couple. From raw to fully cooked in your good old home oven in 9-10 minutes, one right after the other. Anybody up for a pizza and wine party?

Not that I'm a pizza freak or anything. I CAN QUIT WHENEVER I WANT TO. I JUST DON'T WANT TO.

Best, Fran.

 

[cmason1957]

You obviously haven't been to Pizza Hut lately.

Not only have I not been to Pizza Hut lately, it has been almost a year since I last set foot in any major chain restaurant. When I travel, I use a wonderful app called Yelp and find the locally owned fairly well ranked places. I have had very few meals that made me say, boy, that was disappointing. I highly recommend it.

 

[Tom_S]

Anybody up for a pizza and wine party?

Hells yeah.

 

[Boatboy24]

I hear ya, Fran. I'm still trying to figure out how to get a brick oven in my backyard without spending a small fortune.

 

[Geronimo]

Skip the steel plate and get a stone instead. Unless you shell out $$$ for stainless, you'll have to keep it well maintained.

 

[francois_du_nord]

Skip the steel plate and get a stone instead. Unless you shell out $$$ for stainless, you'll have to keep it well maintained.

There is quite a debate on steel vs stone. And while there is a bit of a maintenance issue with steel, the ability of steel to store and release heat is superior to the stones. Recovery (time to reheat to launch the next pie) is much shorter with steel as well.

Course this is all theoretical cause I don't own one. but hopefully soon.

Where are you in St Paul? I'm just west of L Calhoun.

Best, Fran

 

[francois_du_nord]

Here is a representative sample:

 

[JohnT]

it is a common known fact that chicago stye (whatever-it-is) was invented by a man from texas.

traditional nyc pizza was invented in ny by a sicillian. it was a big hit for factory workers who would buy a pie in the am and place it on a radiator to keep warm until lunch. This was in the very early 1900"s. Way before deep dish.

 

[Boatboy24]

Here is a representative sample:

I'm not a huge deep dish guy, but that is a nice looking pie.

 

[francois_du_nord]

Thanks Jim. I also am looking at the back yard wood fired grill option. But you are right, they are expensive, unless you can come up with a good source for inexpensive firebrick. About 10 years back somebody had a couple of tons of granite cubes about the size of the big, soft, softballs (16" or so). Anyway, I hesitated, and all was lost.

Darn it all!

 

[cimbaliw]

Boatboy what you're after is a Cob oven. Lots o good instruction on the web. They can be made from clay found in your back yard. One example here. My friend is just finishing up a masonry cob.