Pizza Is Life

Page 13 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
40,473
9,971
136
Try this on a pizza: Crushed tomato, fennel seed, cheese.
Fennel is magnificent seed. To me, it tastes a lot like caraway seed, another favorite of mine, but even more pungent. I could add some fresh crushed tomato to my next pizza, which is probably tonight (fennel too, I always have it on hand), 5+ pounds of ripe red tomatoes are hanging on plants in my garden. I intend to can some hot sauce this week made with tomatoes and store bought organic jalapenos which look fantastic, big and fresh.
 

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,696
6,257
126
Fennel is magnificent seed. To me, it tastes a lot like caraway seed, another favorite of mine, but even more pungent. I could add some fresh crushed tomato to my next pizza, which is probably tonight (fennel too, I always have it on hand), 5+ pounds of ripe red tomatoes are hanging on plants in my garden. I intend to can some hot sauce this week made with tomatoes and store bought organic jalapenos which look fantastic, big and fresh.
Ya, it is similar to caraway, but I hate caraway. It's too bitter. My dad used to love it in Bread and made a Caraway Soup one time with it. I hated it.
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
40,473
9,971
136
Ya, it is similar to caraway, but I hate caraway. It's too bitter. My dad used to love it in Bread and made a Caraway Soup one time with it. I hated it.
People's liking and disliking food has a lot to do with genetic factors in many cases. My intro to caraway was in rye bread, where it's commonly included in the dough.

I grew caraway around 3 decades ago one year. My recollection is it bore a lot of seeds, which I harvested and cooked with and that it was easily cultivated.
 

nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
61,964
17,734
136
Woke up at 3am craving pizza, getting old is weird I guess lol. The Pizzazz tends to dry out the pizza, so I fired up my steam oven instead. Crust wasn't as crispy, but the pizza was nice & moist!
IDK, I'm pretty sure I'm older than you and I'm yet to wake up in the middle of the night with a food craving! Mostly just to pee :p
The wife was at a friend's last night so I had Jet's Pizza and didn't have to share any!
We've got one in the Seattle area now, I'm thinking I might stop by to give it a go on a trip back from Bellingham later this year.
Ya, it is similar to caraway, but I hate caraway. It's too bitter. My dad used to love it in Bread and made a Caraway Soup one time with it. I hated it.
I like some fennel in my pizza sauce when I make it, I don't like it as much on top of the pizza.
 
Jul 27, 2020
26,455
18,188
146
IDK, I'm pretty sure I'm older than you and I'm yet to wake up in the middle of the night with a food craving! Mostly just to pee :p
Some people have a middle of the night munching habit. I used to when I was a kid. My favorite was fruit jam on cold slices of bread and a cold glass of milk. Sipping the milk with every bite of that jam slice was so food orgasmic for me. At some point after age 35, I realized that my sinus infections were mainly because of dairy products so avoid it now as much as I can. Midnight snacking habit is mostly gone too. Mainly because I use carb blocking supplement so my gut has something fermenting in it all through the night which prevents hunger pangs and cravings.
 

bigboxes

Lifer
Apr 6, 2002
41,910
12,344
146
After reading your posts and seeing your pizza I decided to make my own submission on r/pizza to! I got 11 likes and two comments! Anyway, your pizzas always look amazing!:)
They are a bunch of pizza snobs on r/pizza. It has to be done a certain way or you won't get many votes. I hated that when I started posting my pizzas. If you have an expensive pizza oven (Ooni, Gozney, etc.) you'll be more respected. Cupping pepperoni and Margherita (a real good Margherita) pizza are popular. Also, I believe you have to do well initially when you post your pizza. If you do well early on, you'll be put in more feeds. I'm guessing some algorithm makes that decision. Then you might get a higher vote count.

And thank you for the compliment! I too love my pizza. I didn't always feel that way. But for the last year, I have stopped criticizing my pizza and look forward to it. It's better than any pizza I can buy near me!
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
50,919
6,862
136
BLT pizza:


1753783217739.png
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
50,919
6,862
136
Youtube channel spotlight: Vito Lacopelli


Instagram:


He sells a Masterclass:


Great video of how to freeze pizza dough:


Great comparison of fermentation time differences. I used to think 72-hour dough & stuff was crazy, but then I realized:

1. I have to eat every day
2. All of this stuff is quick & simple to do
3. I just set alarm reminders on my smartphone

 

JM Aggie08

Diamond Member
Jan 3, 2006
8,364
960
136
You can still get that! Unfortunately, most successful pizza places peddle completely pedestrian, trash pizza. It's baffling.
 

Oyeve

Lifer
Oct 18, 1999
22,055
880
126
You can still get that! Unfortunately, most successful pizza places peddle completely pedestrian, trash pizza. It's baffling.
I know, just not in Manhattan, or at least AFFORDABLE in Manhattan. I go to Gaudios in Queens. Best pizza, closest I have found that reminds me of the 70s. Last time I went I got 2 slices and a coke for $11. Very affordable. I don't do those $1 pizza joints.
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
50,919
6,862
136
Dude. I make my dough in a batch of four dough balls. One for the first week. The others go into the freezer. I date the bags and use one each week. I just thought it was funny that the guy made a video on how to freeze dough.

I didn't know you could freeze dough when I started out! I actually learned about cold fermentation before that, haha! My bread journey started out as a teenager when my mom bought a bread machine & started making AMAZING potato bread. I worked at a pizza shop for a few years in school & later bought my own machine as an adult, inspired by RideFree's amazing Toast Bread recipe:


I was allergic to gluten for about 10 years, but then modern science fixed me in 2015 (woot woot) & I got into the No-Knead movement:


Then dove into sourdough in 2020 during the lockdown & bought a flour milling machine:


I try to bake every day now with a 10-minute procedure: (usually open-bake on a baking steel)

1. Fresh-milled flour (3 minutes)
2. Sourdough starter maintenance (2 minutes, I use the scrapings method these days)
3. No-knead method (5 minutes)

My latest favorite is sourdough discard Wonderbread: (made with bread flour)


I use a few freezer methods now:

1. Frozen dough
2. Par-baked dough (ex. pizza crusts to decorate later)
3. Fully-cooked bread products (loaves, steam toasting, and Combi steam-reheat)

Between the Combi, steel, and ~10 minutes of daily work, it's like having a gourmet bakery here 24/7! I used to just brute-force everything same-day or plan stuff out a few days in advanced, but decentralized meal-prepping is the bomb dot com!!
 
Last edited:

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
40,473
9,971
136
Dude. I make my dough in a batch of four dough balls. One for the first week. The others go into the freezer. I date the bags and use one each week. I just thought it was funny that the guy made a video on how to freeze dough.
I do the exact same thing except I don't date them. They go in 16oz plastic containers that came with sour cream or cottage cheese or similar. I stack 3 in the freezer in a corner and make a pizza with the 4th immediately.
 
  • Love
  • Like
Reactions: Kaido and bigboxes