- Jun 3, 2011
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i'm pretty sure that i already explained this, but not so sure it was here - and anyway it was years ago.
Hawaiian pizza is actually really damn good. But it's not pizza. And neither is whatever bbhaag did right there.
This is the nerd explanation:
Pizza is essentially ... burnt toast. The base flavour of pizza is that of baked, slightly charred bread. A pizza margherita is nothing if not a tomato & mozzarella sandwich on crusty bread, but made fancy.
And then you got variations, but that remain close enough to the real thing.
I do not have the resources to investigate this, but considering that southern italy was invaded by the forces of the levant, and that they bake PITTA - a flat bread - makes me believe that they are one and the same.
When you go to a nice pizza restaurant in italy, the pizza is extremely thin, and people generally eat an entire pizza and then some, or even 2-3 pizzas (i used to eat 3, i'm a big boy). The ring and the bottom have BLACK leopard spots, which taste like toasted, charred bread.
When you learn to make pizza, you often struggle to learn exactly how little topping you need to put on it. Because the toppings all contain water, and water is the enemy of getting that crusty, spotty bottom, and developing that toasted, charred bread taste. This is also why mozzarella is quite difficult to use on pizza, and why the high temperature needs.
Pineapple has a lot of water in it, and also has this very sweet taste that really doesn't work with the base flavour of charred bread. Now, i totally love pairing sweet and salty things, and so do italians, in fact figs and ham is a delicacy that goes as far back as the Romans.
So the combination of pineapple and ham - and specifically that american (i think they call it Danish ham?) ham - is delicious. But a normal pizza base cannot support it; it's too wet and chunky.
Ergo the base that americans call pizza.
At this point i'd like to bring your attention back to the concept that pizza is NOT the toppings that you put on, but rather the bread that forms the base. And the same way that a bloomer is not a baguette, american pizza is not "pizza". It's another form of baked wheat product, that you've unfortunately decided to call "pizza", but it ain't pizza.
As far as toppings go, knock yourself out. We put fucking Nutella inside our pizza, or canned tuna, we're in no position to tell you what to use, but it's the base we're angry about, THE BASE !!
*********
think about it this way. imagine you're from Texas, you go to italy, and they try serving you BBQ made in a microwave. Insisting it's perfectly good BBQ.
Hawaiian pizza is actually really damn good. But it's not pizza. And neither is whatever bbhaag did right there.
This is the nerd explanation:
Pizza is essentially ... burnt toast. The base flavour of pizza is that of baked, slightly charred bread. A pizza margherita is nothing if not a tomato & mozzarella sandwich on crusty bread, but made fancy.
And then you got variations, but that remain close enough to the real thing.
I do not have the resources to investigate this, but considering that southern italy was invaded by the forces of the levant, and that they bake PITTA - a flat bread - makes me believe that they are one and the same.
When you go to a nice pizza restaurant in italy, the pizza is extremely thin, and people generally eat an entire pizza and then some, or even 2-3 pizzas (i used to eat 3, i'm a big boy). The ring and the bottom have BLACK leopard spots, which taste like toasted, charred bread.
When you learn to make pizza, you often struggle to learn exactly how little topping you need to put on it. Because the toppings all contain water, and water is the enemy of getting that crusty, spotty bottom, and developing that toasted, charred bread taste. This is also why mozzarella is quite difficult to use on pizza, and why the high temperature needs.
Pineapple has a lot of water in it, and also has this very sweet taste that really doesn't work with the base flavour of charred bread. Now, i totally love pairing sweet and salty things, and so do italians, in fact figs and ham is a delicacy that goes as far back as the Romans.
So the combination of pineapple and ham - and specifically that american (i think they call it Danish ham?) ham - is delicious. But a normal pizza base cannot support it; it's too wet and chunky.
Ergo the base that americans call pizza.
At this point i'd like to bring your attention back to the concept that pizza is NOT the toppings that you put on, but rather the bread that forms the base. And the same way that a bloomer is not a baguette, american pizza is not "pizza". It's another form of baked wheat product, that you've unfortunately decided to call "pizza", but it ain't pizza.
As far as toppings go, knock yourself out. We put fucking Nutella inside our pizza, or canned tuna, we're in no position to tell you what to use, but it's the base we're angry about, THE BASE !!
*********
think about it this way. imagine you're from Texas, you go to italy, and they try serving you BBQ made in a microwave. Insisting it's perfectly good BBQ.
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