Peter’s Blog, August 8th — Alright, Controversy!!
I’m packing and getting ready for the big book launch over the next two weeks in SF and the Bay Area, so will keep this short. The schedule is listed below in my previous Peter’s Blog, if any of you can make it to any of the classes or book signings. There are still a few seats left for the classes but you’ll have to call the venues for more info.
But this week I think we’re going to have to address the controversy that emerged in the Comments section of my last posting, thanks to someone named Scott007 and a few other voices, including another Scott — Scott123. It’s actually kind of exciting — apparently, I’ve pissed a few people off and am not sure why but would sure like to find out what I did (if you aren’t up to speed, please check out the Comments thread in the recent Peter’s Blog — last time I checked there were 14 comments). So, what I’d like to do is open up the discussion here on this posting, via a new Comments section, the one on this posting, and ask any and all of you to chime in. If I’ve trashed NY pizza culture, as Scott123 accuses, or passed on misinformation about pizza methodology or dough science, let’s get it all on the table so we can clear it up. Scott(s), how about getting specific and make your case — I hear that 123 is a well respected pizza authority so maybe I have something to learn from you. None of us have a monopoly on the whole truth and Pizza Quest was created to be a forum for the sharing of our mutual pizza journeys and celebration of artisanship. I’m open to learn from you but also would like to know the actual specifics of where you think I went wrong, rather than generalized attacks. The only rule for this discussion is civility — I reserve the right to edit out ad hominum attacks, unnecessary language, and nasty language. But differences of opinion — sure, I’m okay with that. So, for those who want to play along, go ahead and express yourselves — but let’s do it respectfully, please.
I won’t be posting another Peter’s Blog till I return at the end of the month, but will try to join in the Comments section from the road if my i-Pad and local WiFi will allow it. In the meantime, let’s get to the heart of it — we’re on a search for the truth (or, perhaps, truths). Let the discussion begin….
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Sugar
Are we making pizza or are we making cinnamon rolls? 😆 With the small amount of residual sugar in a fast 4 hour proof, maybe something as high as 2% might be necessary to achieve browning, but for a 2 day proof, 2.8% sugar bears no resemblance to the typical quantity of sugar used in your average slice.
Thyme
Alright, parsley’s pretty benign. If a young pizzeria worker screwed up and added parsley instead of oregano to the sauce, as long as there was still time to add oregano, he wouldn’t be fired. But thyme? Start updating your resume, kid.
Garlic
Garlic will make it into quite a few NY metro area sauces, and some owners can have heavier hands than others. But 10 cloves? Are you making pizza sauce or warding off vampires? 😉 Don’t get me wrong. I’m not knocking garlic. I love the stuff. I add it to my sauce, a sauce that’s a clone of the favorite pizzeria of my youth (my ‘Mama’s’)- one of the only pizzerias in my area that, at the time, added garlic. I have tweaked the garlic more times than you can shake a wooden spoon at, and while I’m confident that not only does it match my pizzeria, but it also falls well within how much other pizzerias are using/have used. You know how much garlic I use? Half a clove.
Water
You’re killing me here, Peter. 2 parts puree to 1 part water is a sauce making crime. If there isn’t a law on the books for putting that much water in a sauce, there definitely should be. Most purees require no additional water, but, when additional water is needed for thinning, the most you’ll ever need for a 28 ounce can is 2 ounces. 2 parts puree to 1 part water will taste like red colored water.
Bromate
Pappy covered this already, but since I had already written this, and it is so near and dear to my heart 😉 I’m including it. A book on pizza that doesn’t at least mention bromate is doing NY style a tremendous disservice. Bromate IS NY pizza (and New Haven pizza as well). Pizzeria owners may not tell you what flour they use, but, there’s frequently bags of flour in plain sight. Even in 2003, bloggers should have been aware of this fact. Bromate has ruled the NY roost for at least 3 decades.
Bromate gets such a bad rap. As I write this, California, with their de facto bromated flour ban, allows as much bromate in their water as ends up in pizza. “But I drink bottled water”, you might say. With bottled water the regulations are even more lax.
I’ve gone head to head with so many bromhaters that I know that for many, there’s no words that I can possibly choose that will ever change their mind. Regardless of your feelings about the potential health effects of bromate, if you’re going to wax poetically about Pepe’s, you have a duty to write about one of the primary elements that makes Pepe’s great, and that’s potassium bromate.
Thickness Factor
In maybe as many as 500 NY pizzerias that I’ve visited over the course of 30 years, I’ve never seen a 1/4″ skin. Chicago’s attempt to co-opt the term ‘thin crust’ has confused a few people, but for millions, ‘thin crust’ is synonymous with NY. A 1/4″ skin, even when baked for long periods, is still going to be at least four times the thickness of a traditional NY slice and twice the thickness of any post ’95 debasement.