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Pizza: Round 2; Getting Closer!

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CigarSmokinEgger
CigarSmokinEgger Posts: 213
edited April 2013 in EggHead Forum

Dough was fermented at room temp for 7+ hours, 60% hydration ("00" flour), 9% starter, 2.7% salt.  Sauce was 6 in1 ground tomatoes with evoo and salt topped off with Grande whole milk mozzarella and basil from the back yard.

Plate setter legs down, 2" spring-form pan with feet on top then the pizza stone.  Pies cooked off in under 3 minutes; finally getting closer to the Neo pies that I'm striving for :)

imageimage

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  • cazzy
    cazzy Posts: 9,136
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    Looks like you nailed it man! Crust looks great!
    Just a hack that makes some $hitty BBQ....
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  • B&BKnox
    B&BKnox Posts: 283
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    Looks great!, what temp did you cook at?  I cook pizza every week but have yet to try the difficult neo pie, which is my favorite.  A chain in Minneapolis makes amazing neo pies, I would love to be able to knock those off.
    Be Well

    Knoxville TN
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  • chrisnjenn
    chrisnjenn Posts: 534
    edited April 2013
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    No way to even get a decent copycat version of the neo with a pizza stone. Might get close with a pizza steel and oven/Egg. They got pretty close on Serious Eats using the Baking Steel and oven combo.
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  • CigarSmokinEgger
    CigarSmokinEgger Posts: 213
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    Might have to try the steel, I've always used a stone in the oven and got pretty decent results, thanks!

    As for temp, the stone was around 700 degrees :)

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  • Focker
    Focker Posts: 8,364
    edited April 2013
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    Steel will get you even closer.  Not truly authentic neo, but what I look for in a pizza....and I do not have to worry about the bands expanding.  

    What is your setup?  Dome temp?

    Brandon
    Quad Cities
    "If yer gonna denigrate, familiarity with the subject is helpful."

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  • Federalist226
    Federalist226 Posts: 82
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    chrisnjenn said:
    No way to even get a decent copycat version of the neo with a pizza stone.
    Why do you say that? What about a pizza stone prevents you from baking a Neapolitan pie?
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  • chrisnjenn
    chrisnjenn Posts: 534
    edited April 2013
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    Pizza stone in combination with an oven/Egg.
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  • CigarSmokinEgger
    CigarSmokinEgger Posts: 213
    edited April 2013
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    Focker said:

    Steel will get you even closer.  Not truly authentic neo, but what I look for in a pizza....and I do not have to worry about the bands expanding.  

    What is your setup?  Dome temp?

    I had the PS legs up, a 2" inverted spring-form on the PS, egg feet on top of the pan then the stone on top of the feet.  The stone was about as high into the dome as humanly possible.

    I had the temp gauge backed out with a cork so I don't think it was reading temp accurately but I shot with a laser thermometer and the stone was reading right at 700 degrees.

    And just to note, this picture is of a pie done in my ancient electric oven using a 1.25" soapstone.  I know there's been a ton of discussion on PizzaMaking.com regarding steel vs soapstone vs baking stones so there may be some legitimacy to using steel but the thickness was an issue for oven use due to the weight.

    image

     

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  • yumdinger
    yumdinger Posts: 255
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    B&BKnox said:
    Looks great!, what temp did you cook at?  I cook pizza every week but have yet to try the difficult neo pie, which is my favorite.  A chain in Minneapolis makes amazing neo pies, I would love to be able to knock those off.
    Punch Pizza!  Working on the same myself.  Gotta find a source for their pepperoni for my wife.
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  • B&BKnox
    B&BKnox Posts: 283
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    Yep, Punch it is and from their web site   "There isn’t a place in the world where pizza is more ingrained in the culture than Naples. It is, after all, where pizza was born. That includes firing your pizza in a wood-burning oven to a blistering 800 degrees. Punch utilizes the same centuries-old techniques that Neapolitan masters use to create a truly authentic pizza. The world’s finest San Marzano tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and top-secret dough form the foundation of the pizza, but the true craft is in mastering the wood fired oven".  

    So they fire their ceramic and brick ovens to 800 degrees and say it only takes 90 seconds to cook a pie.  I have been there many times and that is about right.  The hardwood fire is active at the back of the oven.  The base/cooking area of the oven is a type of brick, maybe ceramic?, the oven itself appears made of ceramic and outer visible side tiled like the komodo kamado grills.  They run their ovens probably close to 24/7 although not at a full 800 degrees.  That is probably the key- keep the egg as close to 800 for as long as possible, how long can an egg filled to the top of the ring run at 800?  I would think a stone would be fine if it can be heated long enough at 800.
    Be Well

    Knoxville TN
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  • Focker
    Focker Posts: 8,364
    edited May 2013
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    A "wood fired brick oven" uses different modes of heat transfer.  Conduction for the undercarriage.  Convection for the top and undercarriage.  Radiant for browning and charring of the toppings, cooking in all directions.

    Good energy transfer = better spring = poofier, airier crust = better pie

    Poor oven spring = dense pies, more even browning

    It takes a very long preheat and alot of energy to get a stone to 800.  Stone does not transfer all of that energy into the pie like one would think due to the decreased volumetric heat capacity and conductivity. 

     

    Brandon
    Quad Cities
    "If yer gonna denigrate, familiarity with the subject is helpful."

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  • B&BKnox
    B&BKnox Posts: 283
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    Guess I'll have have to be happy with results similar to cigarsmokinegger, they do look awful good.
    Be Well

    Knoxville TN
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