Soggy bottoms, sour sauce, and tough crusts? Making pizza at home may seem like a good deal,
but spending your dough on take out might be more worth it.
It's undeniable that a brick oven produces some of the smokiest, rustic and most mouthwatering
smells known to mankind. According to Inside Science, using a wood-fired brick oven is
what's best for pizza. Restaurants use these ovens because the key to a well-rounded savory
tomato pie is for both the toppings and the dough on the bottom to finish cooking simultaneously.
For this to happen, the temperature needs to reach about 625 degrees Fahrenheit,
something most conventional ovens can't do. The hollow chamber of a brick oven allows for
high heat to bake the top of the pizza while its bricks take on thermodynamic qualities,
ensuring a thorough, even heating from one end of the crust to the other.
Inside Science tells us that by exposing your pizza to such high heat, it only takes about
2 minutes to cook, and that's thanks to the consistent amount of heat being produced by
the small fire in this type of oven. The overall quality of a pizza improves when
cooked in a brick oven, with crispier toppings and a perfectly charred crust.
"Brick oven — otherwise, it's sog city."
You may think that transferring your raw pizza to a baking sheet and popping the
pan in an oven is enough to create a high-grade pizza. But that's far from the truth. First off,
you'll need a pizza peel, which is a large, flat spatula with a long handle,
to properly transfer your pie into the oven. Mama Cucina says that utilizing
wood or metal peel also helps pizza makers place their uncooked creation directly on a
hot surface. Flour dusted on metal peels helps to avoid any sticky dough residue.
This tool also helps ensure even heating by allowing you to rotate the pie as it
cooks — something that cannot be done as easily in a conventional oven due
to a lack of space. Home cooks could buy their own peel with a shorter handle,
which would be better than not having one at all.
Some at-home chefs assemble a pizza directly on a peel so the fully loaded
pizza can be shifted into an oven more carefully than without one.
Ever see professional pizza makers ladle on a nice thin layer of red sauce on a soft,
fluffy pizza dough and think it wasn't nearly enough to suffice? Well,
there's a reason this method works and makes for a well-balanced bite of tomato pie.
Too much sauce adds unnecessary weight to a pizza, and dough won't do well under its
pressure. Stellar pizza makers know how to keep soggy crusts from happening. According
to Pizza Planet, sauce should be spread so that there's just enough to mask the dough,
making sure it doesn't outshine its toppings. The sauce will also cook along with the dough,
so having a thinner layer will heat it through more effectively.
"Look, no tip sag."
"No tip sag, cheers."
It's worth mentioning that at home, your instincts might tell you to go ahead and use
up that leftover pasta sauce for the pizza dinner you plan on making. While you might be tempted
to use the two interchangeably, Webstaurant Store tells us they're different enough and should only
be used for their respective purposes. Why? Pizza sauce is typically a little thicker in
consistency than pasta sauce, hence the reason a thin layer does the trick for pizza, whereas
with a thinner pasta sauce, you might desire a larger portion to fully coat your spaghetti.
When it comes to cheese, one trick pizzerias do that you might be missing out on at home is
pairing the right kinds together. According to Insider, topping a pizza with the appropriate
cheese blend offers advantages over letting just one cheese perform solo.
David Kay, a former restaurant cook who started operating a pizza business out
of his home in New York City in 2020, told Insider he uses a blend of cheeses
low on moisture. Topping a pizza with too much wet cheese will make for a damp pie,
and who wants that? Kay also points out that using fresh cheese often creates excess liquid.
The secret? Kay uses low-moisture mozzarella along with a small batch of fresh mozzarella
mixed with a couple of hard cheeses he gets shipped in from Wisconsin.
Certain cheeses provide a pie with more gooey meltiness, which is why mozzarella and provolone
are often coupled together, per Webstaurant Store. Another option used in restaurants is Gruyère,
and though it's a hard cheese, it contains a great melting ability. Varieties like
Parmesan and cheddar do not endure heat well and have a lower amount of elasticity.
"You must know that pineapple on a pizza is something, oh, like devil for Italian pizzaiolo."
Soggy toppings on a pizza can be one reason to skip the homemade attempt altogether and walk down
to your nearest pizza parlor for a better pie. The problem? When prepping pizza toppings at home,
it's easy to forget that vegetables hold in moisture and will release water while
your pizza is baking. This can cause potential crispiness in your crust to get lost completely.
According to Crust Kingdom, sautéing vegetables first so they shrink allows for their moisture to
evaporate before you put them on your pizza. It's essential to cook root vegetables like carrots
and onions first before putting them on your pizza, as their natural sweetness comes through
as they are heated. Draining your vegetables and patting them dry is also helpful. NA Pizza
tells us using ingredients with more of an oily consistency can help avoid this issue as well.
Because pizzerias are able to use higher oven temperatures, their toppings cook efficiently
rather than too slowly, which allows for moisture release. Pizzeria owners shared via PMQ
Pizza Magazine that some restaurants pre-cook toppings like sausage for food
safety. Heavy toppings may also create a wet layer between them and the dough,
causing bare, no-sauce patches. And that isn't what you'd want either.
If it's all in the dough, a pizza crust must start with great flour. How do so many expert
pizza chefs achieve that delicate, perfectly balanced dough to create a heavenly crust? Well,
it takes a bit more elbow grease than simply purchasing your favorite dough at
the grocery store. Bleached flour doesn't compare with flour sourced from a mill,
according to Food Republic. Shawn McClain, chef and managing partner at Five50 Pizza Bar,
for example, said he uses only fresh-milled flour for his dough.
Other pizza experts such as Craftworks Restaurants and Breweries senior director
Mike Thom, whose company operates the Old Chicago Pizza & Taproom chain,
agree that having a quality flour is key. According to Food Insight,
flour containing less protein will carry less gluten, whereas more protein means
added gluten. Too much gluten will turn pizza dough into a dense ball of not-so-goodness.
Thom said the chain uses a lower-protein flour for thin-crust pizzas, while a higher-protein
flour is used for Chicago-style deep-dish pizzas and pizza-adjacent foods like calzones.
Will Bingham, owner of The Pizza Peel and Taproom, said he combines high-gluten white
flour with wheat flour to add volume to his dough, per PMQ Pizza Magazine.
Unless you're a chemist, achieving this balance at home takes great patience.
It's safe to assume that higher quality water will make for better
dough. According to Fortun's Kitchen, some pizza chefs believe using filtered
water will improve the texture of pizza crust. Although not every chef agrees,
many say that it's at least one step above using a potentially disastrous unfiltered alternative.
The acidity, purity and hardness of water are all components that affect dough,
according to Pizza University. The water's pH level, which determines how acidic it is,
can either work for or against a pizza crust's elasticity and overall weight. In addition,
water high in chlorine content runs the risk of affecting the cultures in pizza dough. As
a remedy for that, some pizzerias will leave water to sit out uncovered overnight so that
the chlorine slowly releases itself. The amount of mineral content in the water must
also be enough to help the yeast as part of its fermentation process, Pizza University explains.
Some pizzerias opt to use bottled water in their pizza dough, which can get pretty expensive.
According to top pizza chefs via Fortun's Kitchen,
another key to keep your dough from falling flat is to season it with salt. If you're wondering
why it's so difficult making that perfect pizza dough at home, maybe this is why.
If you're used to buying pizza dough, you may not realize what goes into a homemade
batch. We want to let you in on a little secret about how some restaurants approach their dough,
giving them the final crusty texture — and it lies in the proofing.
Executive chef Matteo Schiavone of Pomo Pizzeria Napoletana, swears by double
fermentation — which is letting the dough rise twice, according to PMQ Pizza Magazine. First,
he lets his dough rise for 4 hours, then folds it into a ball, and lets it rise for another 8 to 12
hours. He adds that dough raised with too little time results in a heavier pizza. He cautions chefs
to be aware that warmer temperatures increase the dough's ability to rise faster, so he cools
batches in for the first proofing and stores it at about 70 degrees during that second period.
The goal of a great pizzeria is not to create bread dough, but rather a light and airy crust.
But over-kneading leads to more bready dough, as reported by Cucina Dolce. Cold temperatures make
pizza dough more compact and tight, resulting in the gluten holding together more and complicating
the kneading process. Cooking cold dough is helpful if you prefer a denser crust,
though a restaurant succeeding in the pizza department will have its dough double proofed
and unfrozen. Cucina Dolce recommends kneading for no more than 6 minutes.
Hand tossing and properly stretching pizza dough should probably be left to the experts,
and that's because it takes practice.
"Kneading dough, kneading dough" "Oh!"
"Just gotta wait for it to come down."
The importance of stretching dough as opposed to,
say, rolling it lies in the final product you'll be left with. Top-notch pizzerias
in New York City often structure their dough around texture, so that components like air
bubbles yield just the right balance. Another trick — the art of hand-tossing
dough — contributes to a traditionally thinner crust, according to Fortun's Kitchen.
It can also be easier for pizza makers to work with dough by hand. Take New York City,
for example, where there are endless pizza options and types of crust to
cater to every preference. By pushing air out of dough when stretching it,
you can create a thinner New York City crust. Restaurant Five50 retains air in its dough
with a pulling technique that results in a chewable texture rather than a denser product.
The choice of seasonings can truly make or break a pizza sauce. Ever experience
the sensation of an acidic tomato sauce or worse — a flavorless one altogether?
Whether you're attempting to do too much or aren't sure what goes in a pizza sauce,
know that pizzerias typically keep things simple for results that are golden.
The goal of a good sauce is to highlight the pizza's flavors rather than upstage them,
kindly complimenting already-existing notes in the tomatoes. Practicing restraint helps
a sauce have just the right amount of seasoning, especially when salty,
flavor-packed toppings are involved. Fresh-grown basil, oregano and garlic are flavors
frequently used in pizzerias to do just that. Webstaurant Store also recommends garlic salt,
onion powder, Italian seasoning, and just a little sugar to create a great sauce.
Another reason pizza from around the corner tastes better than what
you make at home is that sauce is prioritized at successful pizzerias.
"Here. There you go. Thank you!" "This pizza is unbelievable."
"Thank you!" "What is in that sauce?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, it's top secret."
According to Fortun's Kitchen, a solid pizzeria sauce is homemade and should
not run short of fresh-grown tomatoes complimented with fresh basil, oregano,
and garlic. Whereas you might be inclined to cook a red sauce to a point of no return,
many pizzerias realize this isn't the way to go. First, cooking at a lower temperature
helps the taste of sauce by not obliterating it with too much heat. When temperatures run
on the lower side, notes of freshness are more detectable, while the flavor of cooked
tomatoes can overwhelm your taste buds if a sauce is cooked on high heat for too long.
Pizza sauce is most commonly prepared with uncooked, pureed tomatoes,
according to Webstaurant Store. It's all about preserving the natural compounds
that give tomatoes both sweet and slightly acidic flavors. If overcooked,
the sugars found in tomatoes will caramelize and offer that over-cooked unpleasant flavor.
Should a sauce be overcooked, it'll brown in color and lose its vibrant red hue.
Now that you know the basics, you can better understand why your homemade
pizza doesn't taste as good as the ones you can find at a restaurant.