Why I Oughta...

After bending and installing the rebar, reinforcing grid and vapor barrier , it was now time to pour the foundation slab for our diy backyard wood-fired pizza oven.   As I posted about last week, I shrunk the foundation slab down to be 72" wide and 80" front-to-back.  It is 5.5" thick (2x6's for concrete forms).   This is sitting on top of six inches of 1/2" compacted gravel and a 48" deep of large rock drywell.   I used an online concrete estimating calculator tool and when you put those dimensions in, it says that I needed 42 60# bags.    I have to pour two slabs - this foundation slab and then, once I build the stand, an insulated hearth.  Each approximately the same size.   When adding those two up, I ordered 85 60# bags and had them delivered.  I opted for 4000 PSI concrete - as a little bit of an upgrade over the baseline concrete. Knowing that the labor involved in this pour is in two parts, I opted to split them...

The last time I did a check-in on my Chicago tavern pizza progress using a dough curing process that John from Crust Fund released out into the pizza-normie world was back in March of 2023 when I shared a photo showing the undercarriage microblisters .  I moved away from this style during the warmer months, but with the cold here, I've gone back inside our home oven. Below are a couple of shots from recent bakes.  I've been getting better with keeping the skins round and I've adopted the application of blobs of fresh mozz on a plain cheese pizza (mostly for the looks).  Pre-heated our Baking Steel at full-blast in our oven (somewhere close to 550 degrees) and these baked at between 8 and 10 minutes.   Bottoms were perfect.  And tops were dressed appropriately - something I don't do very often.  (I typically go overboard on cheese.)

I've been trying to get what everyone wants on their neo-Neapolitan pizzas - cooked outdoors, at high heat - leopard spotting.  On a recent bake, I achieved what is pretty close to it (at least for me) with these spotts on the pie below: My stretching game has improved quite a bit this past Summer thanks to an all-day class that I took at the North American Pizza and Culinary Academy in Lisle .   However, I continue to find what I call 'indoor' pizza more interesting; despite Nat and the kids all preferring these 'outdoor' pies each weekend. Full Pizza Parlance archive here .  Frico and Stunt Pizza are included.

The online pizza world is afire with Chicago Tavern pizza these days.  It seems to have culminated this past week when internet sensation (and...someone who can go by just one name) Kenji published his months-long research project into *real* Chicago pizza .  I've been working on what I call "Chicago Thin" for the better part of 10 years.  On-and-off.   It wasn't Kenji's piece that moved me, but the guy he referenced in the story - John from Crust Fund - is who has been my northstar on this Chicago Thin journey.  I wrote about my latest attempt here in early February .   Both Kenji and John use a method called 'curing' - where they roll out the dough into 'skins' and let it age.  Sometimes in the fridge, sometimes not.  What's the goal with curing?  A dry, blistered bottom.   I had a little bit of a 'blistering' breakthrough recently.  See below for a photo showing these little blister bubbles that I've been chasing f...

Thanks to John Carruthers at Nachos and Lager  (and Crust Fund Pizza ), I've made some progress on my thin crust Tavern pizza the past few weeks.  I call it "Chicago Thin", but it seems that "Chicago Tavern-Cut" has been the most widely-adopted in the pizza-making regions online.  I've been playing around with this on-and-off for about a year.  That includes cold curing.  And room-temperature curing.  The post that featured John and his recipe on Wordloaf was really good as it provided me with a few tweaks and some additional details.  It was also scaled down for two dough balls. I've settled into making a batch of dough for 2 14"(ish) tavern pizzas that first ferments in bulk in the fridge, then the day prior to baking, I ball and stick back in the fridge.  The morning of my bake: I roll out and cure the dough in between pieces of parchment paper.   They dried out and started to get a little-bit brittle along the edges this time, but I...

Thanks to a tip from the Santa Barbara Baker - who runs a great Ooni pizza oven-centric YouTube channel - I've changed the way that I'm using my Ooni Pro 16 outdoor oven.  Historically, I've used the burner FULL-BLAST, but he turned me on to low-and-slow .  I preheat the oven for at least 30 minutes to get the floor temperature up then, right before I slide the pie off the peel, I turn the temp down to like 1/3rd of the flame power.  This allows for a much longer bake and a crispy, flop-free bottom.  I then turn the burner back up to full power and finish the top off for 30 seconds or so.   I haven't quite figured out or solved the final cheese mix on these low-and-slow Ooni bakes - this one above is about 90% fresh mozz with a few little sprinkles of Fontina.   I've also totally abaondoned the Ooni Pro 16 door because it kept extinsuishing the flame from the burner - due to (I think) - the lack of oxygen.  Maybe...if I modify the door in so...

I've long talked about how pizza makers here in Chicago have access to a product from Chellino Cheese Makers in Joliet that is unique and available in grocery and specialty stores in the Suburbs.  Over the years, I've posted the details of where I've picked it up and have been (informally) tracking the price. This year, we bought the Chellino Scamorza Pizza Cheese from Pete's Market in Oak Brook Terrace.  See below for the cheese and the price tag:  $12.53.   What was it last year?  Here's a post from December 29, 2021 that shows a tag from Angelo Caputo's for the same Chellino Scamorza Pizza Cheese that (at that time) was costing: $6.99 . That's some price increase, isn't it?  Holy Cow.   That's $5.54 increase in 12 months.  80% increase year-over-year. December 2022:  $12.53 December 2021:  $6.99 November 2021:  $7.99 February 2019:  $5.99 February 2018:  $6.99

I'm not *exactly* sure how I recently came across this new (to me) pizza style, but it sure has my attention.  What style is that?  I suppose the widest birth name-wise I can give it is: Sfincione.  It is a version (most often) of something similar to a Sicilian or Grandma pizza.  Tweaked.  Kenji @ Serious Eats has done his thing with it and calls it "New Years Pizza" .  It is characterized by a light, hole-filled dough that is crisp/fried on the bottom.  Sauce on top.  And...finished with the crunch of breadcrumbs.  That recipe is, however, NOT where I started on this pizza journey rabbit hole.  Nope.  It was earlier this year when I read that a pizza pop-up from Nashville (of all places) was coming to town to participate in a Chicago pizza festival.  That place is St. Vito Focacceria.   Well...that's interesting, I thought.   I didn't attend said fest. But, I've been sitting on this Instagram po...

If you ask ten people who lived on the northside of Chicago what their favorite pizza from that time in their life was, I'd bet that 8 of them will tell you one place:  Pequod's .  It is a place that serves a distinct version of Chicago Deep Dish that features what they call a "caramelized crust".  What it really is a well-done whole milk mozzarella edge.  Not quite a frico , but more an 'edge'.    Is it my favorite?  No.  But, I'm a thin-crust-always-kinda-guy.  We've been to Pequod's.  Both the city location, but also the original up in Morton Grove.  Here's my post from a visit there in 2015 .  And here is our first visit to the suburban location (the original started here by Burt Katz) in 2011 .  Also note...we did eventually make it to Burt's Place before Burt Katz passed away .   But, back to Pequod's and why I bring it up.  One of our neighbor's requested a Pequod's-style pizza recently.  I haven...

I've been a proponent of a low-moisture cheese for pizza making for a number of years.  A special cheese, specifically:  Chellino Scamorza Cheese .  It isn't smoked and is most-similar to the traditional low-moisture Mozzarella that you find at the Jewels or Marianos.  But, I've been experimenting with a different set of cheeses with my Bar Pies.   I took that class with the OG Pizza-online-guy Adam Kuban last year where he talked about his "KuBlend" where he talked about how he blends a couple of cheeses for Bar Pies.  For some recent Bar Pie experiments , I've moved away from the Chellino Scamorza and have begun to trial this 2 parts Whole Milk Mozzarella (low-moisture) and 1 part Fontina.   Fontina has been on my radar for a bit as the folks at Via Napoli in the World Showcase at EPCOT Center use it (see this post from 2017 that shows a few cheeses they use including: Robiola, Parmesan, Provolone and Fontina.) Below are the two products ...

I have just recently (in the past three-or-so months) started to utilize hot giardiniera on my bar pies.  Here's a photo of my "Nice Cups" pepperoni pizza that is half-topped with olive-free hot giardiniera .  A funny thing has happened with my ability to handle hot/spicy foods recently - my tolerance has dropped significantly.  But, in an interesting coincidence, Nat's tolerance has only grown.  So, I've gone from "extra hot peppers" at Potbelly's to "light hot peppers".  With that going on, I mostly make my giardiniera pizzas for a crowd and not ones that we eat at home by ourselves, but I still want to take the time to get my utilization dialed in.  Here, below, is a photo of the latest tip that I picked up:  draining the giardiniera in a colander to remove the excess oil.   I mean...the idea is simple and logical.  In order to control the top-oil level, the right thing to do is to remove as much of the giardiniera oil as possible....

I make exactly ONE "stunt pizza" at home.  It is a BBQ chicken pizza that I call the "Orange Bird" that features chicken and double application of a store-bought sweet bbq sauce.  First I apply the sauce to the chassis and then, post-oven, I squeeze on a drizzle (it is, I suppose, *more* than a drizzle, but less than a full slather) on top.  I've added this post-oven drizzle after I found the pice a little dry but that the sauce burns pretty easily when put on top pre-bake.  In this case, (once I de-pan the pie) I put down (first) a heavy hand of post-oven Romano scattered on top, then after waiting a beat, I put down this sauce which finishes with the heat off the top of the pizza.   Btw....you might be wondering what a 'stunt pizza' is?  Urban Dictionary has an entry that sums up the term pretty well , but that's not where I picked up the term.  It was from Pizza Blogger Adam Kuban - somewhere along the lines of following him online in various p...

For the better part of 2021, I have been making (exclusively) Bar Pies at home to the exclusion of just about any other type of pizza.  I've made the occasional Detroit-style, but for the most part, it has been 12" round Bar Pies for 10+ months .  However, Bar Pies have a specific provenance - that of the east coast.  New Jersey.  Massachusetts.  Those places make "Bar Pie".  What do we make in Chicago?  Something called Tavern pizza.  Or Tavern-style pizza.  Or, just Chicago Thin Crust.   Bar Pie isn't too far from Chicago Thin, but it is a bit different.  So, I've decided that 2022 is going to be my Chicago Thin/Bar Pie hybrid year.  My maiden voyage down this path was this past weekend when I took a Chicago Thin recipe that I found on YouTube , modified it to be a little bit *more* like my base Bar Pie formulation in some ways, dropped the hydration down a bit and then, finally did a couple of downsizing from a 14" for...

Up at Angelo Caputo's in Addison, they're selling pizza cheese for a full buck cheaper than Frankie's Deli in Oak Brook Terrace .  Cheapest I've come across was at Nature's Market in Westmont, but that $5.99 price is (now) almost four years old.      For tracking purposes, I shredded six of these #1'ers, but ended up using probably four of them across 10 bar pies and 2 skinny Detroit pies on Christmas Eve.  Also, four white Cheddars was probably 50% too much, too.  Next year - with the same amount of bar pies, I could factor 4 scamorzas and 2 white cheddars. They bill it as "Cheese for Pizza" from The Chellino Cheese Company, Joliet, Illinois on their packaging.  And that's how we use it.

I've long held that this Chellino Scamorza cheese - out of Joliet - is the best pizza cheese for home bakers.  I started buying it when we lived in Elmhurst and picked it up at Angelo Caputos up in Addison.  Since we moved to Downers, the sourcing of the cheese has been spotty.  They have it at Angelo's on 55th here (shared in 2018) , but I had a bad experience with flavor and don't love that store.  I've since gone back and have had no problems.  I also tracked the price at Nature's Best Market in Westmont where they were selling it for $2 cheaper than Angelo's at $5.99 .   I haven't settled on a source, but buy it where I can when I need it.  I recently picked up a meal at Frankie's Deli in Oak Brook Terrace (near my folk's place) and noticed they carry the stuff.  Here's the tag below showing their price:  $7.99. I haven't done enough of a close examination of the price of Chellino Scamorza Cheese over the years, but I think $7.99 i...

A week later and another Bar Pie shot below.  Last week, I showed a photo and talked about my Bar Pie Progress with a sausage and giardiniera 12-incher (well done, of course) where I talked about what I've been working on since early Spring this year.  This is a 12" bar pie loaded with cupped pepperoni.  I didn't run out for the *right* cheese, so I used what was on hand.  Learned a little bit there - and will go back to my traditional blend.  This one, however, created a little bit of frico that you can see on the bottom right of photo below. Nice Cups. Loaded with Pepperoni. Base chassis of: Crushed Tomatoes, cheese blend. Finished with a heavy hand of post-oven Romano and basil .  Hot Giardiniera added (pre-oven) to half. Menu-wise, I haven't quite figured out how to talk about adding giardiniera to the base bar pie names.  Does it become a different pie? Or should all the base menu pizzas be offered with giardiniera as a 'plus-up'?  Alon...

With Fall here and Winter coming, that usually means that I do *even more* pizza making than I do during the Summer.  The arrival of our Ooni earlier this year changed Summer pizza-making, but I've also been making a little bit of progress on my bar pies.  Here's a shot post-oven/pre-cut of fennel sausage across the whole thing and hot giardiniera on half.  Olive-free giardiniera, of course.    I was talking to Equation Boy/Man about this particular bar pie recently and he mentioned that (for some reason he can't quite explain) the little "orange spots of carrots peeking through make his mouth water".  Dare you to look at this and not have the same reaction.   Last time I posted about my bar pies was in August - when I showed a cross-section and a little bit of the undercarriage .  Back then, I was using a cheddar for the frico edge, but I've moved away from that (for now).  Feels like a Winter thing to bring back at Dorianell's , doesn'...

August marks six-month mark on my Bar Pizza journey.  Started back in March and have posted a few times including my ' pockmark progress ' and how I've tried both pre-and- post-bake ricotta .  I've recently settled some of that (I'm now using Chellino Ricotta pre-bake on my bbq chicken 'stunt pizza'.  More on that in a future post).    Here are a few recent photos showing my progress.   First, with so little yeast, I'm surprised by this kind of structure: Below, you can see a sort-of edge profile.  I'm happy with the thickness, the ply-ability and the crisp on these pizzas.  I do, however, give them first a cooling-rack rest followed by a post-cut dimple pan.   Here's a little frico below.  I've recently moved away from using any sort of cheddar - as it oils-off differently than the other cheeses I'm using. And the full monty - below.  Cup and Char post-bake basil. Here's another profile below: And the top-down, cheese onl...

Yesterday I shared some of my Bar Pie progress shots and talked about pockmarks and what-have-you.  As part of this journey, I've been thinking about some of what Adam Kuban called "stunt pizzas" during the class I took with him earlier this year.  One of the pizzas that I've had in the back of my mind is this shot I posted on the blog back in 2015 .  It has a ricotta that I'm pretty sure is added post-bake.  And that's what I did recently; my first time with post-bake ricotta. Chellino Ricotta to be exact. I'll be working this stunt pizza out a little bit more because I think it has some promise.  'Roni cups, post-bake ricotta, basil and Mike's Hot Honey.  Just like the Spicy Bear from 2015 .  Well, almost like that.

We are right in the midst of gardening season and that (usually) means that pizza season begins to head towards a downswing.  But, that doesn't mean that I haven't made some real progress with my bar pizza work.  Back a month ago (beginning of March), I posted how I was able to achieve some of the pockmarking that I was after and today I'm sharing a couple more progress photos.  I'm happy with the way this basic cheese came out, but I used a little bit too much traditional cheddar (didn't have white) around the ring. In the month of March, I also started to take my bar pizza act on the road and baked off a couple of road pies including this pepperoni 12-incher that was (maybe??) the best bar pie that I've made to date. It was (below) crispy and well done and the undercarriage showed the right bit of char/doneness while the top came along just about where I want the final product.  Of note, the oven I used for this one has NO convection function, but does go to ...