Why I Oughta...

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 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 ...

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'...

As I continue to hone my craft, I'm learning that there are a few category-wide characteristics of Bar Pizza.  Those are things like: perfectly round, crisp, holds a good amount of toppings.  But, in looking at some of the other 'touchstone' pizzas out there, there's something else that seems to exist.  Pockmarks.  Look at this photo of a pizza from Colony Grill .  Pockmarks, for sure.   As part of the class from Slowrise, they provided a cheese blend that, when combined with the right heat in the oven, leads to those pockmarks.  At least, I think it is the cheese blend - that includes cheeses that oil-off at different points that cause the pockmarks to show up.  Some of my initial pizzas that I pulled out of the oven were showing signs of these pockmarks, but I wasn't able to reproduce them all across the top.  Until this past weekend.  I was using an away-from-home oven, set to more than 500 degrees.  And I pulled out pizzas ...

Back in 2011, I posted about Chellino Scamorza Cheese on the blog and said - at the time - that it was the *BEST* cheese to shred and dress on your pizzas.  I mentioned that I had been using it for a few years and that it isn't cheap.  Today?  Still the best pizza cheese.  And, frankly the ONLY cheese that I'll use to dress my pies .  Over the years, I've mentioned this variety of Scamorza Cheese on the blog.  Here's a post about a pizza place that opened in Naperville that uses the stuff .   And then in 2012, I posted about a visit to this Italian Deli in Westmont called Amici Italian Deli .  (Kinda funny...but we live like 2 minutes away from this place now.  Too bad it closed!?!  I would have been all over it.) This stuff from Chellino - out of Joliet - is different than most Scamorzas in that it isn't smoked and is much more like a part-skim mozzarella that you can take a box grater to the ball.  And it is a surprise ...