Why I Oughta...

Earlier this week, I posted the photos of my new cutter pans for Chicago thin crust pizza making and here as you likely guessed, it didn't take long for me to try to put it them through their paces.  I grabbed a Aurelio's clone dough formulation from the PizzaMaking.com forums and dressed it with my usual set of ingredients: Chellino Scamorza cheese , pepperoni, hot Italian sausage and some red peppers.  Finished with some parm and basil after it baked. Consider this step one in a long journey towards my next pizza quest:  tavern cut, Chicago thin crust. We're living at Equation Boy/Man's house and thus, using their ovens.  I haven't quite gotten enough practice to know how they'd perform.  I put the pan on a lower rack and placed my baking steel on a rack just on top of the pie.  Thinking...that there would be some thermal mass baking the top.  That, indeed, worked great.  The top of the pie came out perfectly well done.  But the bottom?  A little too we

Well, well, well.  Look at what showed up over the weekend at our house.  That's three brand new, pre-seasoned, permanent-coated 14" cutter pans for Chicago-style thin crust pizzas.  If you are looking for your own set, you can find them here .  I will caution you that they actually manufacture your pans and don't have them in stock.  Really.   Like it took a month to get them.  I first heard about Lloyd Pans and their cutter pans on the PizzaMaking.com forums .   Same place that I sourced my Detroit-style blue steel pans that I've put through their paces over the past four-ish years. This is part of the email I had with the Lloyd Pans customer representative - who couldn't have been nicer. We are the manufacturer of the pans you see on our website. We build them here in Spokane, WA so these will be "hot off the press" for you! :)   We are booked heavily in production right now, but are running extra shifts to get the work out sooner if possible

As the weather turns cooler and Fall arrives, my mind begins to turn towards pizza making at home.  For the past few years, I've been steadily improving and tweaking my Detroit-style pies, but it feels like I'm near the end of the line in terms of changes and modifications.  Between the well-seasoned pan, the tweaked dough formulation, and the cheese combo's, I've begun to deliver a consistent product that is repeat-able as long as I have the time to do a cold rise overnight. So, that means I can start to turn my pizza-attention to a different kind of pie.  And I'm thinking that is going to be to try to craft a true south-side tavern-style thin crust pie.  And my favorite pizza is one of those:  Aurelio's.  If you buy into the Pizza Cognition Theory , I'm into Aurelio's because...to me, it *is* pizza.  It is what I had in Frankfort growing up.  Win a baseball game?  Let's go to Aurelio's in Downtown Frankfort.  After the awkward 7th grade dan

These two cheeses were side-by-side at the Jewel this weekend.  Being after the 'sharpest' cheddar I could get my hands out, I was confused by which would be better.  There wasn't a key on the packages, so I had to guess.  I went with 'extra sharp' this time and it worked perfectly for what I was using it for this time. But, why offer both? If I took the time to go look on the Cabot site, turns out this is one of their frequently asked questions . What is the difference between Vermont Sharp, Extra Sharp, and Seriously Sharp Cheddar?   Good question. The main difference between the three products is the amount of time they are aged. Cabot Vermont Sharp has a flavor that is reliable and consistent from batch to batch and is a customer favorite. Cabot Extra Sharp Cheddar has a strong cheddar flavor that many cheddar fans specifically look for. Just like its younger sibling, Cabot Vermont Sharp Cheddar, it is consistent from batch to batch. You know what you

Whaaaatttt what!?!  After poking around on the PizzaMaking.com forums , I just learned that Aurelio's ( My pizza touch-stone ) is now selling their sausage retail.  I went looking for more details and found this story from a few years ago that shows where they're selling it : Aurelio’s has been manufacturing its famed sausage in Chicago’s South Suburbs for more than four decades. Aurelio’s only uses the highest quality, all natural ingredients. In addition to producing fresh sausage daily for its bestselling pizzas across every Aurelio’s location, in 2010, the company began selling the sausage links to over 70 independent grocery stores throughout the Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana, including Walt’s, Stack and Van Til, Berkots, Ultra foods, FreshLine Foods, Fairway foods, Rio Valley Market, Express Wholesale Grocers, Mario’s Market West, Central Market, Edmar Foods, Spring Valley Supermarket, Fair Share Fine Foods, Halsted Foods, Wiseway Food Center, Super Save, El Ray F

Over the weekend, I put the KettlePizza through it's paces for the second time and the results were much better.  I upgraded the dough and went with a lighter hand on the toppings but I also made sure that the peel was set up right and the pie could slide off properly. The first time, I got the oven up to about 800 degrees, but this time it was topping out between 600 and 700.  I used the Kenji Lopez-Alt/The Food Lab hack by putting the Pizza Steel in on the top grate to create both thermal mass and a top heat source. My pie didn't have great leopard spotting, but it was cooked close to right and had a nice combination of crisp/chew on the cornicione .  (What...you don't use the words in the pizza glossary ??)

I took this photo a week or so back ago at my in-laws place.  I was able to make a few pizzas for our Sunday night dinner over there.  On the left (in portrait mode) is a sausage and soppressata combo and on the right (in landscape mode) is a half bbq pulled pork (on the left) and cheese/tomato (on the right). A few notes:  The pie on the right was baked in one of my primary pans.  Meaning...it is well seasoned and has no trouble coming out of the pan.  On the left, that pie was cooked in one of my 'newer' pans.  I've been trying to rotate one of them in (I have 8 total!) on occasion to build up the seasoning on each of them a little bit at a time.  The problem is that I RARELY need to have all 8 going at once and usually only cook two pies at a time.  That means, my primary pans are in tip-top shape, but the other 6 go idle most of the time.  Unfortunately...when that once a year occasion arises and I have to cook more than 2 pies, I always stress about the shape of m

On my most recent stop at Costco, the item that caught my attention the most was this Bakerstone grill pizza ovenbox.   On their site, they list it for $129 .  What's most interesting to me is that this thing has a baking stone at the bottom - but ALSO at the top - of the box. From the description: The BakerStone Professional Series Pizza Oven Kit provides you with everything that you need to turn your grill into a restaurant quality pizza oven and transform your backyard into a gourmet pizzeria. With the BakerStone Professional Series Pizza Oven Box, you'll be able to bake gourmet pizzas in around 2 to 4 minutes, bake artisan quality breads, sear and roast steakhouse quality steaks, pork chops and fish, roast vegetables, and even bake bakery quality cookies and other delicious baked goods.   The BakerStone Professional Series Oven is easy to use. Just place on the cooking grates of your grill and preheat like normal. The BakerStone Pizza Oven Box absorbs the heat p

That's what the folks at Little Caesar's are touting this week. A pizza 'encased' in bacon . Here's what it looks like courtesy of USNews : From the looks of it, they've topped the pie with even more bacon and pepperoni.  I make a Detroit-style sausage/pepperoni (or soppressata).  And...I really like the ' meat lovers' pie from Home Run Inn (the restaurant version more than the frozen version). So, it seems that this is something I should be trying to make, right?  I typically employ a two cheese process on my Detroit-style pizzas.  And...I do a cold rise with the skins.  I wonder when you put the bacon in?  Maybe you take the raw bacon and weld it to the side of the pans and allow the dough - which when started is almost like pancake batter - kind of 'grow out' to the sides and get to the bacon?  What about the charred/carmelized cheese that normally graces the sides of these pies?  You know the kind...like at Peaquod's/Burt's?

Costco sells this Glabani Precious brand of low-moisture mozzarella in a two pound pack that comes pretty close to the price of a one pound block from the Jewel.  They bill it as "Italy's Favorite Cheese brand" - which I was dubious of to begin with, but I went ahead and tossed it into the cart. It was cheap.  I have to remember that, but it also wasn't that great.  I used it on a few pies this weekend and it didn't pass the Babe's taste test.  When I'm grinding up the cheeses for our pizza pies, she usually says she wants to "help" which means eating cheese. She took a handful of this stuff and didn't go back for more. Confirms my thoughts. I won't be re-buying this stuff again. I'll take the $3 hit and go with something from the Jewel like Sorrento - which was the best 'raw' flavor on the Slice taste test .

For most people the weather turning cooler means sweaters and leaf raking and the like.  But, here in the Parrillo household, that means a return to pizza making.  Putting together skins, cheese, meats and sauce is something we do from September through April.  Besides the whole 'firing up the oven' part that heats up the house, we just aren't inside enough on Friday/Saturday nights during the warmer months to make pizza-making practical. This first set of skins is Buddy's of Detroit clone and has been proofing since last night.  Had a 12 hour cold rise and will spend most of the rest of the day rising on the countertop.