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The last several times I've made pizza I used the rectangular pizza pan that I got from King Arthur (though I don't see it on their site today) and I stretched the dough out mostly by hand. (I did use a small pastry roller to help get it all the way to the corners.)
But I think the next time I'm going to use the Roman crust recipe from Peter Reinhart's book, "American Pie". It can be stretched so thin it is translucent.
It depends on what ingredients you use, a pepperoni pizza might cost $5 or so in ingredients.
The big chains use cheaper ingredients bought in bulk, I use whole milk mozzarella--they generally don't. That's how they can afford to sell a pizza for under $10. But as I recall, pizzerias have a higher food cost than most of the restaurant industry; the cost of the ingredients is usually about 40% of the price, but for most sit-down restaurants it's more like 25%.
The local pizzeria we order from most frequently charges about $20 for a 12 inch pizza with several added toppings. Pizza Hut it isn't!
Buying in bulk is the real key, a 15 ounce can of tomato sauce costs about a dollar, a #10 can (about 110 ounces) costs about $2.50. 50 pounds of pizza flour is running about $14 a bag right now. Sams sells 5 pound bags of mozzarella for about $15, but Pizza Hut probably pays about half that.
I like parm, but not as the only cheese on a pizza, it needs the mootz. Romano cheese is good on pizza, too, as it browns well and adds some pungency. One of the local pizzerias does a really good pizza with mootz and cream cheese, we usually have them add tomatoes and artichoke hearts.
BTW, did you know that Pizza Hut, Domino's, Little Caesars and Papa John's all get cheese from the same supplier? Leprino Foods in Denver, home of possibly the world's most secretive billionaire, James Leprino. Forbes ran an article on him recently: Forbes Article, but even Forbes couldn't get a recent picture of him.
We've probably drowned more rosemary than we've dried out. We used to try putting them in the kitchen window, but it is north-facing and definitely doesn't get enough light for rosemary, though it seems to be working for orchids.
February 12, 2018 at 12:59 pm in reply to: What are you cooking the week of February 4, 2018? #11142Our dining room might work, though my wife would have to give up some of the space for her Christmas cactus plants.
February 12, 2018 at 10:04 am in reply to: What are you cooking the week of February 4, 2018? #11140She's concerned that her garlic allergy could spread to other alliums, but at this point she can still handle onions and leeks. She's not fond of chives, though we have them in the garden, mainly for color.
As for spices and herbs, I tend to use basil, parsley, oregano, thyme and marjoram a lot, and I've been experimenting with winter savory. You have to know when to add them, basil gets really bitter if cooked a long time, so it goes in towards the end.
I've started using rosemary more frequently too--now if I could just get a rosemary plant to survive over a winter. My wife's sister has a huge rosemary plant in her living room, she's had it for decades. But that room has good sunlight, I need to find a better place to put a rosemary plant, if we put it in the guest bedroom (southern exposure) it gets forgotten about.
A beef stew just isn't complete without some bay leaf in the pot. I've been using dill weed more frequently lately with fish. (The other day I made salmon poached in butter with dill weed and powdered mustard.)
I tend to stick to ripe (not green) bell peppers and I don't use the hot ones much, as we're not really into spicy hot foods.
February 11, 2018 at 5:34 pm in reply to: What are You Cooking the Week of February 11, 2018? #11128We're having tacos.
Thanks for being sensitive to copyright issues. Lists of ingredients are often considered 'facts' and are not copyrightable, though the instructions on how to assemble the dish are clearly copyrightable. I generally stay away from even posting lists of ingredients from another source, though the usual rule of thumb is that if you change two or more ingredients, it's considered a different recipe.
I'm curious about the Romagnoli book, how many of the recipes use garlic? (As I understand it, northern Italian cooking doesn't use much garlic, though southern Italian recipes do.)
Rye chops are similar to cracked wheat, they're not fine enough to be a meal. I've looked at a lot of rye recipes, I don't recall any that called for rye chops.
Back when I was testing rye recipes, I bought 5 pounds of rye berries and use my impact mill on its coarsest setting. That was pretty similar to the pumpernickel flour I was getting at the Mennonite store in TN. I'd look for pumpernickel flour, it's usually pretty coarse.
I tend to keep all the ingredients on hand, but we're doing carry-out pizza tonight.
When I took my pastry course at SFBI, I bought one of their lame holders. It uses an old-fashioned double edge razor blade (which they also sell), with the blade curved somewhat so you get a nice cut, what some bakers call an 'ear'.
I find that works better than any knife or other type of lame I've tried.
I find pouring a cup of bleach down the drain every few weeks works pretty good, too. But if you have a septic tank, I'm not sure if that's recommended or not.
Put a sign in your yard that says, "I bake, testers needed", and you'll meet lots of new friends. (This sort of thing works in small towns better than it does in a city.)
As often as you make Challah, I'm surprised you never have any left over. If there's just a slice or two left, toss it in the freezer, and you'll have enough to do French toast after a few weeks.
It makes excellent French toast, but so does cinnamon raisin bread. I've even made it with cardamom bread, but that wasn't quite as tasty. Even the no-salt Challah I made a couple weeks ago, which tasted pretty dull, made good French toast.
I made Vienna bread last night, cutting the salt in the Double Crusty bread recipe from 2 tsp to 3/4 tsp. (This post should have been in the Feb 4th thread.)
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