Norm Matthews

Well this is eGullet in a nutshell. Every point of view from the sublime to the ridiculous. The only thing missing so far is someone wanting to sous vide a pizza.

I decided to make pizzas tonight. Charlie wanted all the toppings kept separate so everyone could add what they wanted to their own. Then he got called to work so everything was rushed. Cassie is on a gluten free diet to see if that is the cause of her stomach problems. I got a King Arthur gluten free flour mix and made a dough for her with it. There was a comedian on TV a while back that said he got some gluten free bread at a health food store... He said he didn't know what gluten was but apparently it's delicious. LOL. No truer words were ever spoken. It worked like play dough and didn't taste much better. It wasn't too bad with the sauce and toppings though. Because I made two different doughs and Charlie had to leave as quickly as possible, I was rushed and didn't have time to take pictures today. The topping choices were ground lamb, Italian sausage, black olives, and pepperoni. The sauce was Newman's marinara sauce and the cheeses were 'fresh' mozzarella and fresh grated romano. I still have some regular dough left over and plan to go to the farmers market tomorrow and get some tomatoes to dry in the oven with some salt and oil. I will make some pizza by drizzling the crust with olive oil, dried tomatoes ( they taste almost like candy) a basil chiffonade from the garden, mozzarella, ricotta cheese, salt and pepper and mushrooms. No sauce. It is surprising how good a meatless and sauceless and simple pizza like that can be.

If a Canadian whose grandfather was born in Italy but himself has never been there uses his grandmothers recipe for pizza but used flour that was milled in Kansas, cheese made in Wisconson and tomatoes from his neighbors back yard ( a person whose grandfather was born in Sweden) and bakes his pizza in Toronto, is it Italian food? If it's good, does anyone really care?

There is always going to be discussions about how far native peoples have to go to prepare ethnic food when they no longer live where indigenous ingredients are plentiful, but it seems to me that if one thinks pizza has to be made from flour, tomatoes and cheese from certain regions and species of plants and animals, only available in Italy, they shouldn’t complain about how much it is going to cost.

One of the reasons is that there is the rule that the chili must be cooked entirely on-site, in the open and "from scratch." Chili powders (but not "chili mixes") are allowed. This would generally militate against any complicated contributing preparation such as a homemade stock, because the stock would have to be produced on-site entirely from scratch. Bringing a container of homemade stock from home is against the rules. Similarly, it may simply be too much work to start with dry chilies, hydrate them, and then run them through a food mill all on-site to obtain a high quality chili paste in the amounts required for a competition such as this. This seems like a rule that probably has some weird effects. For example, clearly you can use a pre-made stock so long as someone else has made it commercially, because canned stock and bouillon cubes are considered "ingredients." And while you would not be allowed to make a chili paste at home, you could probably bring a commercial ancho chili paste and use that. I'm not quite sure why they would use garlic powder and onion powder, except that I would point out that these have a distinctive flavor that is actually what you really want to use in certain dishes and styles of cuisine. I think you probably make the best point with respect to things like toasting cumin seeds. Except, how are they going to grind them on-site? Allowing only commercially produced stock may be driven by local and state health laws which prohibit "home" made ingredients in any food served at a public event. I know from personal experience as a former restaurant owner that is the case here in Kansas in any event. By home, I mean anything produced outside of the event itself that isn't made under the supervision and regulations of local health dept. and Dept. of Agriculture guidelines.

Of course it's a different animal... and it should be. When I go to the trouble of making a pizza here in this small town in Kansas, I want to use the freshest local ingredients and do not care whether an Italian commune puts a stamp of approval on it. If I wanted it to taste like a commercial pizza, I'd save myself some sweat and just go buy one.

W are takkin pizza in the middle of August when garden fresh tomatoes are everywhere for goodness sake. Who buys or even cares about canned tomatoes this time of year.... for a pizza no less???

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2353/1800188960_281b4245bd_b.jpg http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/4632/major-wheat-growing-regions-us-reference-maps

OO flour is not a high gluten producing flour. It isn't too hard to get in many areas but if you can't find it you can replicate it . One recipe uses 3 parts all-purpose flour to 1 part cake flour, another 6 parts all-purpose flour to one part white pastry flour. Julia Childs has a recipe that uses 2 parts all-purpose flour to 1 part white pastry flour.

The amount isn't critical. Generally I do as HungryC does and add a cup of water and a cup of flour to feed the starter.

Queso quesadilla cheese is a fairly decent step up from run of the mill mozzarella. The tomato sauce I put on pizza is usually around three tablespoons or off all together, and this time of the year, fresh tomatoes are very good and oven dried tomatoes from fresh are amazing on pizza. It takes three tomatoes and maybe ten minutes to make sauce if you use it at all.

Steven, what kind of products did you get that made it so expensive?

Protein in flour is what makes gluten when it gets wet. Regular bread flour is high makes high gluten dough. You can increase the amount of protein in flour by adding Vital Wheat Gluten which many places carry, including health food store. Bob's Red Mill is probably one of the largest distributers and can be ordered on line if needed. Semolina flour is the highest in protein level and Red Mill has that too but it takes some extra time a patience to work with that kind of flour: It needs a long rest time to absorb the moisture and become workable. I have never tried to make pizza dough with it but it works well with as a pasta dough.

That sounds right.

Usually when the starter and the alcohol separate out, that means the yeast is resting. I supposed the bubbles were left over from when it was active. p.s. 90 degrees is the upper limit of what the yeast should be when it is growing. If it develops too quickly, it might acquire some stronger-than-wanted off flavors..

For best results, stir the liquid and the settled out part together, feed it and when it starts bubbling again, use it to make the dough. At present it looks inactive. If you want to refrigerate it, it will keep for at least a couple weeks after you feed it. I have best results if I take it out of the refrigerator and let it set overnight, then feed it and use it. Feed the left over and refrigerate it again. Leave it out on the counter if you plan to feed and use it every couple of days.

I smoked spare ribs again today. Trim rib St. Louis cut. Save large boneless strip. Pat dry, coat with The Squeal overnight wrapped in plastic and foil. Next day start lump charcoal in chimney, bring out ribs, coat with Oklahoma Joe rub- about 2/3 to 3/4 of recipe. Let ribs set until room temperature and coals are ready. Add some coals to fire pit and pour lit coals over it. When smoke chamber is about 250º add ribs, bone side down abut 2/3 of distance from fire with large end closest to fire. Lay ribs diagonally and add boneless meat on the far side of ribs (closest to flue) Let smoke two hours, adding a chunk of hickory to fire pit every half an hour. After two hours, add some more coals to top of dying fire and start another chimney full of charcoal. Add juice from a can of sweet cherries in heavy syrup to remaining Oklahoma Joe rub and baste ribs on both sides. Wrap both pieces of ribs in heavy duty foil and flip. Let cook in foil for another 2 hours. Save juices from the ribs in foil and use to thin out the BBQ sauce a little for basting, uncover ribs, baste with BBQ sauce and let smoke another hour. When Charlie and Cassie get home from work, I'll make some corn on the cob and a salad. Probably start on some potato salad in a minute or two. How to trim spare ribs to St. Louis cut on Utube here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_MGM_RRTUQ The Squeal BBQ rub is available from Oklahoma Joe's restaurant in Kansas City. Rib rub 2 tablespoons sugar 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder 1 1/2 teaspoons paprika 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon onion powder 1 teaspoon white pepper 1 teaspoon black pepper

I always get a years supply of honey from a bee keeper who lives about 3 miles from here.

Our dinner was grilled ribeye steak. This one got a little too charred on this side but it was OK. Potatoes were twice baked with butter, cream, milk, bacon, cheese, salt, pepper and green onion. Salad was garden fresh tomato- but not my garden, mine is done, grated carrots and green peppers. The bread was French bread brushed with olive oil infused with garlic and salt, then topped with spinach, tomato, mozzarella and romano cheeses then broiled briefly. Next time I'll add mushrooms, I think.

I need to wear my glasses. I thought the heading was adultery and honey.

I thought I'd try some chicken apple sausage. I really didn't expect much but they were pretty good. As I looked in the refrigerator for something else to cook with it, I found 1 1/2 eggplants, an opened package of kraut and 3/4 package of fresh mozzarella. I thought eggplant parma and kraut with sausage might be a weird combination but I made it anyway.

Next time put some easy cheese and ketchup on a cracker and call it a pizza.

I didn't know pork belly had any bones.

Maybe better than liquid smoke, try hickory smoked salt dissolved in your solution instead of regular salt.

There is a difference between curing and brining. Injecting ingredients which will flavor the meat is not going to give it a hammy taste. A cure will do that but it takes time-days. If your injections don't have any curing agent and you do it just before you smoke, there won't be and concern that it will come out tasting 'hammy'