4 hours ago, scott123 said:Much like whole wheat flour is okay for bread but isn't ideal for pizza, sourdough is generally best for bread as well. Bread is far more forgiving. A lot of pizza books are, unfortunately, written by bread bakers, so it's fairly common to see home pizza makers treat pizza like bread. Pizza is not bread. Sourdough barely exists in the pizza world. The handful of commercial entities successfully working with natural leavening devote their entire lives to mastering it- not days, not months... years, and, at the end of all that torture, the end result really isn't that different from commercial yeast (perceptible sourness is acid, and excess acid can be damaging to gluten).
If, after you successfully mastered commercial yeast, you want to go down the sourdough rabbit hole, feel free, but, until then, sticking to commercial yeast (IDY in a glass jar) will guarantee you the most stress-free consistent results possible.
Good explanation here.
I try to explain to people why great pizza is so hard (certainly for me, and I've eaten some decent "commercial" pizza to compare against) to make at home, but often to no avail. And it's why I so often simply turn to baking focaccia, a much-more forgiving product for a less-than-even-part-time baker like me.
It does seem as if now, much more equipment is available for the amateur pizzaiolo to try and replicate the taste and texture of great pizza at home, with consistency. Certainly if you have a backyard, and certainly if you're willing to have your kitchen get very warm, especially in summer.
