Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 11:02:28 -0700
Reply-To: "Mike \"Rocket J Squirrel\" Elliott" <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "Mike \"Rocket J Squirrel\" Elliott" <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Stoned pizza
In-Reply-To: <b45a982b0706150952s41022137r9525ce74a676341a@mail.gmail.com>
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This is probably not the best forum to discuss pizza preferences. I like
peppers and tomatoes well enough, but I stick to the simpler --
Neapolitan -- end of the spectrum. The fresh flavors of good tomato
sauce, fresh mozzarella and basil (Margherita, the most popular pizza in
Italy, for good reason) and maybe some olive oil or garlic on a chewy
crust satisfy me.
Some people like pizza with triple cheese, meats, and every vegetable
under the sun layered on them.
Answers.com says this,
"As is the case with so many other traditional Italian foods, pizza
underwent significant changes in the United States. Thanks to the
American postwar emphasis on excess and increased portion size, as well,
possibly, as the desire of poor Italian immigrants to eat more copiously
than they had been able to do at home, the delicate Neapolitan pizza was
transformed. Formerly lightly embellished with tomatoes and other
toppings, it was increasingly laden with an abundance of meats and
cheese, sometimes creating slices weighing close to a pound."
A final note about making Kamping Pizza (or at home, too). Household
ovens simply don't get hot enough for the simple Neapolitan pizzas.
Traditional brick-lined wood, electric, or gas-fired pizza ovens used in
Italy run around 700 degrees F. I don't know how hot my little propane
barbecue grill gets because the oven thermometer I plunk in there tops
out at 500F, but the results are similar to pizzas I've had in Italy, so
it must be doing something right. I'd like to line the inside lid of the
'q with stone lining, but I can't picture what kind of adhesive could be
used that would not outgas something horrible, would hold up the vehicle
vibrations and the heat of the fire, and accomodate the different
thermal expansion coefficients of the metal and stone.
--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
KG6RCR
On 6/15/2007 9:52 AM Aristotle Sagan wrote:
> So you don't put tomatoes on your pizza? Peppers? Both New World
> foods, not know before 1492.
>
> tim
>
> On 6/15/07, Michael Elliott <camping.elliott@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Al's right -- no water on stone, and Home Depot tiles work fine.
>>
>> I've done pizzas with and without cornmeal. I don't use it any more --
>> it burns and flavors the bottom of the pizza with an "off" flavor
>> (corn's a New World crop, not part of the Old World flavor palette).
>> Using a peel, my pizzas come off the stone w/o difficulty. When the
>> stone is cooled I clean it with the scraper edge of a BBQ cleaning brush
>> thingy.
>>
>> I prefer simple southern Italy pizzas made with few good-quality
>> ingredients Margherita, Napoletana, aglio e olio, etc.) not the
>> overloaded-with-toppings type popular in some American pizza joints, so
>> I don't have to worry about drippings turning into "epoxy." YMMV.
>>
>> Serve with a good Cabernet or Chianti. Invite us over.
>>
>> --
>> Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
>> 71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
>> 84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
>> 74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
>> KG6RCR
>>
>>
>>
>> Pensioner typed:
>> > A square unglazed 'quarry tile' available at various home improvement
>> > places, tile purveyors, flooring companies and so on, makes a fine
>> pizza
>> > stone. Don't forget the polenta (coarse corn meal) to sprinkle on
>> the stone
>> > to prevent any pizza epoxy deposits. You can heat the pizza stone/
>> quarry
>> > tile in a pyromid. The square quarry tile also works as a reg'lar
>> baking
>> > stone of course. Muffings, cathead biscuits, cornbread in cast
>> iron... the
>> > opportunities are limited only by your imagination.
>> >
>> > Word of caution, do not WASH the stone. Unglazed as it is it can
>> absorb
>> > enough water than when heated it can a poor imitation of an IED and
>> self
>> > destruct. Just scrape it off occasionally or replace it when it's
>> deemed
>> > unsuitable.
>> >
>> > Heat the stone first, using your IR thermometer purchased at
>> RatShack, the
>> > one you use to find hotspots in your radiator, to check the
>> temperature,
>> > then put on polenta and the pizza.
>> >
>>
>
>
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