Evelyne Solomons-Who is she?

Evelyne Slomon, author of The Pizza Book; Everything There Is To Know About The World's Greatest Pie.

http://www.amazon.com/Pizza-Book-Everything-Worlds-Greatest/dp/081291113X


Evelyne Slomon allegedly helped develop the "Lehmann" NY style dough formulation for Tom Lehmann.

I believe Evelyne was trying to get Tom Lehmann to move more in the direction of a dough formulation with only flour, water, salt, yeast and oil, without the types of additives and conditioners that many commercial pizza operators use.

Evelyne Slomon’s advocacy of artisan pizzas using the best ingredients and methods of the old masters whose work she witnessed and chronicled in her pizza cookbook in 1984.

Tom Lehmann, and also Evelyne Slomon, both of whom have spent a good part of their lives and careers on the pizza side, advocate slight underkneading of the dough and letting biochemical gluten development (BGD) do a good part of gluten development

Quoted by Evelyne Slomon, on pizzamaking.com

“Before 1992 Tom Lehmann did not have any idea of how to go about formulating an authentic New York Style pizza. Back in the late 1980's, he had been paid to reverse engineer MY pizza at Pizzico Restaurant where I was producing what we now call artisan pizza. Tom had no idea how I got the results I got. He tried looking at our garbage and ordering pizza after pizza to be dissected and analyzed--and he still couldn't figure it out.  While I always had my audience, most of the industry thought I was nuts--for them, pizza was all about ease of manufacture (make it simple enough for monkies to make)ease of production--again people were deemed a liability, so rounding and sheeting dough was left to machines. Ingredients were after-thoughts--cheaper being better. For the life of me, getting operators to think about fermenting their dough as little as over-night was an impossible task. Never mind that all they had to do was start their process one day sooner, or that their dough would gain in flavor, texture and color, or, that it would be so much easier to stretch out. Even the the fact that excessive cost of all those conditioners and additives they were using, could be eliminated. Imagine, better tasting, better looking, easier to work with and CHEAPER to produce--yet pizza makers were not ready to embrace the use of "time" or better ingredients.  For the most part, pizza makers didn't have a clue about food cost or how to really calculate it. They thought--more expensive flour? High quality tomatoes and cheese? Forget it.
Crustwise, better quality flour was only a penny or two more, and even that cost was negligiable since the better flour had superior absorbtive qualities which provided them with a larger yield. There seemed to be no way to part them from their additives, conditioners and extenders, they were really brain-washed that they absolutely needed all of those products to produce pizza. Because they knew nothing of food cost, they didn't realize how much more the "crutches" actually cost them. Yet, even when presented with the facts, about how they weren't saving money they had absolutely no faith in placing production into human hands. The pizza industry, more specifically the ingredient and equipment manufacturers had convinced them that their products would save them on cost and labor--and would produce consistency. While I'll give them the consistency edge, albeit in a purely manufactured product sense, they were not saving money in any other sense and--they were producing crap. Pizza makers had been sold a bill of goods by the pizza industry and they simply did not want to fix something that was not in their view--broken.

I could go on and on, but I am merely trying to preface where my philosophy and methods were in comparison to Tom's. Tom stood for everything commercial in pizza and I stood for everything that was artisan and traditional. In 1992, when he asked me to teach my NY style at AIB, it was the first olive branch between the two segments. He was genuinely fascinated with my results and wanted to learn how I did it--and I wanted to reach a greater audience for my gospel of traditional pizza. I could go on and on, but I am merely trying to preface where my philosophy and methods were in comparison to Tom's. Tom stood for everything commercial in pizza and I stood for everything that was artisan and traditional. In 1992, when he asked me to teach my NY style at AIB, it was the first olive branch between the two segments. He was genuinely fascinated with my results and wanted to learn how I did it--and I wanted to reach a greater audience for my gospel of traditional pizza.

When Tom and I finally did get together at AIB, it was an epiphany for both of us: I learned about the scientific aspect of pizza and he learned about the old methods that were all but extinct in the commercial pizza world. My Totonno-Lombardi mentors had taught me to use flour that had a protein content far below the New York Style standard (12 to 12 1/2 percent)
Because AIB feared that my forumula would be too out there, we did include oil, a lot more yeast than I used and optional sugar. However, the original recipe I showed him how to do had a much higher moisture content than he was used to working with--60%. At the time, pizza doughs rarely went above 50 or 55 percent because they were routinely put through rounders and sheeters which don't work well with wet doughs.

It took quite a few years for Tom to actually embrace my formula because it was so different from his thing and the human factor was also a hinderance. But since Tom and I remained friends, and have taught together and given so many seminars together over the years, he has really come to understand the type of thing I do. During our last conversation, he went so far as to say that I'd succeeded in tipping the scales at AIB because his protege Jeff Zeak was a confirmed disciple of my philosophy and methodology as opposed to his! Jeff worked hand in hand with me at AIB for the last 15 years as my assistant and we've spent a lot of time talking and making pizza together. I always knew that Jeff was really into the whole artisan thing, but I didn't know how much so--Jeff will be taking over Tom's position at AIB when he retires. Tom's shoes are going to be some pretty big ones to fill, but I think that Jeff, who's had the best of both pizza worlds teach him, will turn out to be an excellent director.

Tom and I knew each other from Pizza Today, we were both writers and seminar presenters. I had even attended his dough seminars at the show. What did I learn at those seminars? That we were on opposite ends of the pizzamaking spectrum. His seminars were all about how to handle additives, extenders and conditioners, and how to use sheeters for pizza "production". My seminars were on how to make pizza the traditional way, using nothing more than flour, water, yeast and salt. I preached the gospel of long slow fermentation and of hand forming and hand stretching. I was the first to write about wood-burning ovens and how they were the pizza makers ultimate tool in the mid 1980's and received a lot of flak from many different factions of the commercial pizza industry about how those ovens were merely a "fad" and how they could NEVER be used for high volume because they couldn't bake pizza fast enough!!   They simply would not believe that a pizza could be cooked in two minutes--or less in a proper wood-burning oven.”

“ I wanted to copy the formulas, techniques and information from the AIB seminar so that you could see how far we have come. So that you could see that pizza was seen as something which was produced. Skill was not something that was admired, it was seen as something that was unprofitable and eccentric. (which is what most people thought of the old timers) They were looking for factory conditions to produce pizza, where they wouldn't have to mess with it. Now, this industrial head is still very much in the majority of commercial pizza, however, there are now a growing number of operators who are paying attention to their ingredients and technique--they are not artisans, but they are way above the average pizza skill and quality curve. Trying to affect the general pizza producing audience has been a career-long challenge for me. Artisans have the desire and passion to take their craft to the highest level, but for the average Joe out there, upgrading their ingredients and looking at learning how to make the dough so they don't have to use conditioners is a challenge that more are finally embracing.

2. The outcome of additional sugar or additional yeast will be the same. Dough that is to be held for a long period (over 3 days) and that uses a small amount of yeast will need an extra push so that it will not lose it. The dough becomes slack and over-blown because the yeast is essentially completely used up. If I know I want to use the dough for 4-5 days (and this is especially important for commissary type operations) I add 10% more yeast instead of sugar. So in a formula that has .25 of an ounce of yeast, 10% accounts for .03 of an ounce to .28. I round it up to .30 of an ounce, and that is what I will use. On a commercial level, holding dough for that length of time also requires a strong flour that has high quality protein and superior gassing power. Since most commercial operators use sugar in their dough, it is a lot easier to advise to increase the sugar level than the yeast. But if you are using a formulation that does not contain sugar to begin with, you do not want to introduce sugar to the formula when the same effect can be attained by minimally bumping up the yeast. Malted flour might also provide enough addtional nourishment for the yeast without adding sugar. I've been using malted flours for a very long time and have not had to bump my yeast up when I want to hold the dough for a long time. It does take experimentation and it does really depend on the quality of flour that you are using. In any event, you do not need to use sugar.”
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Evelyne stated, that is, to use a preferment that is around 15-25% of the total formula flour.

The same day dough that was posted at PMQ by Tom was the NYC dough that I developed and demonstrated at the Orlando Pizza Show. It is for a commercial batch that is ready to go in around 2 hours. He was making up this dough for my seminar:

100% Caputo 00 blue pizza flour
60% 70 degree water
1% IDY
2% Sea Salt (I always use sea salt--however you should note that sea salt is twice as salty as the same amount of regular salt)
5% olive oil
(He added the sugar as an option)

Place the water in the mixer, pour in the flour, yeast and salt.
Mix on low only until the raw flour dissappears
Then pour in the olive oil--down the sides of the bowl
Mix until the oil is incorporated.

Turn the mixer to second speed and mix one to three minutes more until the dough is silky. The dough should be about 80 degrees coming off the mixer.

Scale the dough and place in dough containers (individual or trays)

Refrigerate (under the dough preptable retarder) for about 1 hour (or allow to remain at room temperature 2 hours and use)
Bring out to room temperature 1 hour before use.

Results are light, crunchy, crispy and very flavorful--but not complex like traditional long fermented dough. But--waaay better than most NYC style pizza pushed with sugar and conditioners.

For a more artisan approach to same day dough.
Make a sponge using 50-50 water and flour with 3% IDY (for a dough that will be used in 3-4 hours--or up to 8 if refrigerated (not suitable for over-night)
You can figure the sponge at 15-25% of the flour weight or as a stand alone at 10-15% of the entire dough weight.

For example: For 20% starter: 10 pounds flour= 100% of the formula, the starter will be 32 ounces (20%), water at equal parts=32 ounces of flour and IDY at 3% (of the 32ounces)=.48 ounces
Mix together and allow to sit at room temperature 1 hour (72-77 degree room temperature)

This could be added to the above NYC formulation--with or without the olive oil
(Note the amount of flour and water--but not the yeast should be subtracted from the total) or, to make matters more confusing--you could simply make up the sponge using the same formulation given and add that to the entire recipe as given. The starter would be on top of the recipe. For example if the dough recipe equals 15 pounds of finished dough, if the starter is figured separately, the finished dough recipe would be about 17 pounds.

The starter will add flavor and texture to the dough and will make a real difference in the finished pizza--even if everything  was made in just a few hours.

Obviously, the longer the starter and fermentation process is drawn out, the better the results, but we are talking about getting the best results out of same day doughs here.

There are other ways to "push" the rapid fermentation of dough that do not involve crutches...and that will actually produce something that tastes really, really good.

Evelyne, wanted to put much more in the book, but the publisher wouldn't let her put the material in the book on the basis that the book was not for professionals but rather ordinary home bakers who wouldn't be interested. Of course, there have been many changes in pizza making over the years since 1984, but Evelyne made a valuable contribution to the field.

Some of these quotes were also quoted from Pete-zza (Peter) on pizzamaking.com.

I have only copied what was quoted.

Norma