Making Some Pizzas is Like “Making a Silk Purse, Out of a Sow’s Ear” The Story of Sukie!

One would think that making pizza is easy, with only four basic ingredients of flour, yeast, water, and salt, but so much more can go into learning to make any kind of pizzas.  Trying new styles of pizza is almost like a chemistry lesson, even though I never have taken chemistry in school, but can relate to how chemistry works in each kind of pizza experiment.

It is always challenging when trying to learn ways to make new pizzas.  Each new ingredient, whether it be the type of flour, type of  yeast, type of salt, hydration, whether or not to add oil and so many other variables can make learning to make pizza so much fun.  One variable, whether it is the ingredients, room temperature, time of proofing, temperature of proofing, cold fermenting or bulk dough or individual dough balls, room temperature fermenting can all change how a pizza turns out or what kind of style you might be trying to achieve.  I have only touched the surface on learning all these principles and sure I will continue learning about all this, as I try to learn as much as my brain will allow, probably for the rest of my life.  That is one of the reasons why I refer to making pizza is something like “Making a Silk Purse, Out of a Sow’s Ear”.  Sukie was an ordinary pig, that her ear, was transformed into something that noone had thought possible.  Though chemistry, the dreams and ambitions of chemists, it truly did happen that a sow’s ear did become a silk purse.  Although no one really used this method, after it was perfected, it shows if enough perseverance and chemistry is used, something can be accomplished, at least some of the time.

I invited you to read the story of Sukie and what happened and see if you think making some pizzas is something like “Making a Silk Purse, Out of A Sow’s Ear”.


http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/exhibits/purse/index1.html

http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/inc-arthur-d-little/on-the-making-of-silk-purses-from-sows-ears--a-contribution-to-philosophy-hci/1-on-the-making-of-silk-purses-from-sows-ears--a-contribution-to-philosophy-hci.shtml

To understand how to use baker’s percents, goes a long way, in containing each variable, to understand more about learning more about pizza making, at least in my opinion.

Norma