Another Pizza on the BBQ Grill 8/13/2011

I decided this morning since I was going to make tomato sauce today, I would give my BBQ grill another go, at trying to make a pizza.  Steve had given me some wood at market on Tuesday, to try out in the BBQ grill.   I just mixed the dough this morning with a wooden spoon, let it rest, and then kneaded it a little and let it rest again.  I used Caputo Pizzeria flour this time as the flour.  I only made the hydration 58% because I didn’t want this dough sticky at all, in case the BBQ grill wouldn’t work out in some way.  I only used flour, salt, ADY, and water in the formula.

The BBQ grill did get to high temperatures today and the bake was fast.  I really like seeing the flames from the pieces of wood Steve gave me!

Pictures in sequence of events as they happened, from mix, tomatoes, to finished pizza.

Norma

Working Outside a Little Today, Market Sleeping, and Tomatoes and Flowers 8/12/2011

I worked outside for a little while today with my tomatoes, herbs, and flowers.  Friday's are also the day I go to market to get my preferment ready for Monday.

My flowers and tomatoes are doing well, and it was a beautiful day in our area of the world.  The sun was shining, and it wasn't too hot or humid.  I did pick a lot of tomatoes today, and am not sure if I am going to make more tomato sauce or try something different with them tomorrow.  The tomatoes seem to be ripening so fast now.  Butterflies are becoming much more plentiful in our area.  I really love butterflies!

Market sure seems different when I go there on Fridays.  It is quiet and no other lights are on, but my little light. I  generally clean, fill the deli case with sodas and water, make sure my oven is cleaned well, things are filled, make the preferment, wash the floor, and fold pizza boxes, or anything else that might need done.

My mother is aging, and I don't know what will happen with her.  I do take meals to her, and check on her different times of the day.  I guess the role is now reversed.  Years ago, she took care of me, now I guess it is time to take care of her.  I drive her to any appointments, get her groceries or pills, and my daughter also helps.  Our family is getting smaller, so not many close relatives can help.  There aren't even many close relatives living near us anymore.

All in all, it was a good day! :)  The beauty of summer and still having my mother...........

Norma

"Old Days of Pizza Before 1905" History of Pizza..before the first official Pizzeria opened in NY 8/12/2011

I wrote the Library of Congress, on their contact page last week, about if they could find any old newspaper articles about pizza, or find places I might search about some of the first pizzas made or sold in the US.

This is what I wrote, and what the Library of Congress responded.

Question History:

Patron: Do you have access to any old (1900- 1905) newspaper articles from NYC 
about how Italian immigrants brought over and made the first pizzas, before any 
pizza businesses were opened, or maybe where I could find information about the 
first pizza business maybe by some kind of Italian posts. I am studying about 
pizza in NYC and would like to find out what I can.  I do have a lot of 
information and the earliest thing I can learn was from 1903 when a pomidore 
pizza was made in NY.  I think that article was in the NY Tribune.

Thanks!

Librarian 2: I did find the article you mentioned from the New York Tribune. 
However, I haven't found many other newspaper articles in our indexes. Here are 
two though, the second of which goes into some detail:

1. Headline: What to Eat; Article Type: News/Opinion 
Paper: Morning Herald, published as The Morning Herald; Date: 12-29-1902; 
Volume: 32; Issue: 363; Page: 2; Location: Lexington, Kentucky 
 
2. Headline: "Hot Cakes" in North Street Toothsome Dainties, Favorites with 
Neapolitan Palates, Are Pizze Cavuie And; Article Type: News/Opinion 
Paper: Boston Journal, published as Boston Sunday Journal; Date: 10-04-1903; 
Issue: 522; Page: 12; Location: Boston, Massachusetts 

Scans of the articles are attached.

I would suggest that you search for "pizza" in Google Books. Limit your search 
to 19th century publications and you will find mentions decades before 1900. 
Since books before 1923 aren't under copyright, you should typically be able to 
view these books in their entirety through Google.

I hope this information is of some help. Thank you for contacting the Library of 
Congress.

Thomas P Jabine
Newspaper and Current Periodical Room
Serial and Government Publications Division
Library of Congress

Explore history's first draft at Chronicling America: Historic American 
Newspapers - <http://www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica/>

This is the one link to the one article about earlier pizzas.  I searched through the above link and found the link to the one article, but not the other. 

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1903-12-06/ed-1/seq-35/;words=pizza?date1=1836&rows=20&searchType=basic&state=&date2=1904&proxtext=++Pizza&y=14&x=5&dateFilterType=yearRange&index=0 

This is the scanned article, that I typed out from the Library of Congress.


“Hot Cakes” IN NORTH STREET


Toothsome Dainties, Favorites with Neapolitan Plates, Are Pizza Cavuie and Taraluccio--Beer, Not Wine, Therewith.


Scattered though North and Prince streets and other portions of the Italian colony where Neapolitans congregate are occasional little shops with the words “Pizze Cavule” on the windows.  The words mean simply “hot cakes” in the Neapolitan  dialect.  But only a traveler would know that the pizze are one of the famous products of Naples, eaten by rich and poor, high and low, and dutifully partaken of by every tourist as one of the features that must be “done” in order to say that one has seen Naples.  The devotion of the American race to pie is a poor thing in comparison, with that of the Neapolitans for their pizze.  It is a deeper passion  than that of Devonshire for clotted cream, or of Boston for baked beans. Every restaurant serves them, and after the play is over the theatre-goers pour into cafes to eat hot pizze.


Neapolitans in Boston say that there are few place in the city to which the famous Naples specialty has been successfully transplanted.  A visit to one these reveals a window piled so high with great round Italian cheeses that the interior is invisible.  Entering, one sees a long table, covered with brown oilcloth and bounded by long black benches.  One side of the room is lined with little private supper rooms about the size of theatre boxes, petitioned off with black wood.  Each is filled with a party of men, peacefully dining on pizze.  A bright tin bucket of beer is in the centre of the table, and passes from lip to lip without the formality of glasses.  The shop does not sell beer.  When a man gives his order he takes a bucket from a stack provided for the purpose, and goes to a neighboring bar for his beer.  By the time he gets back his order is ready, for the pizze cook quickly.


Making the Cake


In behind, two Neapolitan bakers, clothed in white are baking pizze from morning till night, and almost from night until morning.  Quantities of dough are kept prepared, made in fat rolls.  The baker takes a roll, and with a few deft slips flattens it as flat as a pancake but somewhat thicker and little larger than in ordinary pie.  Then he dobs bits of lard on its surface.  Over this he sprinkles grated cheese, from a dish which stands always full beside him.  The he pours on cooked tomato and on top he throws a handful of oreganta, the spicy aromatic herb which is such a favorite Italian seasoning.  The cheese used is Roman, so much employed for culinary purposes.  The whole operation has not taken him more than a minute.  The he slaps it on a broad, flat, long-handled paddle, and thrusts it into the furnace.  In two minutes it is done.  


It comes to the table on a big, flat pewter plate. Ordinarily individual plates are not furnished or required,  for every true Neapolitan takes his piece of pizze, folds it over so that the crust is outside, and eat it from the hand.  The pastry seems to be a cross between bread dough and pie crust, and is not lacking in suggestions that when cold it might lie somewhat heavily upon the unaccustomed interior.  But as a whole the confections is enticing, by reason of its delectable hot-ness and crispness, and the cunning blend of spicy flavors for which it is renowned.  It is probably indigestible, but certainly no more than Welsh rarebit.


On the walls of the pizze shop are the pictures of the King and Queen and of Garibaldi, and also a placard which with elaborate politeness begs the customer to be so kind as not to be in a hurry, as patience will enable them to be better served, and also to have the goodness not to be offended if on Sunday, by reason of crowd, the are required to pay when they give their order.


A cake of this size is 10 cents, and there are smaller one for 5 cents.  In Naples the price ranges from 10 cents down to a penny for little one containing only a good-sized mouthful.  A favorite cry for them at the doors of the bakeries in Naples is “Ca’pumarola e elice”, which is dialect for “With tomatoes and anchovy,” some of them being made with anchovy there, though the fish is never added here.  Men may sometime be seen on the streets, particularly on feast days, carrying tray of the hot cakes fresh from the bakeshops, and crying “pizzelle”.  These are merely the baked dough, however, without any of the added ingredients which make the pizze so succulent a morse. 


This was another article from the NY Sun I found later.  http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1905-06-18/ed-1/seq-31/;words=bakers+Neapolitan?date1=1836&rows=20&searchType=basic&state=&date2=1911&proxtext=Neapolitan+bakers&y=14&x=12&dateFilterType=yearRange&index=2   It looks like the pizza Caviue was from NY, but now I am not sure.  This article was also published in 1905.


This is also the other link I had posted on before about what was found so far, in trying to understand about how pizza started in the US.


http://learningknowledgetomakepizza.blogspot.com/2011/07/evolution-of-pizza-from-italy-to.html


and another one..


http://www.recipepizza.com/history_of_pizza.htm

Norma

Great Tomatoes: Heirloom Russian Krim..given to me by Steve my friend 8/10/2011

Steve gave me some Heirloom Russian Krim tomatoes yesterday at market.  I had tried to grow some Russian Krim tomatoes this year in my garden, but for some reason they didn't work out.  I tried these Russian Krim tomatoes tonight and are they ever delicious!  The have the best taste in my opinion, and also are very juicy.

Thanks, Steve for giving me the Russian Krim tomatoes to try!  They sure were great. :)

http://www.tomatogrowers.com/black.htm

Norma

Greek Style Pizzas, I make every week at market...8/09/2011

This post is just to explain how aggressively the preferment Lehmann dough is rolled out with my heavy rolling pin, and also aggressively docked to be able to make a Greek pizza.  I start out by rolling the dough (with my heavy rolling pin), then aggressively docking the dough on both sides (many times), to be able to make a pizza from this dough.  The dough still rises in the pan, so the preferment Lehmann dough must be pretty strong to be able to still rise, in a steel pan.  It amazes me that the preferment Lehmann dough can be abused so much, and still make a decent pie.

This Greek pizza was dressed with herb infused oil, tomato sauce, different kinds of white cheddars, mozzarella, and spinach.  The edges of the Greek pizza do get nice and crunchy from the cheeses melting down on the sides of the steel pan.  I do really love Greek style pizzas. :)

Different types of flours can be used to make Greek style pizzas.


A great thread about learning to make Greek pizza on pizzamaking.com, if anyone is interested in learning to make Greek-style pizza.
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,691.0.html

Some more Greek pizzas I made.
http://learningknowledgetomakepizza.blogspot.com/2011/01/greek-pizza-made-1292010.html 

http://learningknowledgetomakepizza.blogspot.com/2011/07/still-trying-to-get-consistent-results.html 


http://learningknowledgetomakepizza.blogspot.com/2011/08/two-more-greek-pizzas-made-8162011.html 


http://learningknowledgetomakepizza.blogspot.com/2011/03/greek-style-pizza-by-steve-my-pizza.html 

http://learningknowledgetomakepizza.blogspot.com/2011/02/greek-style-pizza-282011-using.html 


http://learningknowledgetomakepizza.blogspot.com/2011/02/sicilian-pizza-greek-style-pizza-made.html 


Where I bought some steel pans.

http://learningknowledgetomakepizza.blogspot.com/2011/07/my-trip-to-bova-foods-7072.html 

One Greek style pizza Steve (Ev) made for me formula.

http://learningknowledgetomakepizza.blogspot.com/2010/11/greek-pizza-steve-made.html 


Norma

Soaker Dough Pizzas, with fresh wheat grains... 8/9/2011

This is how my soaker pizza turned out.  The dough was very heavy, and when the dough ball was opened, a part of the dough was cut off with the pizza cutter.  After the pizza was baked, there was a sourdough taste in the crust.  This pizza was very different, in texture, taste, and how the dough performed.  Although I did like the different taste and texture, I prefer a lighter rim.  When the rim was tasted the wheaty taste could be tasted.  When the part of the pizza was eaten with the sauce and cheese, not a really big noticeable difference could be tasted, than some other pizza doughs I have tried.  Some of my taste testers also did like slices of this pizza, and Steve also thought it was different.  Although this dough was very sticky when I first mixed it, from all the stretches and folds, it did become manageable.

The small part of the dough that was cut off, was just put into a piece of aluminum foil, and almost at the end of the day, Steve and I noticed the dough sitting there.  Steve decided to use the dough to make a small pizza.  The dough was very sticky, I guess from sitting in the heat for a long while that was why the dough became sticky again.  Steve added some flour and made the little pizza.  I don’t know why, but the little pizza did taste different than the big pizza.

The farmer that had given me the wheat grains (fresh from the combine), did come to my stand later yesterday, and I explained to him how the pizza was made and gave him 3 slices to try.  He thought it was very interesting how his wheat grains were being used to make different pizzas.  The farmer also gave Steve and I some of his fresh barley grains to try out.  I will be trying to sprout some of the barley grains for pizza and Steve will be trying to sprout the barley grains for brewing beer.  It is nice that I am getting to know this farmer.  He is really nice.  He said if Steve or I want more barley grains, to just ask him.

My guess would be, that these pizzas would be healthier to eat.  I have enjoyed trying fresh wheat in different ways to make pizza.

Last picture is of the barley the farmer gave me to try and sprout.

Norma