Bill from Trenton came to visit us at market yesterday and bought some nice gifts. He brought a pack of Nasonville Pizza Cheese, some plum tomatoes from Italy, a pouring sauce container from Maruca’s, and pack of Great Lakes sharp cheddar from Shop Rite in NJ.
The Mack’s pizza attempt went very well yesterday. The dough was easy to open, could be tossed and twirled, and seemed to be like a Mack’s dough, using Peter‘s formulation. We blended Bill’s Great Lakes Cheese with my mozzarella blend 50/50. The pie was dressed with cheese first, then sauce using the Maruca’s old container, then more cheese was applied. We ended up using about 10 oz. of cheese. The Gangi sauce was also used with a fair amount of added pepper and oregano. The resulting Mack’s attempt seemed be one of my best in that the cheese blend did taste almost exactly like a Mack’s pizza, the sauce tasted like a Mack’s pizza and the crust also seemed to be like a Mack’s pizza. Bill, Steve, my taste testers and I all enjoyed this pizza very much. I also bought home a slice to reheat. If anyone can purchase the Great Lakes sharp cheddar and combine it with a good mozzarella blend, I think it will give them close to a Mack’s pizza. At least that was my experience yesterday. I still am not sure if I like the Goya manteca lard used in the dough better than olive oil. Maybe a little less of the cheese blend could have been used.
Bill found me an original Maruca’s
http://www.marucaspizza.com/index.html sauce pouring vessel and brought it to market yesterday. I love the sauce pouring container because I do like old things and it poured the Mack‘s sauce great yesterday If the Man vs. Food video is watched at Maruca‘s website it can be seen that the container like Bill gave me is like the container in the video and also I find it interesting that Maruca‘s does all the sauce last instead of in between the cheeses. In the video also it can been seen there is a hot dough press at Marcua‘s. I find it amusing that Maruca’s, Macks, and Manco and Manco all started from Trenton “tomato pies”. I think the video is interesting. I don’t know why Maruca’s uses a hot dough press. If anyone is interested, those slices at Marcua’s sure look big. Bill told me the slices are very big, as he has eaten them many times. As posted on Yelp by a poster those killer slices are 3.75. http://www.yelp.com/biz/maruca-tomato-pies-seaside-park We all had a great time talking to Bill yesterday and really enjoyed that he came to visit us.
It was a pleasure finally meeting you Bill after talking to you on the phone different times. Thanks also Bill for bringing the gifts! I really liked how the Great Lakes sharp cheddar combined with my mozzarella blend did give the taste of a Mack’s pizza.
Norma
