“All in all”, the Mack’s clone yesterday did taste like a Mack’s pizza when everything was taken into consideration, but one small thing that just wasn’t exactly right. I was satisfied though with the results of the Mack’s clone attempt.
The Mack’s clone dough ball did opened very well and could be tossed and twirled. Steve mixed the Classico sauce with oregano (about 1 tablespoon) for a half of a can and also added a little bit of regular pepper. No extra salt was added. The Classico sauce is thicker than their other products. Steve added a little water to thin it down some. When tasting the Classico sauce with added regular oregano and pepper it did taste like Mack’s sauce. 7 ½ ounces of sauce was used on the pizza and 10 ½ ounces of the Nasonville mild cheddar was used. It can be seen how the Nasonville mild cheddar kind of wanted to stick together some after being grated and while placing it on the pizza two times. I couldn’t find my right tip for my plastic squeeze bottle, but the one I found worked out okay.
The Mack’s clone pizza baked fairly well in the oven with not a lot of oven spring. The Mack’s clone attempt did have almost all the same attributes in the crust. The fresh baked slices did stand out like a Mack’s pizza, the crust was sort of crispy with some characteristics of being crackery, the crumb rim was very tender like a Mack’s pizza with a little crisp edge. Steve and I thought the crust tasted very good, even if it didn’t have a lot of oven spring.
The Classico heavy tomato puree when baked on the pizza did almost taste like the Gangi sauce that is used on a Mack’s pizza. At least when using the Classico heavy tomato puree (with added oregano and pepper) the taste is very close when baked on the pizza.
The Nasonville medium white cheddar even if it was aged about 3 months didn’t really change in flavor a lot though (when tasted plain and on the Mack’s attempt). I had thought that the Nasonville medium white cheddar might change in taste if it was aged about 3 months in the fridge. It now makes me curious if maybe Nasonville does produce a different Nasonville cheddar just for food service businesses. Yesterday there was a little bit of tang, but not quite enough.
Trenton Bill invited me to his home for sometime this spring and if I go we will taste Trenton pizzas and we might also go to the distributor that is supposedly Mack’s and Manco and Manco distributor. We might even go to Maruga’s if Sandy didn’t do too much damage to them. http://www.marucaspizza.com/ Only after maybe trying another big block of Nasonville cheddar from who is supposedly the distributor for Mack’s and Manco & Manco may I finally find out if the Nasonville cheddar is the same as the Nasonville cheddar I purchased in smaller packages and if the aging process changes anything.
If anyone is interested in seeing the video of Maruga’s boardwalk style pizza this is the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoJITsvlkcQ I still have the old pouring pot that Trenton Bill gave me that they used at Maruga’s.
Norma
