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Common Mistakes in a True Neopolitan Pizza

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The neapolitan pizza. A scientific guide about the artisanal process

Autori: Paolo Masi,Annalisa Romano,Enzo Coccia

This is the book he waives at the end. I couldn't find stock in Italian, but a few copies in English are still available from Italy. I paid € 38,90 ($46.30) delivered to California.

What a spectacular video! Cooking is a balancing act. Even if one isn't tipping over so far as to call one's pizza an "error" it is good to recognize what makes the balance.

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Youtube links to videos by Enzo Coccia:

Neapolitan pizza: the 6 most common mistakes (the above video)

Neapolitan Pizza: original recipe by Enzo Coccia

Whole wheat Italian Pizza recipe by Enzo Coccia

750g Farina
in proporzione:
80% 
600g Farina 00
(ceneri max 0,55)
20%
150g Farina Integrale
(ceneri da 1,30 a 1,70)
1/2 liter Acqua
25g Sale
1g Lievito
 

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Great timing, thanks @ckreef.   I have had a few disappointing pizza cooks, saved only by the toppings, and can see evidence of what went wrong in this video.  Having been almost moved to tears by some of my disasters I decided that I would hedge my bets and use three different pizza dough recipes for this Friday's pizza night.  That way I will get to compare and build confidence in the recipes that work for my environment and ingredients.  This week it will be The Pizza Bible Neopolitan (18hrs lead time), Forkish (10hrs) and Nancy Silverton (approx 4hrs).  Looking forward to getting at least one of them right!

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1 hour ago, tekobo said:

Great timing, thanks @ckreef.   I have had a few disappointing pizza cooks, saved only by the toppings, and can see evidence of what went wrong in this video.  Having been almost moved to tears by some of my disasters I decided that I would hedge my bets and use three different pizza dough recipes for this Friday's pizza night.  That way I will get to compare and build confidence in the recipes that work for my environment and ingredients.  This week it will be The Pizza Bible Neopolitan (18hrs lead time), Forkish (10hrs) and Nancy Silverton (approx 4hrs).  Looking forward to getting at least one of them right!

 

It's sort of kewl recognizing the mistakes you've made and now knowing what went wrong. I'm definitely going to have a go at it for Sunday lunch. 

 

You're going to have to post pictures of the three different pizzas so we can see the comparison. 

 

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I’d love to see some of your Neapolitan bakes in the kk. I just can’t see how it could be possible to get a true neopolitan crust without the direct flame looping around the dome. I’m not trying to sound arrogant, it just goes against everything I’ve ever learned. I’ve made thousands of neopolitan pizzas over the last few years, at home, in Naples, and at my restaurant, so I do have some experience. Having said that, can’t wait to get my pizza stone and experiment!!!

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8 hours ago, ckreef said:

You're going to have to post pictures of the three different pizzas so we can see the comparison. 

:razz:  I am just hoping that the pictures won't have to be captioned with "problema numero quattro", "problema numero sei", etc.

12 minutes ago, Pizzaiolo said:

I’d love to see some of your Neapolitan bakes in the kk. I just can’t see how it could be possible to get a true neopolitan crust without the direct flame looping around the dome.

Won't be expecting to be authentic.  Will be delighted to find a crust and bake that The Husband and I both like and can practice with.  Will be using the classic Margherita toppings for all of the pizzas to see how they compare.  Just need to wait for the local Polish shop to open so I can get hold of some fresh yeast.

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1 hour ago, ckreef said:

Well I ordered the book. I think I ordered the English version (I hope so anyway - LOL). I do want to find and order some fresh yeast. Also the videos I see keep talking about buffalo mozzarella so I'll also see if I can find some of that. 

 

I looked at the book on Amazon too.  The video is good but it doesn't always tell you how to avoid the problem, just how to recognise it.  However, at £38 for the book I thought I could probably experiment more cheaply with my 25kg of 00 flour.  :blob6:

With you and @Syzygies working through the book I expect to get good insight from people who actually know what they are doing with pizzas on a KK.  

Fresh yeast may be overrated given the way it varies between batches and over time if you keep it.  The thing is, my best pizzas were made with fresh yeast so I am going to give it a try again.  

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4 hours ago, Pizzaiolo said:

I’d love to see some of your Neapolitan bakes in the kk. I just can’t see how it could be possible to get a true neopolitan crust without the direct flame looping around the dome. I’m not trying to sound arrogant, it just goes against everything I’ve ever learned. I’ve made thousands of neopolitan pizzas over the last few years, at home, in Naples, and at my restaurant, so I do have some experience. Having said that, can’t wait to get my pizza stone and experiment!!!

My experience says true Neapolitan can’t really be done in the KK. I’ve tried it on a Blackstone Pizza Oven as well - which does get hot enough and has flames rolling over the top - and it is still lacking. Hence, I’m eyeing a WFO. Really, I’m just keeping an eye on @ckreef and buying whatever he does. I wanna be him when I grow up. :headbang:

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2 hours ago, ckreef said:

Well I ordered the book. I think I ordered the English version (I hope so anyway - LOL). I do want to find and order some fresh yeast. Also the videos I see keep talking about buffalo mozzarella so I'll also see if I can find some of that. 

 

Hard to find in local stores (at least for me), but you can get it at Pennsylvania Maccaroni, which is my source for many of my Italian ingredients - All Trumps flour, 6-in-1 tomatoes, DOP Parmesan and pecorino Romano, high end pastas, etc.

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The best I have where I live is a brand new Publix. I'm going to have to figure out a better source for Italian goodies. 

I bought my Caputo 00 blue bag off the internet that had been repackaged. Next time I think I'm going to get a full 55 lb bag and repackage it and sell some off as I definitely don't need 55 lbs at a time. 

 

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14 hours ago, ckreef said:

The best I have where I live is a brand new Publix. I'm going to have to figure out a better source for Italian goodies. 

I bought my Caputo 00 blue bag off the internet that had been repackaged. Next time I think I'm going to get a full 55 lb bag and repackage it and sell some off as I definitely don't need 55 lbs at a time. 

 

Yes, definitely don’t keep that much flour on hand, if you don’t use it pretty quickly. It’s happened to me before (and with caputo of late) that it gets infested with flour beatles...pretty gross. Check your best before dates to be safe, although I’ve even gotten flour that was not expired and have had them. Do a test sift first to be sure.

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Sometimes I feel like a bear of very small brain.  I set myself up to start the Pizza Bible Neopolitan yesterday evening only to find that I first needed 18hrs to create the poolish.  So pizza night was pushed on from Friday night to Saturday night.  Tonight I met timetable to start the dough only to "discover" that the dough needs 36-48hrs in the fridge.  What was I reading/thinking when I said the total lead time would be 18hrs??? Oh well, Sunday night is now pizza night.

In the meantime it would be good to get some advice from @Pizzaiolo about cheese.  We heard reference to dry mozzarella cheese for pizza and settled on buying some scarmorza (some unsmoked and some smoked).  Is that OK for Neopolitan pizza or should we be using the wet buffalo mozzarella?

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1 hour ago, tekobo said:

Sometimes I feel like a bear of very small brain.  I set myself up to start the Pizza Bible Neopolitan yesterday evening only to find that I first needed 18hrs to create the poolish.  So pizza night was pushed on from Friday night to Saturday night.  Tonight I met timetable to start the dough only to "discover" that the dough needs 36-48hrs in the fridge.  What was I reading/thinking when I said the total lead time would be 18hrs??? Oh well, Sunday night is now pizza night.

Maybe this should be mistake #7 in that video. ;)

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