Pequod

True in general for all cookbooks, I think. Just seems like pizza books are particularly useless even as a reference. There are “canonical” forms of different styles that are not hard to find in the sources above. Any of these are better than anything I’ve found in a pizza book. That said, I may give some of Reinhart's Sicilian recipes in the pan pizza book a go. His doughs and techniques actually seem to close to my understanding of Sicilian "canon" and in line with the sourdough focaccia recipe that I use. He might not be far off the mark in this book.

I have no problem with the people being Faux vegans. What I have a problem with is when they’re preachy about it AND hypocrites.

Lots of people love and recommend that book, and if it works well for you by all means keep using it. Homemade pizzas with homemade doughs are ALWAYS better than the alternative -- store bought doughs, etc. Also, Forkish's FWSY book on high hydration bread is a true gem -- a simpler approach to Chad Robertson's Tartine style. I really, really don't mean to discourage use of that book, but if you REALLY want to up your pizza game, there are other, better sources. I say that by way of introduction to my contrarian view on "The Elements of Pizza", and most pizza cookbooks in general. The only pizza book I've found to date worth its salt (pun intended!) is Tony Gemignani's Pizza Bible, and even that is heretical in part. It is great for Neapolitan and NY style pizzas. Completely heretical on all things Chicago (Corn meal? REALLY???). The Sicilian section appears to be very, very similar to Reinhart's Pan Pizza book and both seem to be in keeping with what I know about Sicilian style (which is far from expert). Other highly rated, yet heretical pizza books include: Pat Bruno's Chicago Style Pizza Book -- heresy throughout. I started my Chicago deep dish "career" with this book 3 decades ago (before I became a Chicago expat), and learned how wrong it was with my first bite. Heresy. Saw dust in my pizza. What the hey?? It is what non-Chicagoan's think Chicago deep dish is, but not even close. This book started the world on the path to corn meal being equated with Chicago Deep Dish. An error that is now self-propagating and appears everywhere -- even Cooks Illustrated. This book is the original sin for all bad recipes claiming to be Chicago Pizza. Funny to think how many people think they know what Chicago deep dish is...and they're totally wrong... Peter Reinhart's American Pie -- more heresy. Written by a bread baker (many of whose books aren't very good in spite of all of his James Beard awards) trying to understand pizza. Swing and a miss. Universally panned (another pun!) by pizza nerds everywhere. Salt contents are wrong, process is wrong, almost everything is wrong. And yet...lots of people LOVE this book. Who am I to disagree if it works for them? The Elements of Pizza -- while a noble effort to adapt Neapolitan to a home oven, and it DOES produce an interesting pie, it is in no way Neapolitan. Many of his recipes also state: use 00 or Bread Flour. Huh? There is a VAST difference between the two: texture, protein content, water absorption, malt content. They behave VERY differently. Even different "bread" flours have substantial differences. I have particular flours I use for bread (Central Milling Artisan Baker's Craft Plus or Giusto's artisan unbleached), use All Trumps unbromated for NY style pizza, and would use 00 for Neapolitan if I had a WFO that could achieve near Neapolitan temps. Tony Gemignani and pizza nerds everywhere understand these differences. Forkish doesn't. YMMV. Again, if you like the results, who am I to disagree? Better sources if you want to up your game? For *Chicago* style deep dish: http://www.realdeepdish.com. My own recipe evolved over three decades to something very close to this. This is authentic. This is real. This is delicious. This is Chicago. For all things pizza in general: https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php. This is where pizza nerds get really, REALLY nerdy. Pretty much all of my other pizza recipes have evolved from something I found here. Some I use verbatim. Garvey's Chicago South Side thin crust recipe is a near perfect clone of Colucci's from my home town on the south side. Absolutely perfect replica of a hometown favorite...because Garvey grew up in a neighboring town and understands this particular style. The Food Lab: Most of Kenji's pizza recipes are pretty darn good. I've used his Detroit style recipe with fantastic results. Love it. @ckreef look for his pizza dough tutorials and recipes on this forum. They are all pizza nerd approved -- would fair well on pizzamaking.com

Yup, let’s see: Carbs are good Butter is bad Eggs are bad Fat is bad Coffee is bad Red meat is bad Anything else food related we’ve been told by our government overlords that proved to be false?

What's old is new...

Milk Street has a new Suya recipe up -- free for now: https://www.177milkstreet.com/recipes/suya-spiced-pork-tenderloins?allow_token=365e2b8c-db0c-4640-8186-6bd8cdbb8c70&utm_source=Christopher+Kimball’s+Milk+Street&utm_campaign=f2050184ae-FTW_PANROASTEDPORK&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c373980eee-f2050184ae-114842961&mc_cid=f2050184ae&mc_eid=a4a9a551e0

Dennis has a pic somewhere on this forum where he rotisseried 92 tri tips at once. That may be a *slight* exaggeration, but I seem to recall he was playing with OctoForksTM at the time. Found it:

I'm eyeing the Focaccias and Sicilians. I already have one great sourdough focaccia recipe that I love, but haven't done Sicilian. That said, I'll be scaling the size to a 10x15x1 pan rather than the 12x17 he calls for -- just a tad huge for only 2 people.

Baharat Spiced Porter Road Chicken over coffee wood lump. Perfect fall meal.

Welp. Just bought it on Kindle for $2.99. Looked at the table of contents and appreciated two things right away: 1) sourdough recipes, and 2) Not a single mention of “Chicago”.

Have seen that, but have found Reinhart’s books to be a bit hit and miss. Looking forward to your complete review...once you’ve cooked the entire book.

Looks a bit like the rotisserie I found at Biltmore in Asheville, NC

So far so good with Porter Road. Half of order arrived fresh, not frozen, including two packs of chicken thighs. Opened them today and surprised to find that they were already very nicely trimmed. Into a marinade with ingredients for Baharat Spiced Chicken overnight, to be cooked tomorrow.

Yes, the Noori seems to be a bit like the Arteflame, another curious sort of grill I’m not interested in owning.

This is kind of interesting. Refractory cement, etc. https://www.noori.com.br/?lang=en

First downsizing and shedding excess before contemplating such. KK with baking steel makes better pizza than a Blackstone, so...

Sweet setup. Now go get it dirty!

KK Coffee Lump is my favorite. Glad it is passing muster so far.

Just in case anyone knows of anybody in the DC area who might want a Blackstone Pizza Oven, point them here: https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/for/d/clifton-blackstone-pizza-oven/6978832112.html

PBW

Whoa! Now we know why these things are created as well as they are.

I remove the smoke tube (whatever it's called -- the one that leads into the KK) and inspect it after every use. Usually it has accumulated crud. When it does I disassemble the whole thing and soak in PBW overnight.

Should have applied the word "hefty" to the price. In terms of $$/Pound, they are definitely "HEFTY".

Crikey! Did you get a look at the price?? I'll take a BB32 over that any day.