Unpopular Opinions

Pross

I've never understood the dislike of pineapple on pizza. It's one of my favourite toppings.

Pross

rick_chasey said:

Well you hate women so I’m not surprised.

That seems a very tenuous link considering the amount of women that would agree with his point of view. It's far too complex a debate to summarise in a few pithy words.

ugo.santalucia

Any food that goes brown and becomes inedible if you don't add lemon is not worth eating... that includes avocados and artichokes... but the list is long,,,

veronese68

Pross said:

I've never understood the dislike of pineapple on pizza. It's one of my favourite toppings.

I used to think you a reasonable type of person

Pross

veronese68 said:

Pross said:

I've never understood the dislike of pineapple on pizza. It's one of my favourite toppings.

I used to think you a reasonable type of person

What do Italians know about pizza though?

ugo.santalucia

The problem with mass made pizza is that the dough is so bad that it needs to be topped heavily, in order to taste of something that you want to eat.

A proper sourdough, baked as it should, needs very little... tomato, salt, olive oil is already enough... cheese is an extra... When you add too many toppings, especially wet toppings the base doesn't cook properly and it becomes "doughy"... that's an American Pizza... it's a different dish and there is nothing wrong with it... except for the fact that it is profoundly unhealthy, which is why pizza has a bad reputation... but it shouldn't, because the real thing has a moderate amount of calories and hardly any saturated fat.

This is the one I make (this one has mozzarella). It's a two day process, where the dough with the sourdough starter needs to rest and proof for 24 hours, before being ready for the oven. The only ingredients are flour, water, salt, tomato, extra virgin olive oil and mozzarella... that's it

orraloon

^ Looks good. Deliveroo?

shortfall

Tony Blackburn is good on the radio.
Hunting, shooting and fishing are good for the countryside.
Daniel Craig is a pretty lame James Bond (apart from Casino Royale which he was great in).
Match of the Day should be scrapped and the money saved used to screen the entire motogp season.

morstar

ugo.santalucia said:

The problem with mass made pizza is that the dough is so bad that it needs to be topped heavily, in order to taste of something that you want to eat.

A proper sourdough, baked as it should, needs very little... tomato, salt, olive oil is already enough... cheese is an extra... When you add too many toppings, especially wet toppings the base doesn't cook properly and it becomes "doughy"... that's an American Pizza... it's a different dish and there is nothing wrong with it... except for the fact that it is profoundly unhealthy, which is why pizza has a bad reputation... but it shouldn't, because the real thing has a moderate amount of calories and hardly any saturated fat.

This is the one I make (this one has mozzarella). It's a two day process, where the dough with the sourdough starter needs to rest and proof for 24 hours, before being ready for the oven. The only ingredients are flour, water, salt, tomato, extra virgin olive oil and mozzarella... that's it

But, but, but...

Corners!!!!!!!!!

ddraver

There is definitely a difference, and a time and place for both "proper" Italian pizza and a dirty Domino's 50-50 Hawiian and Pepperoni & donner meat with garlic dip and chicken nuggets....

rick_chasey

morstar said:

ugo.santalucia said:

The problem with mass made pizza is that the dough is so bad that it needs to be topped heavily, in order to taste of something that you want to eat.

A proper sourdough, baked as it should, needs very little... tomato, salt, olive oil is already enough... cheese is an extra... When you add too many toppings, especially wet toppings the base doesn't cook properly and it becomes "doughy"... that's an American Pizza... it's a different dish and there is nothing wrong with it... except for the fact that it is profoundly unhealthy, which is why pizza has a bad reputation... but it shouldn't, because the real thing has a moderate amount of calories and hardly any saturated fat.

This is the one I make (this one has mozzarella). It's a two day process, where the dough with the sourdough starter needs to rest and proof for 24 hours, before being ready for the oven. The only ingredients are flour, water, salt, tomato, extra virgin olive oil and mozzarella... that's it

But, but, but...

Corners!!!!!!!!!

Roman pizzas are round

ugo.santalucia

Unpopular truth... one of the problem of Brits is that of addressing the surface without fixing the problem... like looking at whether a pizza is round or square without thinking about what it's made of... or looking at aero wheels without addressing the sub 200 Watt FTP...

Or covering floor boards with carpet to hide the woodworms

things like that

rick_chasey

rick_chasey said:

morstar said:

ugo.santalucia said:

The problem with mass made pizza is that the dough is so bad that it needs to be topped heavily, in order to taste of something that you want to eat.

A proper sourdough, baked as it should, needs very little... tomato, salt, olive oil is already enough... cheese is an extra... When you add too many toppings, especially wet toppings the base doesn't cook properly and it becomes "doughy"... that's an American Pizza... it's a different dish and there is nothing wrong with it... except for the fact that it is profoundly unhealthy, which is why pizza has a bad reputation... but it shouldn't, because the real thing has a moderate amount of calories and hardly any saturated fat.

This is the one I make (this one has mozzarella). It's a two day process, where the dough with the sourdough starter needs to rest and proof for 24 hours, before being ready for the oven. The only ingredients are flour, water, salt, tomato, extra virgin olive oil and mozzarella... that's it

But, but, but...

Corners!!!!!!!!!

Roman pizzas are round

I meant to say they are square ....as they are.

nickice

Pross said:

rick_chasey said:

Well you hate women so I’m not surprised.

That seems a very tenuous link concerning the amount of women that would agree with his point of view. It's far too complex a debate to summarise in a few pithy words.

Rick Chasey has always struck me as the kind of guy who'd wear a 'this is what a feminist looks like t-shirt' in a desperate attempt to attract the opposite sex so his response is hardly surprising

First.Aspect

ugo.santalucia said:

Unpopular truth... one of the problem of Brits is that of addressing the surface without fixing the problem... like looking at whether a pizza is round or square without thinking about what it's made of... or looking at aero wheels without addressing the sub 200 Watt FTP...

Or covering floor boards with carpet to hide the woodworms

things like that

Other than Denmark, what nation couldn't you say that about.

Don't say "Italy".

morstar

ugo.santalucia said:

Unpopular truth... one of the problem of Brits is that of addressing the surface without fixing the problem... like looking at whether a pizza is round or square without thinking about what it's made of... or looking at aero wheels without addressing the sub 200 Watt FTP...

Or covering floor boards with carpet to hide the woodworms

things like that

Fucking hell. My corners comment was only a light hearted one. Didn’t realise jokes had to be factually correct.

I wasn’t aware roman pizzas weren’t round and so apologise for any offence caused.
It does raise a question of how stretching a dough into corners doesn’t have inconsistent thickness. A circle has many advantages. Clearly romans overthought the issue.

rick_chasey

morstar said:

ugo.santalucia said:

Unpopular truth... one of the problem of Brits is that of addressing the surface without fixing the problem... like looking at whether a pizza is round or square without thinking about what it's made of... or looking at aero wheels without addressing the sub 200 Watt FTP...

Or covering floor boards with carpet to hide the woodworms

things like that

censored hell. My corners comment was only a light hearted one. Didn’t realise jokes had to be factually correct.

I wasn’t aware roman pizzas weren’t round and so apologise for any offence caused.
It does raise a question of how stretching a dough into corners doesn’t have inconsistent thickness. A circle has many advantages. Clearly romans overthought the issue.

If you’re making multiple square has some obvious advantages

ugo.santalucia

It's simple really... A typical oven is square and not round... so if you make a round pizza, it will inevitably be smaller, which is a sacrilege... a pizza needs to be as big as it can possibly be.
Obviously if you have a large wood fired oven you can do rounds.

As for the crust, if your dough is made correctly and baked right, crust is the best bit. It's only the doughy, chewy shit you get in chain restaurants and supermarket pizzas which is inedible...

Do yourself a favour, once the pandemic is over, go to Naples... but it has to be Naples, not Milan or Venice... only in Naples you get the real pizza

TheBigBean

I used to go to a pub which did the best pizza in London*. It was all about the dough. The guy would spend ages on each one, then about five seconds lobbing on toppings.


*A viewpoint not held by my Italian friend.

pangolin

A lot of Italians seem stuck in their ways and far too precious about anyone making Italian food differently.

Maybe that's not unpopular, not sure.

morstar

ugo.santalucia said:

It's simple really... A typical oven is square and not round... so if you make a round pizza, it will inevitably be smaller, which is a sacrilege... a pizza needs to be as big as it can possibly be.
Obviously if you have a large wood fired oven you can do rounds.

As for the crust, if your dough is made correctly and baked right, crust is the best bit. It's only the doughy, chewy censored you get in chain restaurants and supermarket pizzas which is inedible...

Do yourself a favour, once the pandemic is over, go to Naples... but it has to be Naples, not Milan or Venice... only in Naples you get the real pizza

I get the tesselation advantages of a squared shape but surely we are now sacrificing the integrity of the dish for the benefit of production efficiency.
Hardly the actions of an artiste

ugo.santalucia

pangolin said:

A lot of Italians seem stuck in their ways and far too precious about anyone making Italian food differently.

Maybe that's not unpopular, not sure.

It's the same everywhere... you are precious about hoppy warm horrible ale

ugo.santalucia

morstar said:

ugo.santalucia said:

It's simple really... A typical oven is square and not round... so if you make a round pizza, it will inevitably be smaller, which is a sacrilege... a pizza needs to be as big as it can possibly be.
Obviously if you have a large wood fired oven you can do rounds.

As for the crust, if your dough is made correctly and baked right, crust is the best bit. It's only the doughy, chewy censored you get in chain restaurants and supermarket pizzas which is inedible...

Do yourself a favour, once the pandemic is over, go to Naples... but it has to be Naples, not Milan or Venice... only in Naples you get the real pizza

I get the tesselation advantages of a squared shape but surely we are now sacrificing the integrity of the dish for the benefit of production efficiency.
Hardly the actions of an artiste

Not really... it would only be true if the cooking was compromised

pangolin

ugo.santalucia said:

pangolin said:

A lot of Italians seem stuck in their ways and far too precious about anyone making Italian food differently.

Maybe that's not unpopular, not sure.

It's the same everywhere... you are precious about hoppy warm horrible ale

Haha, fair. I do agree with the pizza though, I make mine rectangular so they are as big as my pizza stone & oven will allow.

morstar

You are both assuming an even temperature distribution into the corners of the oven.
A round shape possibly matches the convention currents better*.

* May be clutching at straws here.

pangolin

morstar said:

You are both assuming an even temperature distribution into the corners of the oven.
A round shape possibly matches the convention currents better*.

* May be clutching at straws here.

You don't want to be relying on convection though, you want a really hot stone or steel to cook the crust, and the grill to cook the top.

rick_chasey

pangolin said:

morstar said:

You are both assuming an even temperature distribution into the corners of the oven.
A round shape possibly matches the convention currents better*.

* May be clutching at straws here.

You don't want to be relying on convection though, you want a really hot stone or steel to cook the crust, and the grill to cook the top.

I don't know much about this but I thought the main requisite for a good pizza oven was just that it be as balls hot as possible.

rick_chasey

Anyway, a reference upthread, clothes or things you hang up in your house should never have writing on them.

ugo.santalucia

Once again, if the dough is good, you don't need to scorch it and you can cook an ace pizza even at 180 degrees.
The oven often gets the blame for poor dough making.
It's all in the dough...

shortfall

rick_chasey said:

pangolin said:

morstar said:

You are both assuming an even temperature distribution into the corners of the oven.
A round shape possibly matches the convention currents better*.

* May be clutching at straws here.

You don't want to be relying on convection though, you want a really hot stone or steel to cook the crust, and the grill to cook the top.

I don't know much about this but I thought the main requisite for a good pizza oven was just that it be as balls hot as possible.

I have a pizza oven in my garden that I put birch logs in. It cooks an 18" pizza in less than 3 minutes. It's ' kin hot! I can achieve similar results in my fan oven on 240 degrees with the oven and grill on at the same time and preheated for a good 15 minutes. I put a cast iron skillet in the oven during the preheat and I reckon it's takes 8 to 10 minutes to cook the pizza this way.