FREE THE PIZZA - How To Make Great Pizza In Your Home Oven
  • Home
  • Free Sample
  • About
  • Blog
  • Pizza Tools
  • Contact
  • Modernist Pizza
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Video
  • Home
  • Free Sample
  • About
  • Blog
  • Pizza Tools
  • Contact
  • Modernist Pizza
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Video

​Saturday Afternoon Pizza Posts 

The Homemade Pizza Blog At Free The Pizza

For a free sample of the Free The Pizza book, click here

The Dirty F-Word And 7 Simple Steps For Making Sensational Homemade Pizza With Your Own Two Hands, Part 3: The Dough

12/31/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
PART 3 IN A 7-PART SERIES
Welcome to the third point of focus for pursuing pizza perfection (knowing, of course, that perfection is unattainable). This part of the process can get people all worked up. I’m not sure why. I suspect it has something to do with a) our trust in machines, and b) the distrust of our innate abilities, which those machines have beaten into us.
 
Since we’ve already focused on 1) Style Of Pizza and 2) The Oven, it’s time to focus on 3) Making Dough. This is all going to sound insanely simple. Ya know why? Because it is. It's so simple, it freaks people out. 
 
And I will freely admit this: since focusing on this part of the process more, my pizza has improved considerably. And it almost happened by a glorious accident. My stand mixer was in storage and I couldn't get to it. 

Read More
0 Comments

The Midweek Modernist Pizza Report: What do you know about oven science and that viscoelastic we call pizza dough? (Part 1)

12/28/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture

​The Ongoing Modernist Pizza Review, Volume 1, Chapter 5, "Pizza Ovens" (Part I)  

Modernist Pizza
Written by Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya
Published by The Cooking Lab; First edition, October 19, 2021
Hardcover: ‎ 1708 pages, 32.7 pounds, 13.78 x 10.24 x 15.94 inches
​List Price: $425.00
​
Amazon discount price as of 03/08/23: $294.99
Last time, we reviewed Modernist Pizza’s pulling back of the curtain on mysteries related to dough ingredients. Today, we’re going to look at how their discussion of my personal favorite topic: The Pizza Oven!
 
The Modernistas give pizzaioli a lot of credit. They begin the oven section by discussing how intuition matters and must be honed. They tell us that most bakers understand instinctively that baking is an art form, but it is also a process that is physical, chemical and biological.
 
Presumably, they’re speaking more of pros than amateurs. Speaking as an amateur, I know that it’s easy for us to get out of our depth on pizza making and think we still know what we’re talking about. And that certainly extends to amateur oven knowledge.

Read More
0 Comments

The Dirty F-Word And 7 Simple Steps For Making Sensational Homemade Pizza With Your Own Two Hands, Part 2: The Oven

12/23/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
PART 2 IN A 7-PART SERIES.

Maybe you’ve seen the photo: a picture of what looks like The Charcoal-Tortured Dough Monster That Ate Naples. In the twisted wreckage of this pile of alternately half-baked and black-scorched pizza ingredients is a substance formerly known as cheese, some reddish, sauce-like protoplasm, and the scant remains of an unidentifiable cased meat product, all of it looking amoeba-like and desperate to escape the camera’s eye.

And there’s the post that goes with it: “What am I doing wrong!? I just got my oven and I can’t get it hot enough and I’m making ugly, deformed pizza and I’ve thrown away nine of them this weekend alone and I hate life! Help me.” Welcome to Pizza Social meeting the lack of focus.

Read More
0 Comments

The Midweek Modernist Pizza Report: Worth More Than Its Weight In Flour, Water, Salt And Yeast, Part II

12/20/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture

The Ongoing Modernist Pizza Review, Volume 1, Chapter 4, "Pizza Dough Ingredients" (Part II)  

Modernist Pizza
Written by Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya
Published by The Cooking Lab; First edition, October 19, 2021
Hardcover: ‎ 1708 pages, 32.7 pounds, 13.78 x 10.24 x 15.94 inches
​List Price: $425.00
​
Amazon discount price as of 03/08/23: $294.99
Welcome back to the epic Roller Coaster of Pizza Dough Ingredients. Last time, we were reviewing the Modernist Pizza discussion about water, flour, salt and yeast. In one short section of the chapter, this grand book pulls back the curtain on all kinds of mysteries related to basic pizza dough and the attendant water, flour, salt and yeast. They've covered the essentials. Next up, the incidentals…
 
SUGAR
 
Reading and quoting from Modernist Pizza is always interesting. They’re approaching pizza scientifically, but seem to be aware that this is not a college textbook. It’s hard to imagine anything like this appearing in a scholarly tome in any of my science classes:
 
“All organisms need sugar to survive, but yeast cells might have the biggest sweet tooth of all—it’s the only food they eat. Enzymes turn the starch in flour into an all-you-can-eat buffet of sugars, which the yeast cells metabolize into energy, alcohol and carbon dioxide, and the other byproducts of fermentation. The meal is a slow crawl that lasts hours—the concentration of sugar in the dough is limited by the pace of the enzymes.”

Read More
0 Comments

​The Dirty F-Word And 7 Simple Steps For Making Sensational Homemade Pizza With Your Own Two Hands, Part 1: Style Of Pizza

12/16/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
THE FIRST IN A 7-PART SERIES.
 
Want to make perfect pizza? That’s fine—as long as you’re prepared for disappointment. Perfection is unattainable. Yet, just pursuing perfection comes with its own satisfaction. And the beauty of imperfect pizza is: Hey, eat it, enjoy it, and it’s still better than take-out.
 
There’s also a secret ingredient in the pursuit of perfect pizza. It’s available anywhere you live. You can (and should) be using this secret ingredient, whether you’re a total beginner or a serious pro. And it doesn’t cost you anything.
 
Yes, the secret ingredient is the dreaded F-word: Focus. In pizza, focus is everything. But it also makes people wary and nervous. Focus sounds like work. Focus has become synonymous with intensity. Pizza is fun! Focus sounds un-fun.
 
The reality is that focus makes work easier. Focus is often an absence of intensity. Focus makes pizza more fun. And focused pizza tastes better.

Read More
0 Comments

The Midweek Modernist Pizza Report: Worth More Than Its Weight In Flour, Water, Salt And Yeast, Part I

12/14/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture

The Ongoing Modernist Pizza Review, Volume 1, Chapter 4, "Pizza Dough Ingredients" (Part I)  

Modernist Pizza
Written by Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya
Published by The Cooking Lab; First edition, October 19, 2021
Hardcover: ‎ 1708 pages, 32.7 pounds, 13.78 x 10.24 x 15.94 inches
​
Amazon discount price as of 03/08/23: $294.99
For the last few installments of the Modernist Pizza review, we’ve been traveling the world with the Modernistas. They’ve been eating pizza from New York to New Haven, Tokyo to Chicago, and pretty much anywhere else that pizza is a force.

Here’s where all that changes. Now, in Modernist Pizza, Volume 1, Chapter 4, "Pizza Dough Ingredients," we start getting into the hands-on, home-pizzamaker-relevant aspects of pizza. And it all starts with…

Pizza Dough Ingredients! Like so many of us, the folks at Modernist Cuisine are amazed that simple ingredients like water, flour, salt and yeast, and sometimes oil and/or sugar, can “yield crusts with incredibly divergent flavors and textures, from the chewy, wide-open rim of Neapolitan pizza to the crackerlike crispness of thin crust pizza.

Read More
0 Comments

Yes, we all want pizza. But as The Pizza Buddha says: If calzone is inevitable, relax and enjoy it.

12/10/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
It’s going to happen. It happens when you least expect it. It throws you. It’s disappointing. Whatever form it takes for you, you’re going to eventually make one: The dreaded Accidental Calzone.
 
It’s sad. It’s infuriating. It’s a raging mess. Accept it with grace.

The Accidental Calzone puts us square in the land of spilt milk. There’s no un-spilling the milk. There’s no saving the pizza. It just sucks, so enjoy it.

Read More
0 Comments

The ​Midweek Modernist Pizza Report: Traveling the world to eat the best pizza, getting paid for it AND collecting frequent flier miles? How do you get THAT gig? (Part III)

12/7/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture

​The Ongoing Modernist Pizza Review, Volume 1, Chapter 3, "Pizza Travels" (Part III)  

Modernist Pizza
Written by Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya
Published by The Cooking Lab; First edition, October 19, 2021
Hardcover: ‎ 1708 pages, 32.7 pounds, 13.78 x 10.24 x 15.94 inches
​List Price: $425.00
​
Amazon discount price as of 03/08/23: $294.99
Legendary pizza can lead to legendary disappointment. To wit: a crust that is “Dry and dense, almost like hardtack,” “charred to the point of being burnt,” “very low on salt,” “lackluster sauce," "toppings tossed on haphazardly, and a paltry grating of Pecorino.”
 
Welcome back to Pizza Travels with the Modernist Pizza crew. When we saw you last time, we were talking about the challenges of nostalgia. Such challenges infect certain objects of New York-style pizza love. But perhaps nowhere did the Modernistas experience the dangerous challenges of nostalgia as they did in New Haven.
 
The list of shortcomings in the first paragraph above were leveled at some of the most beloved pizza in the United States: That of the legendary New Haven. Their research took them to all the big, important icons of New Haven pizza. And their report? Talk about a slap in the face with a wet slice.

Read More
0 Comments

The three best holiday gifts for pizza-making newbies that they often won’t buy for themselves. (Hint: one of them is not an oven.)

12/3/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
“Here’s the wrong thing! Merry Christmas!” How do you know you’re buying the right gift for the hobbyist in your life? That’s one of the biggest, hairiest questions when it comes to buying specialty products for a specialized hobby like making pizza.
 
With pizza, the one question that’s off the table for me is, “What oven should I buy him/her?” Whenever someone asks me what my favorite oven is, I say, “My home oven.” I don’t know why it is, but some people just LOVE hearing that answer. But it’s an easy pick for me.

After learning to make pizza in a 1950s Wedgewood stove; after owning both a half-ton, $7,000 wood-fired dome oven and a $300 pellet-fired outdoor pizza oven; and after making pizza in the home ovens of friends from California to New Hampshire, it’s simple. The home oven can be set up quickly with a steel, gets to about the same temperature as the deck oven in a typical pizzeria, and it’s far easier to use.

Read More
0 Comments

    Author

    Blaine Parker is the award-winning author of the new, unusual and amusing how-to pizza book, Free The Pizza. Also known as The Pizza Geek and "Hey, Pizza Man!", Blaine is fanatical about the idea that true, professional-quality pizza can be made at home. His home. Your home. Anyone's home. After 20 years of honing his craft and making pizza in standard consumer ovens across the nation, he's sharing what he's learned with home cooks like you. Are you ready to pizza? 

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019

    Categories

    All
    American Pizza
    Asian Fusion Pizza
    Authentic Pizza
    Baking
    Baking Steel
    Best Cheese For Pizza
    Bianco
    Books
    Boring
    California Pizza Kitchen
    Calzone
    Celebrity Chef
    Cheese
    Cheese Graters
    Cheese Snob
    Chicago Style
    Chilis
    Chopped Champion
    Chop Shop Park City
    Cooking Pizza
    Courage
    Cpk
    Delivery
    Diastatic Malt
    Dough
    Easy Homemade Pizza
    Family
    Fancy
    Fast Dough
    Fast Pizza
    Fear
    Fermentation
    Fire
    Food Snobbery
    Fresh Mozzarella
    Gluten Free
    Hawaiian
    Homemade Pizza
    Homemade Pizza Sauce
    Hot Pepper Pizza
    How To Make Pizza
    Indoor Pizza Oven
    Ingredients
    Kinds Of Pizza
    Kneading Dough
    Low Moisture Mozzarella
    Mezzaluna
    Mise En Place
    Mobile Pizza Business
    Modernist Pizza
    Mormon Pizza
    Mozzarella
    Neapolitan
    Neo Neapolitan
    Neo-Neapolitan
    New York Pizza
    No Knead
    Obituary
    Ooni
    Park City Pizza
    Parmesan
    Parmigiano Reggiano
    Patience
    Pi Day
    Pizza Around The World
    Pizza Book
    Pizza Cheese
    Pizza Cookbooks
    Pizza Cutter
    Pizza Dough
    Pizza Gifts
    Pizza Hate
    Pizza Hut
    Pizza In Strange Places
    Pizza Joy
    Pizza Oven
    Pizza Party
    Pizza Patience
    Pizza Peel
    Pizza Peeps
    Pizza Pi
    Pizza Pi Vi
    Pizza Quest
    Pizza Sauce
    Pizza Secret
    Pizza Steel
    Pizza Stone
    Pizza Today
    Pizza Toppings
    Pizza Trends
    Poetry
    Premium Ingredients
    Prep
    Proofing Dough
    Reinhart
    Rocbox
    Rolling Dough
    Rush
    San Marzano Tomatoes
    Secret Pizza
    Settebello
    Shrimp Pizza
    Spicy Pizza
    Steel
    Stretching
    Stretching Pizza Dough
    Styles Of Pizza
    The Zen Of Pizza
    Time
    Timing
    Tips
    Tools
    Too Wet
    Virgin Islands
    VPN
    Weighing Ingredients
    Wet Dough
    Wet Pizza
    White Pizza
    Why Pizza
    Wood
    Wood-fired Pizza

    RSS Feed

Privacy Policy
Terms Of Service
© Copyright 2021, 2022. All rights reserved.
As an Amazon Associate, we earn a small percentage from qualifying Amazon purchases at no additional cost to you.
When you click those links to Amazon (and a few other sites we work with), and you buy something, you are helping this website stay afloat, and you're helping us have many more glorious photographs of impressive ​pizza.