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

​Saturday Afternoon Pizza Posts 

The Homemade Pizza Blog At Free The Pizza

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

What's the secret sauce, sausage and/or cheesy goodness that lights a fire in The Pizza-Freak Fellowship?

9/16/2023

0 Comments

 
pizza rocket flying
It's 5:47 AM. I know this because I checked the clock. I've been lying here for only the briefest of moments, but the feeling is one I recognize.
 
It’s the feeling of being a kid on Christmas morning. But instead of stockings hung by the chimney with care and speculations about what glossy, blister-packed plastic stash I'm about to haul in, I'm thinking about that doughball I put in the fridge last night, and what it's about to become.
 
What the heck is it about pizza?

Read More
0 Comments

​“What's the home pizza cooking mistake that cost you the most failures before realizing what it was?”

6/17/2023

0 Comments

 
pizza failure frown pizza face

Earlier this week, a bunch of people I don't know went nuts for something I said about pizza. It was so surprising, that I’ve changed the plan for today's "Saturday Afternoon Pizza Post."

I was lurking around Quora, the “social question-and-answer website and online knowledge market.” That’s how Wikipedia describes it. I call it a social-media dogpile for people with the patience to read and write.

 
Someone asked, “What's the cooking mistake that cost you the most failures before you realized what it was?” Oh, is that an easy question to answer. 

There are many cooking failures I’ve experienced, but none greater than pizza. I answered the question with about 600 words and one photograph.
 
And the dogpile began. It was unbelievable. People were going nuts for the answer. I have no idea why, other than it maybe it touched a nerve that they all understood. So I’ve decided to share that answer here. (Cleaned up and better edited, of course, for your Free The Pizza inner-circle reading enjoyment.)

Read More
0 Comments

Winning hearts and minds with fantastic homemade pizza: Simple tips from Hollywood's "Architect To The Stars."

6/3/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
​When the Free The Pizza book first came out last summer, there was a flood of enthusiastic email from all kinds of people, offering photos of their exciting new pizzas. But nobody was sending pizza pics as frequently and with as much enthusiasm as David Applebaum.
 
In Los Angeles, David has a reputation as an architect to the stars. His client roster features a diverse range of names, from Cuba Gooding, Jr. to Hiro Yamagata to Brad Grey. You may also have seen David on TV, hosting Nat Geo’s Inside American’s Mansions.

Read More
0 Comments

A closed pizzeria is so sad--but your home pizza kitchen is open whenever you want...

5/27/2023

0 Comments

 
Pizzeria closed
​The Saturday Afternoon Pizza Post is on hiatus this week. So instead of your normal, expected pizza nonsense philosophy or left-field how-to tip, we’re offering a simple cautionary note. Ready?
 
While eating the pizza you just made, don’t talk about other pizzas you’ve eaten. It’s a little like making love to one person while talking about making love to another. How well is that going to work out for anyone really?

Read More
0 Comments

There is no single best way to make pizza at home. But there are all kinds of ways to screw it up by messing with your pizza mojo.

4/15/2023

0 Comments

 
little red bag of pizza skills and magic
Finding your way with pizza is a fantastic thing. The first time you pull a bubbling out pizza out of the oven and your home starts to smell like a pizzeria with the mingling aromas of hot meats and caramelized crust and toasted semolina and you can’t help yourself and you begin salivating as you take that first hot hot hot bite that’s just a little too too hot hot because you couldn’t wait and your tongue curses you and loves you simultaneously as the taste fills your mouth and the scent fills your head and your body is filled with a feeling that wells up inside you and you realize, oh, yes, this is it: Actual pizza joy…
 
Well, that’s a powerful moment. This is the beginning of something big. You are beginning to find your pizza mojo. But um… what the heck is mojo, anyway?​

Read More
0 Comments

Is your homemade pizza great-tasting fun, or is it becoming an ongoing chemistry problem filled with fear and loathing?

3/4/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
NOTE: All writing at Free The Pizza and all the pizzas depicted are made with 100% human intelligence and not a speck of AI cereal.
Several years ago, I first peeked inside The Pizza Bible by Tony Gemignani. I was confronted with a daunting mystery ingredient: diastatic malt.
 
Tony Gemignani is one of the most highly respected pizza people in the world. And if he wants me to use diastatic malt—why? What is it? Where do I find it? Why didn’t my own favorite pizza preacher, Peter Reinhart ever mention it in American Pie?
 
I did the easy thing with diastatic malt: I ignored it. In the nine years since selecting ignorance on diastatic malt, I’ve run into it in various places. In the year since I wrote and subsequently published Free The Pizza!, I’ve continued to wonder if ignoring diastatic malt is a personal failing. In the six months since making endless batches of New York-style pizza, I have finally reached a conclusion about diastatic malt. Ready?

Read More
0 Comments

Making pizza at home with one of the single best and easiest ways to make your family say, "Wow!"

2/11/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
I was recently reminded of the power of this simple ingredient. We’d thrown a wildcard NY-pizza party for 10. If you’ve read the story about that event, you know that people’s heads exploded.
 
Whenever I use this ingredient, one refrain is, “I’ve never tasted pizza like this before!” A friend who’s had my pizza twice now says, “Oh, this will ruin you for any other pizza.”

Read More
0 Comments

Unleashing New York pizza in the Mountain West, fear of failure, and the otherworldly magnetism of The Homemade Pizza Effect

2/5/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
It’s Sunday afternoon. Why is your “Saturday Afternoon Pizza Post” coming out on a Sunday?
 
Because your pizza geek was overwhelmed this week. There’s also a takeaway from the result of that overwhelm that was unanticipated—and underscores the unique, otherworldly magnetism of Homemade Pizza Effect.

Read More
0 Comments

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

1/28/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
PART 7 IN A 7-PART SERIES
“Professional sports meets homemade pizza? Ridiculous!” I understand. But you’re going to have to trust me on this: It works and it’s all going to make sense. In fact, there’s an entire industry around the process that we’re about to discuss. People make good money and athletes win trophies because of something that can sound like hogwash on a platter.
 
And a warning: A lot of this is not obviously about pizza. It’s about things affecting pizza. It’s about a holistic approach to life, the universe and pizza. Life is a circle. So is pizza. Is this getting ridiculous enough yet?

Read More
0 Comments

​The Dirty F-Word And 7 Simple Steps For Making Sensational Homemade Pizza With Your Own Two Hands, Part 5: Stretching The Dough

1/14/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
PART 5 IN A 7-PART SERIES
“I can’t make it round!” This is one of the biggest complaints I hear from pizza newbies. They want that pizza round!
 
And who can blame them? It’s just another part of pursuing that unattainable pizza perfection. Not that round doesn’t happen. It does. But not perfectly round, though pizzamakers get close all the time.  ​

Read More
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Author

    Blaine Parker is the award-winning author of the bestselling, 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, pro-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

    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    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
    Anchovy
    Anchovy Pizza
    Andris Lagsdin
    Asian Fusion Pizza
    Authentic Pizza
    Baking
    Baking Steel
    Best Cheese For Pizza
    Bianco
    Bianco Dinapoli
    Books
    Boring
    California Pizza Kitchen
    Calzone
    Celebrity Chef
    Char
    Cheese
    Cheese Graters
    Cheese Pizza
    Cheese Snob
    Chicago Style
    Chicken Pizza
    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
    Gluten Free Pizza
    Hawaiian
    Healthy Pizza
    Homemade Pizza
    Homemade Pizza Sauce
    Hot Pepper Pizza
    How To Make Pizza
    Indoor Pizza Oven
    Ingredients
    Kinds Of Pizza
    Kitchen Safety
    Kneading Dough
    Launching Pizza
    Low Moisture Mozzarella
    Meat Pizza
    Mezzaluna
    Mise En Place
    Mobile Pizza Business
    Modernist Pizza
    Mormon Pizza
    Mozzarella
    Neapolitan
    Neo Neapolitan
    Neo-Neapolitan
    New York Pizza
    No Knead
    Obituary
    Ooni
    Outdoor Pizza Oven
    Park City Pizza
    Parmesan
    Parmigiano Reggiano
    Patience
    Pepperoni
    Peter Reinhart
    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 Memories
    Pizza Mistakes
    Pizza Oven
    Pizza Party
    Pizza Patience
    Pizza Peel
    Pizza Peeps
    Pizza Pi
    Pizza Pi Vi
    Pizza Quest
    Pizza Recipes
    Pizza Sauce
    Pizza Secret
    Pizza Steel
    Pizza Stone
    Pizza Styles
    Pizza Think
    Pizza Today
    Pizza Tomatoes
    Pizza Toppings
    Pizza Trends
    Pizzeria
    Poetry
    Premium Ingredients
    Prep
    Proofing Dough
    Recipes
    Reinhart
    Rocbox
    Rock & Roll
    Rolling Dough
    Rush
    San Marzano Tomatoes
    Sausage
    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, 2023. All rights reserved.
As a ShareASale Affiliate and 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.