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 Midweek Modernist Pizza Report: From jamming it in a can to saucing it up, hello tomato (and beyond)! Part 3

2/14/2023

1 Comment

 
Picture

The Ongoing Modernist Pizza Review, Volume 2, Chapter 8, "Sauce," 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
Getting beyond the tomato! Yes, I know. It’s hard. For me, a non-red pizza is a challenging thing, with the occasional exception of a white clam pizza.

But there are lots of people out there who like a white pizza or a green pizza. My ever-suffering pizza-widow wife among them. So maybe this part of 
Modernist Pizza can bring solace and inspiration.
 
Let the experiments begin! The Modernistas have worked up an alternative way of making béchamel. White sauces for pizza typically use flour as a thickener, “which can dilute the flavor and leave an unpleasant goopy texture in the baked pizza.”

Read More
1 Comment

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

The Midweek Modernist Pizza Report: From jamming it in a can to saucing it up, hello tomato (and beyond)! Part 2

2/8/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture

The Ongoing Modernist Pizza Review, Volume 2, Chapter 8, "Sauce," 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
Now, about those canned tomatoes. Unsurprisingly, some strains of tomato have been developed to withstand the rigors of machine picking for canning. Says Modernist Pizza, “The thicker the flesh, the fewer seeds a tomato will have, and the seeds, along the jellylike membrane that envelops the seeds (called the parenchyma), are where the flavor resides.” Yay, parenchyma!
 
There’s also a comprehensive discussion of how tomatoes are canned. What’s good is tomatoes bred for processing are harvested at the full-ripe stage, which is their most flavorful. Less good is that some processors adjust flavor with additives, like sugar, salt or citric acid. The Modernistas prefer tomatoes without the additives. 

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 Midweek Modernist Pizza Report: From jamming it in a can to saucing it up, hello tomato (and beyond)! Part 1

2/1/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture

The Ongoing Modernist Pizza Review, Volume 2, Chapter 8, "Sauce," 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
“To many, if it doesn’t have some kind of sauce on top, it’s probably not pizza.” Thus begins the chapter of Modernist Pizza that might seem innocuous. Only after you dive in is it clear just how much the global tomato crop means to life, the universe and pizza.
 
The first page of Volume 2, Chapter 8, “Sauce,” sets us up for the importance of tomatoes—while simultaneously dashing any requirement for tomatoes.
 
Sauces can be green or white, made of cream or cheese, egg, stock, or even soup. Yes, soup. And I admit, while I’ve never used soup for pizza, I have made pizzas with leftover gumbo and leftover etouffée. Soup-adjacent sauces, if you will. Seems my efforts fit right into the Modernist paradigm. (Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn and all that…)

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 Midweek Modernist Pizza Report: Cross-Crusting, Dough Problems, And Enough Recipes To Make Your Head Fly Off (The Pizza Dough Recipes Chapter)

1/25/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
​The Ongoing Modernist Pizza Review, Volume 2, Chapter 7, "Pizza Dough Recipes"
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
​Is Cross-Crusting a deviant pizza behavior? What would happen if you used the “wrong” dough for the type of pizza you wanted? Would you be ostracized? Hell no! This is science! 

Welcome to the review of Chapter 7, “Pizza Dough Recipes,” in Volume 2 of Modernist Pizza. This is the one you've been waiting for. Or not. Depends on who you are and how much you care. Some folks will lose their minds. It's DOUGH!​

Read More
0 Comments

The Dirty F-Word And 7 Simple Steps For Making Sensational Homemade Pizza With Your Own Two Hands, Part 6: Launching The Pizza

1/20/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
PART 6 IN A 7-PART SERIES
“Getting that pizza off the peel freaks me out!” I have never heard anyone utter that sentence—but I have felt it from every new pizza maker I meet. Even some who’ve never yet made a pizza harbor anxiety about getting that pizza from peel to steel or stone.
 
Gluten and gravity, baby! It can be hard to feel that biology and physics are on our side. The pizza is not going anywhere besides where you put that peel. The gluten network holds that pizza together. Physics removes it from the peel. It's that simple. 
 
Yes, in the moment, there could be something really wrong with the pizza/peel relationship. But that’s rare. In my 20 years of making pizza, an occasional snag has lead to pizza unfortunate. A round pie turns amoebic. So it goes.

Read More
0 Comments

In the epic pursuit of Modernist Pizza, all roads lead to the best pizza dough recipes for your homemade pie, Part 2...

1/17/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture

​The Ongoing Modernist Pizza Review, Volume 2, Chapter 6, "Making Pizza Dough" (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
Ever wondered why some pizza doughs call for a bulk fermentation and others don’t? Strap in and hang on! It’s another wild ride inside Modernist Pizza.
 
The Modernistas recommend bulk fermentation for their bread-like pizza doughs. They also have an outlier Neapolitan recipe that includes bulk fermentation, which is not a traditional approach.
 
I use and recommend a bulk fermentation for my own pizza dough. It was inspired by Peter Reinhart’s Neapolitan dough recipe in American Pie. So, maybe outliers abound—but it seems you’re really only going to get full scoop on the science from Modernist Cuisine. That’s probably because, well, lots of people just don’t want lots of science. But you and I do, right?

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
Forward>>

    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.