My first cast iron pizza

Plan ahead and not just decide I want a pizza and make up what I put in it as I prepare it.

I like deep dish pizza, the dough being more bread like than thin and crisp. Its just the homemade style that I grew up on. The thicker dough can get wet on the top depending on the ingredients so all my wetter ingredients should be drained first, some overnight:
buffalo mozzarella, ricotta, tomatoes (or switch to sundried or plum).

I just attended a bread baking class and asked if I slightly prebaked the dough in the cast iron skillet if that would also help and they agreed. We had a restaurant in the Boston area in the 80s, Bel Canto, that served a torta about 2-3" thick by the time all the ingredients were added. Their torta was not soggy even with the tomato sauce and ricotta cheese.

Also I used a finely ground whole wheat berry that was grown and milled locally. I will continue to use that. The flavor of the crust alone is worth it.
 
I have yet to make one of those at home. It's on my list to make this winter. I think I know what Hilditch means, whenever I try something new as have a few tastes it gets me thinking of how I can tweak it, add to, or change to make more my own and over the top. I think people that like to cook are always wanting to achieve a perfect dish. I'm always thinking just how to do that with many things I cook.
 
If you have a gas grill, I strongly recommend you experiment with doing your pizza in it. Once you get it dialed in just right, deep dish crust comes out with a thin layer of crunch on the bottom but bread in the inside. I don't wind up with soggy pizza or crust that's burnt on the bottom but still doughy in the middle. I also let the wet stuff drain all day, and I use french bread as the dough. One loaf in a #10 gets me a good pan style. I'll use more for Chicago style but I don't make it that way often since it's so good I'll inevitably eat way too much of it.
 
Glad to hear you’re on the right track. The moisture issue stood out in the pic. Pizzerias put oil in their dough to retard moisture absorption. I just use a loaf of dough but then brush the top with olive oil where the sauce will be, not the edges. I use canned crushed tomatoes for the sauce which is pretty wet but the oil barrier keeps the moisture on the top. I even drizzle a little oil over all the ingredients to help keep them moist during baking.

As the tomato flavor is in the pulp an easy fix to keep them fresh is to take the wedges and pinch out the seeds and water with your fingers. That will leave them dry enough to use. As long as the meat mixture is drained well the second one should bring a bigger smile.



Hilditch
 
I just measured my grill (its a 1950s clay Japanese egg type) and my #10 just fits, so I'm going to try that. I just can't get the temp above 500 (600 if I really want to push it). The clay can't handle the higher temps like the new (but expensive) ceramic egg cookers.

Thanks for mentioning the oil, I forgot about that trick.

Hilditch, thanks for the picture. That is what my mom's pizza looked liked. My grandmother would almost get to the point of swearing when talking about american pizza. She always said "that is not pizza!". She would spread her dough out in the pan, coat with olive oil, press tomatoes into the dough, and add her spices. That was it.
 
I usually try to do thin crust style pizza, and use my #8 handle griddle. Makes a nice medium size for two. I also preheat the griddle a bit, spread the dough, then add some sauce, and cook for a few minutes to "set" the crust and heat the CI. Pull out of oven, add rest of ingreds., then cook 'til done. (Hubby's favorite cooking instruction is "cook 'til done. Argh!)
 
Sharon, you have left me with two images in my mind and I can smell and taste both. ME’s grandmother would not be happy with either, but it would be fun to watch her in a taste test. The first to come to mind was a Chef Boyardee Pizza. Yup, I’ve had them. My mom was a fan of his. The second was New York style Italian pizza where it takes two hands but the crust never lets one down and has very little in common with the first one. It’s the ingredients that make the difference.

I’m guessing that living in Tippecanoe, Cty. means that neither you or your hubby grew up in NYC. Should I delete one or both images?

Hilditch
 
I wish I could duplicate one of the pizzas in my hometown. There were two families of Immigrants from Italy 1950's or sometime before. One side of the river had the pizza I still think about often and can taste it now. On the other side of the river also had very good pizza too. But both had very different taste but done the same. That family had killer hot sausage sandwich. It was 6-7" long sausage patty on homemade bread covered in sauce topped with melted provolone peppers, onion. I stop by both places when I'm home and it never enough.

Most of the small towns around there had family pizza places (northern Illinois not far from Chicago. and each had their own distinct flavor. I'm thinking it the combination of how the dough is put together, the way the sauce was done and spiced. And last the flavor of the hand pinched sausage. :glutton: and probably the all important temp of the oven. Now that a recipe I'd pay to have :razz:

Steve,
 
That Italian bakery run by old man Trusello in the 50’s had the best Italian bread an bakery pizza in Niagara Falls, NY. It lived from 1917 until 1996, but started dying in the early 70’s when the kiddies got involved. About 2,000 I decided to try and duplicate those 50’s bread loaves & pizza. I knew the pizza dough was the same as the bread dough due to the flavor of the crust so I had to get that right first.

It took 3 years of sporadic, but many tries (over 20) and note keeping to finally nail the flavor, crust, crumb and appearance. Also to develop a dependable recipe and technique. That is with only 4 ingredients. Now the pizza.

Through considerable research I found the old man used crushed tomatoes and pecorino romano cheese. These and some oregano got me close, but no cigar. Two years later I was able to discover the missing flavor after too many tries, Ajowan! Looking back, I would have paid a lot for those recipes. After more than 500 loaves, this remains our daily bread.

Be careful trying to duplicate recipes. YMMV.

Hilditch
 
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