Andrew Mark Veety

First Look At The Baking Steel

I've been making pizzas at home for a really long time. To be honest, I thought my pizzas were pretty good. I enjoyed throwing down all kinds of pizza styles; thin crust, Neapolitan, pizza bianca, pies with dough made with fall honey, and even deep dish Chicago styles. However, I never really thought my pizzas were great, no matter how quickly they got eaten. It's pizza after all.

In the persuit of great pizza, I've bought all kinds of tools for making pies at home, from stones in all shapes and sizes to an interesting mod to a Weber Kettle Grill called the KettlePizza; a tool that has potential, but is difficult to use. Recently I saw a review of a new product called the Baking Steel on the pizza-centric site Slice, and the results Kenji Lopez-Alt was getting in his home oven was enough to motivate me to contribute to a Kickstarter Campaign the makers of the Baking Steel were holding (now closed) to get my hands on a half inch thick model, a massive slab of steel that weighs in at 30 pounds. 

The idea behind the Baking Steel originates from a mention in the epic cookbook set Modernist Cuisine, where it was suggested that a baking pizzas at home on a slab of metal would produce a superior product to pizzas baked on stone. It makes sense if you think about it. Stone heated by fire in a wood oven does an amazing job baking pies, because of the temperatures - ranging from 600 to 900 degrees - they are able to reach. A home oven though will typically max out around 500, so while a stone in your oven might turn out a decent pizza, you will be hard pressed to replicate the product that a wood fired oven will produce. Swapping out your stone for metal - in this case steel - ups the firepower (or more specifically energy in the form of heat) a home pizza maker can direct at their pies.

So far, my experience with the switch from stone to steel has been excellent. My pies are baking 25% faster. Thes have crisper and well chared collars and skirts, and are approaching the chewy texture that I've been trying to create at home for years. Truth be told, I'm nowhere near the end of my experiment with the Baking Stone, but I think enough of the product so far to say, if you want to make better pizzas at home, it's worth looking into. 

Check out these photos of some recent pies I baked on a Baking Steel, provided by Jonathan Pollack. The proof, it would seem, is in the pizza:

I received no compensation or consideration for this post. This is not intended to be an advertisement. I just love great pizza. When I find a tool that helps me make great pizza, I want other folks to know about it. If you have used the Baking Steel, tell me about it in the comments section of this post. I've love to hear from you.

Dinner With YellowTree Farm: Pizza Bianca For the Post Dispatch

I'm really excited that Justin and Danielle from Yellowtree Farm recommended me to the Post Dispatch for an article on home cooks and local farmers. 

Justin and Danielle hooked me up with a collection of once in a lifetime ingredients to make a pizza bianca that celebrates the best that late June and early July gardens have to offer. Here is my recipe for this great pizza, give it a try in your kitchen and let me know how it turns out.

Many thanks to Jonathan Pollack for the great pictures of a once a season pie.

Assorted Minutia: 4/30-5/06/2011

I've started to keep a tumblr diary for all the little things that I find, read or eat during the week. With any luck the quick thoughts, dishes I ate and pictures I accumulated along the way will make for a a disjointed yet interesting weekly post.

Porter's Fried Chicken

Depending on who you talk to, Porter's is serving up the best fried chicken in St. Louis. I'd suggest listening to the folks who will tell you it's not to be missed. Skip the sides (or even eating at Porter's) and focus on crisp and flavorful chicken, perfect eaten warm from the box or cold from the fridge. My preference is to alternate between Crystal's hot sauce and honey between pieces.

I last wrote about Porters in August of 2008.

Pizza Toppings / Garnish / Relish

I make this topping a few hours before I begin tossing pizzas. Start with a base of sea salt, minced garlic, crushed red pepper and good olive oil. Add herbs like marjoram or oregano, always fresh and rough chopped to expose their natural oils to the mixture. Drizzle over your pizza before sending it into the oven.

Pizza Made With YellowTree Farm Fall Honey

On the topic of pizza, I used honey from my CSA this week to replace sugar in a pizza dough. Give it a read, then give it a go in your oven.

Garlic And Dill Quick Pickles

My two year old son seems to have my love of pickles in his DNA. Rather than serving up the erie green pickles found at the grocery store, I try to make a batch of quick pickles every few week or so. Dill, garlic, salt, onion powder, water and white wine vinegar make for a treat that quickly vanishes from the fridge.

Dinner With Yellow Tree Farm - Fall Honey Pizza Dough

Of all the things I've found tucked away in my weekly Yellow Tree Farm CSA bag, its the dark amber fall honeycombs pictured above that have captured my interest and my taste buds. With a flavor profile that is deep, earthy and less "sugary" than summer honey, this fall honey has had a well used tasting spoon in its jar since I brought it home a few weeks ago. I've been slowly draining this sweet stash, topping bread with it for my son, adding it to salad dressings and offering samples to visitors whenever I can find the chance. 

I recently used this honey as a replacement for sugar in a pizza dough recipe I've been working on:

16 oz bread flour

10 oz room temp water

2 Tbsp sugar (or honey)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp yeast

Using a standing mixer, combine ingredients and work until a dough ball is formed and then transfer to a flour dusted counter. Divide into two and ball. Reserve each to its own gallon size Ziploc bag and drizzle olive oil over the ball. Toss inside the bag to coat. Allow to rest on the counter for an hour and then move to the warmest part of your fridge for a minimum of 24 hours. The key to this dough is a low and slow ferment. Allow to sit at room temp for a few hours before baking on a preheated stone in a 450 to 500 degree oven for between 8 and 11 minutes.

Word of advice, whenever attempting a pizza recipe, adjust temps, times and stone placement to meet how your own oven functions. Sometimes a small change can make all the difference in the pies you turn out.

The results:

This first pie is made with a simple tomato sauce, mozzarella and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheeses, red and orange peppers, portabella mushrooms and kale and chard taken from my garden. 

This pie is all about heat, starting with a base of spicy bbq sauce and monterey jack cheese. Next comes scallion, guanciale that I made earlier this spring, raw jalapeno peppers and spicy carnitas (slow braised and then fried pork shoulder) that I had left over from a recent taco night.

About this post

Yellow Tree Farm is a family owned, biointensive, urban homestead located in St. Louis, Missouri. The farm provides produce to some of the finest restaurants in town, runs a local CSA and is a vendor at the Maplewood Farmers Market. I am a proud member of the Yellow Tree Farm CSA. This post is part of a planned a series highlighting the fine ingredients that come in their weekly delivery.

Yellow Tree Farm has been an advertiser on this site since January 2011

 

Assorted Minutia: 4/22-4/29/2011

I've started to keep a tumblr diary for all the little things that I find, read or eat during the week. With any luck the quick thoughts, dishes I ate and pictures I accumulated along the way will make for a a disjointed yet interesting weekly post. I'd be interested in knowing what readers think of this new idea.

The Beast in a Box from Salume Beddu.

This sandwich was so good, I may have cried half way though eating it. Simply, it is the best sandwich I've had this year. Interestingly enough I enjoyed it at the best lunch I've had this year. You need to get to know this dish, sooner rather than later.

Salami Pizza at The Good Pie.

I was lured (again) into the ongoing conversation about the Good Pie in the STLBites forum. The quick and dirty of the issue is that many in our fair city believe that the Good Pie is actually a Bad Pie. I happen to believe it's an excellent example of the pizza style. This argument has gone on for over 21 pages and 300 replies. I continue to be on the right side of this argument. A good chunk of St. Louis continues to be on the wrong side. I anticipate this weeks conversation changed the minds of exactly zero people. Oh well. Here is to the next 21 pages of this argument.

Beef kabob and falafel from Cafe Natasha.

Cafe Natasha may have the best beef shish kabob in St. Louis. Even when temped rare to medium rare, the outside is crisp while  the inside remains moist, tender and flavorful. Simple advice for those getting their kabob to go, savor every last drop of the juice  thrown off on the trip from Natasha's kitchen to your table.

Natasha's falafel is usually a favorite of mine. Spice, sauce and fried balls of chick peas make for a sandwich that I consume so fast that several bites include bits of the paper that each falafel is wrapped in. Not so much this time, the sauce was lacking and falafel was dry, for me, the texture was decidedly off this week.

Yellow Tree Farm Quail Eggs

Rain has dominated the weather forecast for the last week and a half, but I made the best of it by heading out to the Maplewood Farmers Market to pick up my Yellow Tree Farm CSA. Besides bamboo shoots, quails and chicken eggs, I ended up with 37 quail eggs. The plan is to pickle them. It promises to be an adventure.

Pasta with asparagus, onions and roasted tomato.

For dinner this week I made this simple pasta dish of sautéed onions, asparagus and roasted tomatoes over linguine. Reserved liquid from the roasted tomatoes, a few ladle-fulls of pasta water and good olive oil make a sauce that does not overshadow spring asparagus, which should be showing up at the market soon, if it has not already. 

Farmers' Larder kielbasa

I am part Polish. My wife is part Polish. We have a ritual in our home called Polish night were we eat the foods that our families introduced us to when we were my son's age. Roasted potatoes, broccoli (most likely not Polish, but good for you) and sauerkraut are the supporting cast for kielbasa from the Farmers' Larder, a local charcuterie vendor at the Maplewood Farmer's Market. This is the kielbasa I remember from growing up. The snap of a natural casing, outstanding local beef and pork, just a hint of marjoram and a finish that is all garlic. A steal at $9.00 a package.

First Taste of Kool-aid

Kool-aid is not a big part of our lives and until this week, it was unknown to my son. However, some neighborhood kids were selling grape Kool-aid as a fund raiser for the victims of the recent weeks tornadoes here in Missouri. Who can say no to that?

Son, meet high fructose corn syrup. It tastes good, right? Don't get used to it.

The Best Pizzerias In St. Louis - Part I

The Setup:

St. Louis native Yogi Berra once replied, “You better make it four. I don't think I could eat eight” when asked how many slices his pizza should be cut into. I've always been fond of this quote, not just because its classic Berra, but because in many ways it captures the American experience with pizza.

As a society who tends to revel in our own over indulgence, it is pizza that arguably sits at the top of the food chain as the meal we eat to excess. We consume the dish on a massive scale, usually from cardboard boxes and frozen cases, instead of freshly pulled from the blistering heat of a pizzeria's oven, which is arguably the only way to truly commune with a pizza.

There are only a handful of dishes in the American diet that have experienced the culinary version of manifest destiny that pizza has. From the hand tossed pies the size of car tires and coal oven blistered doughs of the East Coast to the West Coast take on the Midwestern deep dish, the very idea of pizza is continually borrowed and tweaked to make something just a bit different from the dish a town over, yet familiar enough to wet the appetite when the heady smell of a pizza pie baking in a rocket hot oven first hits the nose. 

Locally, St. Louis has been in the midst of a pizza renaissance, with a host of pizzerias successfully fighting for elbow room at a table dominated by the ubiquitous St. Louis style pizza. Indeed, when I originally asked for help finding the best pizzas St. Louis had to offer, I fully expected to spend some time making my way though the roster of locally famous pizzerias serving up cracker thin pies, covered from edge to edge with toppings and Provel, a uniquely St. Louis cheese product that more than anything is the ethos of the St. Louis style pizza.

Instead of the traditional favorites, folks came out in numbers for pies that are at the forefront of the changing face of pizza in St. Louis. I took your feedback and set out to find and rank what I think are the best pizzas in St. Louis, based on the votes of the readers of this site, starting with numbers ten through six.

Looking For A Few Good Pizzas In St. Louis.

In 2010, the good people of St. Louis pointed us at some great (and not so great) hamburgers.

We spent the year eating them and I'm getting ready to announce the best burger in St. Louis as voted by the readers of this site in the middle of January. I've also got a fun surprise that I'll share with you at that time as well.

But before we get to the best burger, I'm turning my attention to 2011 and a favorite topic of mine; pizza. That's right St. Louis, we are coming for your pizza.

I've assembled a cracker jack squad of food writers and bloggers from here in St. Louis and we're going to spend the next year taking down pies, one by one until we find the best pizzas this town has to offer.

We've got our list, but I want to see your's as well. Leave me a comment here, find me on Twitter or drop me an email with your favorites.

So who makes the best pizza in St. Louis? Voting is open until December 31st.

Cheers.