Pizza History

IN SEARCH OF PIZZA!

It started in Columbus, Ohio, in 1961. Dad brought a hand tossed pizza home, the first pizza I can remember. It had sardines on it, which fired up my appetite! Pizza was such a rarity in our house that we'd long since moved to Pennsylvania before I recall eating another one. That one probably came from The Palms in Emmitsburg, it was likely a frozen crust pizza. The others that followed were probably frozen crusts as well from Corny's Corner or the Ott House, each satisfying my lust for pizza, though they varied in flavor and quality. Those were American pizzas, thick crusted, loaded with sauce, cheese and meats.

Sometime in the mid 1970s I was introduced to Italian pizza and everything changed! Luca's, a pizzeria in what

Some I continue to patronize, such as No Anchovies in Taneytown, and others I've happily not darkened their doorways twice. (Continuing the sadness theme, several excellent pizza shops have closed, Snugs in Frederick and The Red Door in Thurmont. Both made some of the finest subs I've eaten as well!) Of those shops I tend to patronize, I still try to discover the secrets of what draws me back to them. Sometimes it's the tomato sauce, sometimes the cheese, often it's the owner and the hired help. But it's never because they share hints of their dough recipes, other than Tim at No Anchovies. He buys his dough from a dough company in Baltimore, if he's telling me the truth, which I'd not blame him for if he weren't.

Lately I've been studying Giuseppe's pizzas. Giuseppe owns Pizza Leone, a few miles west of town out on the Waynesboro Pike. I almost didn't try Pizza Leone because one of DW's clan said the food wasn't very good. Fortunately, I remembered DW's people tend to be even more limited in their tastes than I am and one of my own clan (she works in one of the area's restaurants) said Pizza Leone wasn't bad. So I ordered a pizza. Well, I've ordered

So I began rattlin' on about higher salt ratios to slow the ferment which should take no less than 10 hours at room temperature, and possibly as long as 24 hours! Yeast measured in fractions of a quarter teaspoon. (Counting grains of active dry yeast would be an easy way of measuring the tiny quantities needed.) Dough hydration in Italy being in the 50 to 55% range because the pizzas are being baked at temperatures over 700 Fahrenheit! (American home ovens rarely reach beyond 500F and require a wetter dough of around 65% hydration to sustain longer baking times in the cooler