I may be close to stopping cooking forever (a Pizza story)

[Stinky The Clown]

A friend of mine (local rep for a brand of big, honkin' commercial hearth ovens capable of burning solid fuel, like wood or coal) calls me last Saturday. "Hey Stinky, we're goin' to try a new coal fired pizza place."

"A what?"

"Yup"

"Damn! We just finished eating - frozen pizza!"

He texts me later. "Drool. You're a dead man"



So today, Sparkly and I head over there for lunch. The place has been open for three weeks. Actually, that's not even true. They had their soft opening three weeks ago. When we get there, i introduce myself to one of the two owners. I tell him waht I do so we're instant colleagues.

They really didn't want any publicity when they opened. Just managing a solid fuel oven takes time and has a fairly steep learning curve. Alas, the Baltimore Sun showed up their first Saturday night and gave them rave reviews. They've been slammed ever since.

And for good reason.

This pizza is otherworldly good. Orgasmic.



I've waxed poetic about 2Amy's Italian certified DOC pizzas. And they remain as great, as incredible, as ever.

But they're really a different product. This stuff is the kind of pizza that was, in actuality, invented here in America around the turn of the last century. Joe Pepe started his place where it still stands today, on Wooster Street, in New Haven, CT. Today it is still family run, by Joe's great grandson, Joe Biemonte. The original oven is still fired by Pennsylvania anthracite (hard) coal. You'll get into fist fights claiming who was first on the scene. On Wooster Street, it was Pepe's, then Sallie's. Nobody argues that. But the New York people, being more blustery, also lay claim, but the problem is, none of the ovens have been coal fired *and* baking pizza as long as Pepes. There is one older oven than Pepe's, but it is an acknowledged fact it was baking bread only for a few years after old Joe opened.



Anyway, coal fired pizza (and wood fired, to be honest) are different from DOC pizza. More char. More chew to the crust, even in a thin crust pizza. In common with DOC pies is the seeming paucity of toppings. You eat coal fired pies for the char. Everything else is garnish.

Back to today ...... they've now been opened about three weeks and they're starting to get the hang of things. The oven was well stoked and you could see the hot gases burning across the top, the stoked coal embers hot as a blacksmith's forge fire at the right side of the oven, the hearth clean. Good oven management.



I'd say they were spot on with their estimate of the need for a 4 week soft opening. Things today were looking and tasting good. real good.

Look at the underside of this pie .... that char is from a clean hearth, meaning its honestly developed and just incredible.



I could eat at this place every day and never cook again.

Its a 10 minute drive. I can almost smell it.

We had the Margherita and the CoalFire Signature. Sparkly can usually mange to just barely get through three slices of pizza when she's **really** hungry. She outdid herself today. Me ... I ain't sayin' what I ate ...... but it was a lot. There's still lots to try on the menu. The wings are supposed to be unlike anyone else's and I don't doubt that. These ovens add a flavor dimension to food that can't be achieved in any other cooking appliance.

This is their menu. I'm betting, ina year, most of page 2 is gone and replaced with oven fare. But not now. Until they get the hang of that oven, pizza's all they need to be trying.




A little flyer



The store ... in a mostly empty, newly build neighborhood strip mall.

[AwakeAtLast]

1. Wow! That is some amazing looking pizza!

Shrimp Fra Diavolo - MMMmmmmmmm!!!

The Coal Fired roasted vegetables sound scrumptious, too!

I'm with you, I would be there as often as possible. And my thighs would let me know it! :D

I am fortunate, there is a decent pizza place where I live in the Midwest (owner is Italian and makes them East Coast style), but damn I wish I could afford a trip to MD. <sigh>

[Inchworm]

2. Wonderful story, but...

DOC threw me off so I had to just guess the rest :)

Done on Command?

:hi:

[Stinky The Clown]

3. Nonono ....... sorry ....... DOC is an Italian authenticity credential

D.O.C. stands for 'Denominazione di Origine Controllata'. Normally seen on authentic bottles of Italian wine.

There are only two pizzas you need to make to certify:

Marinara: tomatos, oil, oregano , garlic
Margherita: tomatos, oil, mozazarela, basil

But trick is that it have to be done right. It does not have to be in Italy, USA is fine, but you have to produce a "real pizza" to be D.O.C. Oven have to be wood burring and dough have to be made from right flour. (Italian 00 flour)

VPN (Vera Pizza Napoletana or True Naples Pizza) is the actual pizza governing body that make end judge based on the basic VPN Guidelines. They really are pretty simple.

1. A Wood-Burning Oven: Pizza Napoletana must be cooked in a wood-fired dome oven operating at roughly 800ºF.

2. Proper Ingredients: Tipo 00 flour, San Marzano tomatoes, all natural Fior di Latte or Bufala mozzarella, fresh basil, salt and yeast -- only fresh, all-natural, non-processed ingredients.

3. Proper Technique: Your pizza dough must be kneaded either by hand, or with a low speed mixer. No mechanical dough shaping is allowed, such as a dough press or rolling pin, and proper pizza preparation. Pizza baking time should not exceed 90 seconds.





The coal fired ("New York" style or New Haven "Apizza" (ah BEETZ) ) is not made with Italian flour and is made with tomatoes chosen by the pizza maker. Some use San Marzanos, many (most) use California tomatoes.

[elleng]

4. So please let us know when they're REALLY ready,

and when the lunch crowd won't be TOO big. I could make it to Ellicott City any day.

Thanks!

DROOL!

[Stinky The Clown]

6. The lunch crowds don't come near the dinner crowds

We got there about 1.00 and the place was maybe half full.

Contrast that with Friday and Saturday nights when he has had to stop doing carry-out so as to keep up with the house crowd and the wait was over an hour.

[elleng]

7. OK for singles at lunch?

Unless I can lassooooo my daughter, who MAY be running thru DC this weekend, I may have to try it ALL ALONE!!! HUNGRY NOW, and its LATE! (early?)

[Stinky The Clown]

15. Sure it would be okay!

Its really a neighborhood place in a location where I don't see a huge lunch market.

[Mind_your_head]

5. Wow....you're a greartsalesman! Now, if you're hawking a superior product, you'll be unstoppable.

eom

[japple]

8. I'd give my hat and front seat in hell for an order of those chicken wings

and a side of onion rings. Too bad I live so far away......

[Stinky The Clown]

9. Those wings will be on my order on my next visit.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

10. I used to live across the street from Joe Bimonte's place in

Hamden, CT 25-30 years ago. I think he was Frank Pepe's son in law. He made some of the best abeetz. He used to sell them frozen, too - 5 or 6 12 inchers to a bag. Don't ask why we bought it frozen when he was right across the street ?!?!?

[Stinky The Clown]

11. My Mom and Dad lived right near there, too.

At the corner of Shepard and Sherman.

My favorite from Biemonte's was the white clam with spinach.

Yes, the old man was the son-in law. His son is the one who now runs Pepe's. (I **think** I have the family tree right!)

And my OP is wrong ...... The original Pepe was Frank .... not Joe. Joe is the kid.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

12. This is like going home ..........

I was born and raised in anthracite country, and my grandparents, when I was little, did everything on their great big coal stove. My toast was made over ashy coal and I didn't know you could bake a potato any other way except to put it into the coals through the opening on the side.

I'd sit for hours, just watching the fire, the burning coals. We ate everything off that stove. It was normal in that little Pennsylvania borough, the same in everyone's house. Even after electric stoves became the norm, the coal stove remained, because some things, like pizza, weren't the same.

When the first pizzeria opened in the town - the Neapolitan, it was called - it had two big coal ovens. All the pies we got there were done like what you've pictured. And they were far better than anything my nonna baked in her dangerous oven, the one that was regulated by the amount of coal you laid on and watched.

No one mentions, though, the dirt that anthracite produces. When I was cleaning out my parents' house, after their deaths, I was shocked to find - it was always kept scrupulously clean, no surprise - great thick black streaks on every painting and photograph that hung on the walls. Even though they'd gone to electric heat almost forty years earlier, the remnants of their coal furnace were everywhere in that house - behind big mirrors that had always hung there.

It made me wonder about what we'd inhaled, all that smoke and its particles. The miners suffered from Black Lung disease - my maternal grandfather died of it - but the people who were constantly exposed to that kind of pollution - fossil fuels don't let us get away easily - also had their ailments.

That said, the things that were cooked on that coal stove still live in my memory. Especially the taste of hot toasted smoky Italian bread, waiting for the soft butter and my morning cappucino in my very special cup and saucer. Nothing better for a sleepy five-year-old ....................

[eleny]

13. Marco's coal fired pizza, limoncello and Marco's wing recipe

I went hunting for a coal fired pizza place in Colorado - and found one called Marco's in Denver that's located on the west side very near to the ball park downtown! Crust "made with our own NYC water".
http://www.marcoscoalfiredpizza.com/

I'm familiar with the neighborhood and searched to see if I could find parking nearby. Among the Google hits was a site with the recipe for chicken wings served at Marco's. That's where the limoncello comes in.

Marco's Coal-Fired Pizza Limoncello Chicken Wings

Source: Mark Dym, Marco's Coal-Fired Pizza, Denver, Colorado

Serves 5 to 6

3 whole lemons, quartered
1/2 cup limoncello
1/4 ounce fresh thyme
3 ounces fresh rosemary
1/4 ounce fresh oregano
2 tablespoons kosher salt
Pinch of crushed red pepper
1 1/2 cups extra virgin olive oil
5 pounds chicken wings

Blend the quartered lemons, limoncello and rest of ingredients in food processor.

Use a generous amount of sauce, enough to fully coat your chicken wings, and marinate in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours.

Remove from marinade. Bake or grill wings at 450 degrees F until browned and cooked through, 20 to 30 minutes.
http://www.recipegoldmine.com/ccmmah/marcos-limoncello-chicken-wings.html

Limoncello...limoncello? Didn't I once buy some lemon liqueur made in Italy? And didn't I put it at the back of the cabinet because it was kind of bitter? So I looked for some limoncello recipes and read how it gets mellower and sweeter with time. Yeah! It was still back there but it's not bitter our sour now. It's sweet and has a real wow factor. It's probably been back in that cabinet for over 3 years. :D

Thanks, Stinky!

[Stinky The Clown]

14. Limoncello ....... "when you have lemons, make lemonade for the stupid rich people"

That's not true, but it kinda could be.

15 ..... 20 years ago, the only place to get Limoncello was in Mom's pantry or a local bar along the Amalfi coast. The yellow outer part of Amalfi's famous grapefruit sized (very sweet) lemons was shaved off the white pith and mixed with 190° alcohol. This was packed in a jar and the lid screwed on tight. In a week or three, when the alcohol had taken the yellow from the lemon peel and made the liquid a bright yellow, a simple syrup was made and to it was added the yellow alcohol. The ratio of syrup to alcohol determines the proof, with 80° being the norm. It was an ancient home brew and sold very cheap at the local bar.

Increased tourism brought increased interest in the local favorite and soon it was being mass produced. Now we gladly pay $30 .... $40 a bottle for the stuff here in the US. If one can get unwaxed lemons (not as easy as you might think), you can make the stuff at home, legally. You buy the alcohol, on which the tax has already been paid, and follow the method above. It really is that easy.

NYC Water ...... some years ago, I met a deli owner in LA through a friend of mine. He had NY water trucked in to make his bagels. I have no idea if the water made the difference, but he made really good bagels. (Yes, NYC water actually IS good ... among the very best in the country.)

Those wings sound wonderful. :hi:

[eleny]

16. I read several recipes and it does sound like fun to make

I'm pretty sure that I didn't spend a lot on the bottle at the store. And it's so nice that the flavor has matured.

I'll let you know how the pizza is as soon as we try it. :hi:

Next time I make chicken I'm using this recipe. We don't fix just wings becausa da fat, yanno. But I can see bbq chicken legs etc tasting so good with the recipe.

[eleny]

17. P.S. NYC water

Many years ago I once saw this cute documentary about bagels. This guy was walking down the street with a bag of bagels. He pulled one out, took a bite and said that there was nothing like a Brooklyn bagel. "It's the wautah!". And I think he had to be right.

Where I grew up in southern Queens we had Artesian well water for many years until they started supplementing it with city water after I moved here to Colorado. That well water was hard, hard hard. City water in the other boroughs and other areas of Queens was lighter and sweeter.

Btw, I don't know when bagels got so gigantic. I grew up eating ones that were 1/2 the size and tougher. I miss them.