Shakey's thin crust pizza dough part three

[DNA Dan]

more shots.

[Chicago Bob]

Man, that crust sure does look good though Dan....very nice. Can I get the size and weight please?  Thanks.

[DNA Dan]

I didn't weight this skin so I am not sure of the actual TF. I just used by typical 1/8" setting on my sheeter, but kept it 1 tooth on the thicker side. If you had to guess I would say 3/16" is about right.

The recipe is the malty laminated/RT clone that has been bounced around a bit.
481 g    (100%)    Flour (All Trumps, unbleached, unbromated)
232 g   (48%)    Water
10 g    (2%)   Salt (Regular table salt)
10 g   (2%)   Shortening  (Manteca)
10 g   (2%)   Sugar
10 g   (2%)   Non-fat Bakers Dry Milk (King Arthur brand)
10 g  (2%) Vermont Cheese powder (King Arthur brand)
6 g   (1.24%)   Active Dry Yeast (Fleischmann’s)

I added the cheese powder at 2%, used water instead of malt liquor, and doubled the yeast for this pie. The die cutter I use is 16" diameter.

[Zing]

Tonight I finally baked a pie made with all the ingredients listed on the bag by several posters here. A friendly chemistry major supplied me with some laboratory grade (not fertilizer grade!) ammonium sulfate. I again went for the gusto, putting in 1/3 teaspoon to a pound of flour and the usual other ingredients. I did use fresh yeast, so will repeat the experiment with other yeasts. The product behaved as a dough conditioner. The first thing I noticed in the bread machine while mixing the dough is the dough became slack. Then, the dough would not rise at room temperature and there was no gas in the plastic bag. Not much else happened after being in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Letting it come to room temperature, the dough was very slack and rolled out very easily.

While baking it there was no THAT SMELL(TM)*. The dough came out limp; the slices did not stick straight out while holding the slices.

I overdosed to see what would happen. Next time I will try within the recommended range.

* THAT SMELL is a trademark of DNA Dan.

[Zing]

I have been spending some time studying the efforts of people seeking to determine what causes the stink in Subway hero breads while it is baking. Some of these people live in an apartment above a Subway sandwich shop and complain this stink gets into their clothes. When was the last time someone complained of smell getting into ones clothes from a French bakery downstairs run by a guy just off the plane from Paris? This mental exercise may lend some insight into Shakey's smell.

The secrets of the old Shakey's in Rockville, MD will soon be concreted over. A new restaurant, with a larger footprint than the Shakey's it replaces, has the walls going up, though there still is dirt in the center of the structure.

[Chicago Bob]

A new restaurant, with a larger footprint than the Shakey's it replaces, has the walls going up, though there still is dirt in the center of the structure.

Ummm, we're gonna need a sample of that dirt....can you get right over there Zing?!!   

[DNA Dan]

Is that the original store? Sad to see these icons get plowed and re-developed. When I was in Palo Alto, CA a while back we drove by one of the original Round Table stores. Alas it was redeveloped into condos.  

[Zing]

No, Rockville, Maryland was not the original store. However, it was where thread contributor Lightmeter used to work. According to Lightmeter, that store was one of the highest grossing stores in the chain. There are also a lot of references on the web to that particular location, though there were a dozen or so stores in the metropolitan Washington, DC area at the chain's peak.

The original Shakey's was at 5641 J Street in Sacramento, California. I was there once in the mid-80's. They still had a jazz band performing that day.

This article gives the recent history of the site:
http://www.valcomnews.com/?p=5227

The website of the current restaurant on the site:
http://www.clarkscornerbar.com/
I don't know how much of the structure is original. There was a fire on the site which led to the closure of that particular Shakeys.

[AimlessRyan]

I have been spending some time studying the efforts of people seeking to determine what causes the stink in Subway hero breads while it is baking. Some of these people live in an apartment above a Subway sandwich shop and complain this stink gets into their clothes.

When I was out walking all over New England (350 miles) last fall, living out of a backpack, I would regularly stop at Subway to fill my water bottle with ice. As a result, my water bottle often had that smell, and the water tasted of that smell. I got really sick of it, but I had to deal with it because in a lot of small towns Subway is the only place you can easily get water.

[lightmeter]

Greetings, Sorry for the long absence. Work and life got in the way again...

After reviewing the more recent Shakey's threads I note "That Smell" is still an elusive ingredient. It seems DNA Dan went down a couple paths exploring various yeasts and some sort of vermont cheese powder.

Have you tried validating that the smell/taste is simply a shaker cheese mix dusted on top of the mozz cheese blend, just before putting it into the oven (I still think this is the elusive aroma)?

If you already did and posted about it, I'm sorry I missed it, but I'd be interested in your results. I recomnmend store bought Kraft "Shredded Parmesan, Romano and Asiago Cheeses" with the built in shaker lid. It smells close to me.

Lightmeter

[Zing]

Family matters have also kept me busy. I posted a few of my recent thoughts over at the malty laminated dough thread in the Cracker Section:
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,13389.0.html

My neighbor is in Los Angeles right now and is sniffing and eating his way through several Shakey's. He is bringing back some samples.

Meanwhile, from the Miller's Ale House website:

"Rockville is now open!
We are now in Maryland! The Rockville location is now open at 1471 Rockville Pike.  Come down and check out the new Miller's Ale House store in Rockville, MD!"

From:
http://www.millersalehouse.com/location/rockville-ale-house

There was quite a crowd there the other night. Probably like when the Shakey's first opened on the same exact plot of land. The building is new from the ground up.

[DNA Dan]

Greetings, Sorry for the long absence. Work and life got in the way again...

After reviewing the more recent Shakey's threads I note "That Smell" is still an elusive ingredient. It seems DNA Dan went down a couple paths exploring various yeasts and some sort of vermont cheese powder.
Lightmeter

My last pie was a 4-day ferment with the Tones Garlic Romano Sprinkle. Details in post #99 here: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,13389.80.html This produced a fantastic pie! Perhaps my favorite at this point. The smell lingered in my garage for about 3-4 days. I'm convinced it's not the yeast but an additive in the dough, perhaps combined with a long ferment. It could be that the long ferment is substituting for some tastes in the "additive" that the Garlic Romano Sprinkle does not provide. This pie smelled fantastic cooking. Shakey's? Not quite sure because I need to recalibrate my Shakey's smell this spring by making a trip to Spokane. However in researching "that smell" this is where I would focus your efforts. It's not some magical yeast.