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[artigiano]

heat and timing

[Bill/SFNM]

I can easily put black spots on the cheese and the sauce and other toppings. Is that leoparding? Browning, Maillard reaction, caramelization, carbonization... does it really matter? Spots do not a great pie make. Some of the crappiest pies I have made have had beautiful spots.  My pies that have as much leoparding as many shown on this board are invariably overbaked.

[artigiano]

lets just all go for a beer and call it a day.

[shango]

I'd have to disagree with that theory. I use an electric oven and get more leoparding than sometimes I'd honestly like. It has everything to do with balancing the heat (radiant vs stone) and nothing specifically to do with a 'live flame'.  The only live flame I've had in the oven recently was when my cornicione caught fire! 
I would agree that leoparding is probably more *likely* to occur in a WFO than any other type of heat.
FWIW I saw a video recently of Mario Batali @ Totonnos (coney island) and there appeared to be a distinct 'live flame' stretching out across the ceiling of the oven but no leoparding on the crust to speak of.

Toby

Now that I think about it, I have never been able to get any sort of electric oven hot enough to even get close to putting blisters on the crust.  You could be right about the high heat.. something to think about.  However, the key word in my previous post was "convection". 

I can easily put black spots on the cheese and the sauce and other toppings. Is that leoparding? Browning, Maillard reaction, caramelization, carbonization... does it really matter? Spots do not a great pie make. Some of the crappiest pies I have made have had beautiful spots.  My pies that have as much leoparding as many shown on this board are invariably overbaked.

I like the blisters, most of my best pies have them.. Notice that the cheese is not burnt/browned.  That is a 45 or less second pie at about 800f..

[Bill/SFNM]

Awesome looking pie, Shango. Would love to try it!

I don't time my pies these days nor do I measure temps, but here is the best crust I've made lately. Made everybody swoon. Hard to see, but there are spots on the cheese.

[widespreadpizza]

Shango,  blisters on the cheese have more to do with the cheese than with the heat.  High fat/wet = few blisters on the cheese,  while dryer and lower in fat cheeses burn up a lot more.   Just my observations.  At the Same heat level,  different moisture cheeses bake up much differently
-marc

[shango]

Shango,  blisters on the cheese have more to do with the cheese than with the heat.  High fat/wet = few blisters on the cheese,  while dryer and lower in fat cheeses burn up a lot more.   Just my observations.  At the Same heat level,  different moisture cheeses bake up much differently
-marc

Again, we could argue this point, but why bother.  I would chalk it up to many factors including size, shape, cut of cheese, as well as fire management.

[widespreadpizza]

Shango,  fair enough.  I think all of this boils down to people trying to have that perfect pizza night everytime,  which for hobbyists is about once a week or maybe less.   Those nights are truly magical when everything goes just according to plan and nothing could come out better.  I think threads like these are attemps to pin down the magic,  and store it in a jar on this forum,  when really there are so many factors involved maybe it can't be.  And like Bill always says, the prettiest aren't always the best tasting.
-marc

[shango]

Well, of course fat/water content has something to do with it as well.   

What you are saying is exactly correct.  There are so many variables-the trick is knowing which set you have, and how to handle them.

And Bill-That pizza looks great, a little under done for my taste, (you would probably say mine is over done.. c'est la vie  ) Where did you get the beautiful cockles?

[thezaman]

enclosed are two pizzas from the same batch . the dough was made saturday ,the first pizza was made sunday evening ,the second Wednesday evening the oven was at 910 to 925  both nights.  there is a lot more spotting on the dough that was aged 5 days, all other factors were the same. what do you all think?

[a pizza cu a Pumarola]

enclosed are two pizzas from the same batch . the dough was made saturday ,the first pizza was made sunday evening ,the second Wednesday evening the oven was at 910 to 925  both nights.  there is a lot more spotting on the dough that was aged 5 days, all other factors were the same. what do you all think?

Thezaman - any difference in taste/texture between the two pizzas? I expect that you refridgerated your 5 day dough but what about the dough you baked on Sunday - room temperature or cold ferment?

Robert

[thezaman]

it was the same dough , i rose both a room temp for 2 hours before baking. the older dough didn't have much rise left in the dough . the taste of the crust was abut the same . i used buffalo milk mozz. on the last pizza so the overall taste was much better.