My new LBE and pies

[Jackie Tran]

Thank you very much Don.  10 min heat up times are ideal.  I was also enjoying 10 min heat up times in my MBE and got 20+ bakes per 20lb tank as well.  It's settled, I'm going to lose the bottom deflector plate for the next bake and see if I don't see an improvement in heat up times.   I can load at lower temps and control the the bake times with the output valve.  I'm curious what temps you are loading your pies at and how long do you typically bake for?    

Also I forgot to say earlier that it is nice to be able to make full 12" pies now.    I can even do up to 14".  I'll probably stick with 12" though.  It's nice to have the extra heat in the bigger stone and circulating above for even more oven spring.  That is the big advantage of the LBE over the MBE for me and why I decided to upgrade.  

Thanks,
Chau

[Jackie Tran]

Chau - great looking pie!  I don't see how we will be able to take advantage of the "dine in" option, but I have a better idea.  How about several of us pitch in and buy you a ticket to Tampa?  Either Bob or I will host.  Think about it.

Compatta - love the rotisserie!

Dave

Dave, I am humbly flattered that you would consider pitching in to fly me down there for a pizza party.  Honestly I feel that I wouldn't have enough expertise to contribute to make it worthwhile.  I am still very much a novice and still experimenting and learning all the time.   I bet you guys could teach me a thing or two.  
Perhaps someday if I achieve such a level of mastery that flour, yeast, salt, & water scatter at the mere mention of my name, then I'll take you up on the offer.    

Kidding aside, my brother just moved to Melbourne.  If I get a chance to visit him in the near future, I will definitely get together with you guys.  

Chau

[Jackie Tran]

Chau...one of the best looking pizzas cooked in an LBE that I have seen. With your dedication I know they will only get better.

Loving the set-up of your LBE.....the whole LBE phenomenon has a really cool McGuever-ish meets Q (from James Bond) type of appeal to it! --K

Thank you PB.  I still have much to improve upon but lately I have been feeling like practice, ideas and knowledge gained from other members of this forum, and my experimentation are starting to gel and come together.   I hope to keep improving.  Thank you for the encouragement. 

Chau

[doughboy55]

Perhaps someday if I achieve such a level of mastery that flour, yeast, salt, & water scatter at the mere mention of my name, then I'll take you up on the offer.    
Chau

I would love to see what results you would yield if you owned a coal/wood fired oven. Have you ever considered opening a pizzeria?

[Jackie Tran]

I would love to see what results you would yield if you owned a coal/wood fired oven. Have you ever considered opening a pizzeria?

DB55, the LBE was in a way my last attempt at NP pizza before acquiring a WFO.   I think one is still in the cards for me.  Maybe this spring sometime.  I would really love to see the difference myself.  As for the pizzeria, I am currently very happy with my work.  Perhaps if that were to suddenly change somehow, then I would consider it.   But knowing myself, I wouldn't do it unless I truely felt I could contend for a top 10 position.

Chau

[forzaroma]

Just built my LBE last week and after 3 failed bakes I was able to make some tweaks to the LBE and get a decent bake.  

These are my first sub 2 min bakes.   Bottom was a bit darker than I wanted but I think I know how to tweak that for next time.  

These were very good but I think I like the 3 min bakes better.  I'm still learning how to use this new oven and need to make some more adjustments to toppings and dough.

What type of Mozz are u using and how do you cut them/ Tear slice? I make my own fresh mozz and am just curious ur cheese looks awesome.

[buceriasdon]

Chau, I'm content with four minute pies, as I have been since I built mine summer of last year. Frankly I'm really not a fan of NP style pizza and even if I was the needed flours just are not available here.
Don

[compatta]

Heat up times: 20 minutes at 1/4 Bayou burner power (i could go faster, but the stone only absorbs heat so fast)
Cook times: 2.5 minutes at 640 beginning temp and at 1/4 power until tender.
did i enjoy it: As i don't know what a true neapolitan pie tastes like, i won't know till i go to a neapolitan place.
as it was my first attempt at higher temperature cooking

Now, one of the things that i still think is difficult is getting air temps above 700 degrees
(either that or my thermometer doesn't really measure anything above 700) and getting
a direct heat source (like a woodfired oven) to get those pies cooking by direct flame
as opposed to really fast and hot air.

[Jackie Tran]

What type of Mozz are u using and how do you cut them/ Tear slice? I make my own fresh mozz and am just curious ur cheese looks awesome.

Thanks forzaroma, at the moment I don't have a reliable source for curd so I'm using whatever I can get my hands on for practicing.  The 1st pie has mozz made from belgioso curd mixed with mozz made from polly-0.  I mixed the cheeses b/c I had a bit of both as leftovers and this was really just an experimental bake.  My focus on these pies were mainly the crust and bake.   At the moment, I like to slice it.  I'll tear a few pieces here and there to fill in any big gaps of sauce I see.  

Don and Compatta, thanks for posting your times and temps.  That really helps as I have something for comparison.  

Chau

[pizzablogger]

Chau, you are the perfect person to take on making your own mozzarella from raw milk....make your own curds via the pasta filata process and go all the way!

You may want to check and see if either of these farms deliver their raw milk into the Albuquerque, NM area:

1. 200 miles North of you, in Maxwell, is Kuchan Ranch:

http://www.kuchanranch.com/

They may only have goats milk, which may not work.

2. Just North of Lubbock, Texas, in Abernathy, Pereira Pastures produces a very good raw milk product. I have some friends that are at Texas Tech and use this product. I believe they have also purchased a share or two in one of their cows through the farm's cow share program.  Their experiences with this farm is what led me to start looking for producers of raw milk in my area. Good raw milk website in general:

http://www.pereirapastures.com/index.htm

Apparently they use Jersey Cows for milk, which I believe has been mentioned here (perhaps by Marco?) as not being ideal for fior-di-latte, but I bet it would be a helluva lot better than using pasturized milk.

3. The DownTown Raw Milk Dairy in Gila does not have a website, but they may deliver to Albuquerque?

For your reference:

http://www.realmilk.com/where4.html

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/cheese/pasta_filata/pasta_filata.html

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Cheese/Mozzarella/MOZZARELLA_jn0.HTM

 

BTW, did you see my PM? --K

[Jackie Tran]

Thank you for all the info Kelly.  I'll do a bit more research.   My experience with making mozz from pasteurize milk using the quick method is that it doesn't make a good product.  Maybe I just needed to keep at it or perhaps make the curd over a much longer period.   I have read that a couple of members have had great results with raw milk.   Awhile back I looked around the Albuquerque area and couldn't source raw milk, legally or not.    

I found one member on a citydata forum that claims to have a source for raw milk in Albuquerque but that person hasn't responded to my emails.

The goat's milk that Kuchan sells is too expensive for making mozz at $6/gallon.   I'll do a bit of looking into the Gila dairy.  In the meantime, thank you very much for the link for pasteurize milk mozz.  I'll see if I can source some CaCl2.  It looks promising.

Chau

[pizzablogger]

My experience with making mozz from pasteurize milk using the quick method is that it doesn't make a good product.

Exactly.

Although with practice it will get better.

Nothing can beat the full blown process I sent to you however. Personally, I don't think the differences are as drastic as some people may expect, but there is a difference. Sometimes the differences between very good and great are subtle ones, but worth pursuing. --K

[gtsum2]

good looking pie and cooker Chau!  My LBE takes 20 minutes to get to 650 stone temp..my dome temps are 800 when cooking the pies...I cooked some up last night but sadly they were not worthy of posting...I went back to KABF and frankly, it is just not for me...either that, or I forgot how to work with it!

[msheetrit]

what a cute dog you have chau 

[Jackie Tran]

Thanks for posting your numbers Shaun.   

Michael that is compatta's dog, but it is cute.  I have a pug and a bulldog named Oliver and Newman. 

So for tonight's bake, I pulled the lower heat deflector out along with the bowl and round FB stone and left all else in place.   The heat up time dropped from 20min+ to around 16min or so to reach 650F.   Not bad, I'll take any little I can get.   Next I plan on removing the nuts that separate the 2 stones to see if I can shave even more time off.   After that I may remove the smaller stone but right now I want that mass.   

I baked up 2 pretty good pies tonight.  Pretty much the same formula except I upped the CY and made 10h pies.  Overall I liked these better than the 28hour pies.  Slightly better texture for me.  First up is a margherita.  This one was baked at 2m30s.  I liked it better than the sub 2 min pies.     

[Jackie Tran]

The 2nd pie is a garlic and shrimp pie.  This is now my all time favorite topping combination.  This one is baked out to 3min.   I liked both the crust and the overall pie better than the 2m30s pie.   

[Jackie Tran]

Wanted to make a mention for the Alta Cucina tomatoes I used tonight.   These canned tomatoes are fabulous.  At first I thought they were a bit on the salty side, but after adding a bit of sweetner to it, it makes a fantastic sauce.   They do have a similar tomato taste to Stanilaus' other products but they are better.  Now I wish I hadn't bought all the other big cans of Stanilaus sauces and had just bought only the Alta Cucinas.  I guess the other stuff is good for deep dish and pasta dishes.    

[pennygirl]

Inspiring work JT. Couple questions if i may...

Are you still trying for visible air pockets when you ball your dough, and have you found that you can get too many?

And those Alta Cucina's look awesome. I've been trying toget my hands on those for the longest time up here in Seattle. Did you buy those locally or order them somewhere?

Thanks as usual!

[Jackie Tran]

Thanks PG.  I do still do stretch and folds when I ball the dough but I really don't think of doing it for trapping air pockets now.  It still traps air pockets but I just see it as part of the deal.  I do it more to build strength into the dough and complete the gluten development and the bubbles are just an added benefit.   

I find that I don't get too many.  Usually there are 3-4 big ones that migrate out towards the rim and end up as big black burnt spots.  They don't bother me and I kind of like the look.  I just to stretch and fold this way to create this look but nowadays that's not really my focus.  My focus currently is to make an extremely light crispy crust.  The bubbles I can take or leave.   If you look at the rim, you can see where the big bubbles are.  If I cut the crust there, then I'm just cutting through a big O void.  It does give a nice texture when eating as well so it's another positive.

As far as the AC, I've read great things about them.  And I'm not one to jump on the band wagon and believe the hype that surrounds pizza.  After adding a bit of sweetner, they are definitely one of the best canned tomato products that I've tried, DOP or not.  I ordered them along with a bunch of other sauces from PennMac.  Shipping is pricey unless you order a lot at once.  Definitely give them a try if you can.

Chau

[BrickStoneOven]

And those Alta Cucina's look awesome. I've been trying toget my hands on those for the longest time up here in Seattle. Did you buy those locally or order them somewhere?

Restaurant Depot will most likely have them. The items vary from location to location but these tomatoes are a top seller so I would think most would have them. These are my go to for NY style pizzas.

This is the address of the RD in Seattle. You can get a day pass or if you have a tax ID# you can open a free account.

3670 E Marginal Way South
Seattle, WA 98134-1130