Author Topic: This weekends Calabro Cheese and tomatoes (Read 3080 times)

JConk007 · « **Reply #20 on:** June 10, 2011, 10:19:15 PM »

Cant wait to see the video please.
john

JConk007 · « **Reply #21 on:** June 11, 2011, 08:46:32 AM »

Chau,
I forgot to mention this tid bit. I made this 62% 80-20 dough on Friday @ 11:00am and 1hr room then fridge balled Saturday @ 9:00 am. I had 6 left that I used on Wednesday Night! I did gently re ball and leave our for a 3 hr room rise. Very easy to open slap stretch 20 seconds total? So close to 6 days and man it was delicious these I brought over to my friends Primavera 60 I have never gone that long and I was very impressed with the dough flavor ... Better than the 30 hrs?? I thought so. Is that the IDY ? the Caputo ? fridge? that allows such a nice long nap for these guys? I am thrilled that I can make even more dough in one shot now, and not have to make another batch if I have a 40 pie party and 50 2 or 3 days later. oh will have to get a bigger fridge but I am Looking for a Pizza prep table 48-60" so I can control the dough on these summer days anyway. phone pics not too good but you can see the crust color and was bit more shell crispy? (tiny bubbles on crumb shot) but light as a feather.
John

Jackie Tran · « **Reply #22 on:** June 11, 2011, 09:11:08 AM »

John that crust & crumb looks very good to me. The coloration is consistent with a long cold fermentation. I have had pies that looked like that at the 4 and 6 day mark, where you can see that the yeast is exhausting the sugars in the dough. I'm not sure what it is but both times I've done this it has also been with IDY. It can give a really good texture. I'm with Scottr, in that I can't taste the improvement in flavor in long fermented IDY or CY pies but I do see the texture improvement. That I think is from the enzymes breaking down the dough, this is maybe where we get the melt in your mouth texture. I have left an IDY poolish out at room temps for a long time and got it to acidify, but I didn't make anything with it. So I think it's possible that given enough time, we CAN definitely get sourdough type flavors from IDY but I haven't had time to explore it.

The really strange thing is that I have also gotten this same type of crumb and texture in a 4 hour pie. Can you believe it? Except it was done with 30-40% starter, and 0.7-1% IDY and warm proofed. Pizza dough is so strange to me. It's hard enough just to get a routine down that produces consistently good results let alone try to understand it all.

John, how much IDY did you use for this 6 day dough. It had to be around 0.3% IDY or slightly less right?

I have another pizza party this next weekend, and I plan on giving NP a try again. I'll be doing a small % of starter to ferment at 60F for 2 days. 100% caputo, with a 62% hydration, and high heat. Let's see what I get. I'll also do one with CY as well and same protocol

My wife is out of town and I'm trying to find the cable for the camcorder to upload the video.

Chau

pizzaboyfan · « **Reply #23 on:** June 11, 2011, 02:31:28 PM »

As luck would have it, i'm out of Poly O, and it's too hot to mail order this week, and my local store was out of Calabro, and in it's place....Belgiogioso.
The Belgioso was 6.99 and the Calabro was 8.99 , so I hope it isn't the reason they made the switch.

My 2 cents...the Bel-G has more water content than Poly or Cal.
Out of the package, tastier than Poly, but not great.....not even close to Cal
It reminds me of what is served with a Caprese salad, at a mediocre restaurant.
On the pizza....it congealed soon after taking it out of the oven, and turned rubbery quickly.

It's possible that letting it dry out, or not cooking it in hot wood oven might produce better results, but for my future use, I'm passing on "America's favorite".

Perry

pizzaboyfan · « **Reply #24 on:** June 11, 2011, 07:57:15 PM »

Quote from: pizzaboyfan on June 11, 2011, 02:31:28 PM

As luck would have it, i'm out of Poly O, and it's too hot to mail order this week, and my local store was out of Calabro, and in it's place....Belgiogioso.
The Bel-G was 6.99 and the Calabro was 8.99 , so I hope it isn't the reason they made the switch.

My 2 cents...the Bel-G has more water content than Poly or Cal.
Out of the package, tastier than Poly, but not great.....not even close to Cal
It reminds me of what is served with a Caprese salad, at a mediocre restaurant.
On the pizza....it congealed soon after taking it out of the oven, and turned rubbery quickly.

It's possible that letting it dry out, or not cooking it in hot wood oven might produce better results, but for my future use, I'm passing on "America's favorite".

Perry

JConk007 · « **Reply #25 on:** June 11, 2011, 09:47:05 PM »

Yes I did notice a bit of Puddling with the Bel G I drained in Papertowel for hours and still quite wet I am planning on trying the Polly O again next bake but that Calababro is sur high on my list right now.

Chau , Good call, you nailed it !a .25% on the IDY still doubled + a touch in fridge after 24 hrs but hung there after balling for the 4 days no problem at all.
Good luck with the NP. I am tilting heavily in that direction now that I have been doing many more of that style, watch out it will get you

if you want that leaoparding keep it very close to the coals and spin, spin spin. I like some but more consistent brownish with a few poppers. I realize how close the pie is after just cooking in the P60 or the tiny barrel,and now realize I keep it a bit further away when ther is more room.
please post the cheese (video that is)
John

jusapena · « **Reply #26 on:** June 14, 2011, 01:28:54 PM »

I asked my brother who is G.M.of Calabro what starter they use. For the fresh mozzarella rennet sets the curd and a very dilute acetic acid is used after as a wash. The "pizza cheese", low moisture mozzarella is made with a culture and stretched more times to further squeeze out the whey. It takes 94 pounds of milk to make 10 pounds of fresh mozzarella and 480 pounds of milk to make 48 pounds of pizza cheese.

JConk007 · « **Reply #27 on:** June 14, 2011, 02:21:45 PM »

Thanks for posting jusapena.
Lucky you! The pizza cheese you mention is that what we are showing here?
John

pizzaboyfan · « **Reply #28 on:** June 14, 2011, 02:28:01 PM »

In a revisit of my post slamming BelG....I had to use it again Sunday, after a few days in the fridge, loosely wrapped it had lost some of it's moisture, and was not nearly as rubbery on the pie as it was fresh out of the package.
Still not creamy or smooth as Poly. or Cal..

Perry

jusapena · « **Reply #29 on:** June 14, 2011, 02:59:53 PM »

John:
That is the full moisture fresh mozzarella. The pizza cheese comes in 5 pound cryovacked blocks, wood smoked or plain. They also sell it shredded in bags. Frank Pepe only used the Calabro plain cultured pizza cheese. Of course,now it is about price not quality. My favorite for pizza (today anyway) is the smoked scamorza. It is basically the same pizza cheese wood smoked with some months of age to it.

JConk007 · « **Reply #30 on:** June 14, 2011, 10:12:32 PM »

Thanks again,
I believe this pizza is what Matthew purchased a short while ago here at reply #103?? page 6 it this what you are speaking of? http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,14038.100.html this was a block fiore de latte.
I have also tried the scamorza in my deep dish here http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,8094.0.html and loved it! but this was not smoked right? I will search it out and add to the hit list.
Thanks for the heads up.
Next up this Saturday is the Polly-O fresh mozz shoot our vs Beligioso fresh side by side 90 seconds apart

lets see what the blind taste test shows PizzaBoyfan should be interesting.
John
ps. thanks for bringing me back to that thread that was some fine pie. Such a great recipe! everyone here should try it at least once!

pcampbell · « **Reply #31 on:** June 16, 2011, 07:09:18 PM »

so did you end up buying your own mobile?? any pictures?

i always liked the calabro cheese... but often couldn't go through the 3# quickly enough. check the dates in there at RD.. i saw they varied a bit just between different containers on the shelf

we used the old calabro containers for basil pots

jusapena · « **Reply #32 on:** June 17, 2011, 09:15:42 AM »

John:
No, that is not smoked and it looks soft. The Scamorza I know is a hard cheese with almost a waxy exterior from the drying time during the aging process. It is shaped similarly to the one pictured but not cryovacked as that would trap the moisture. It comes shaped exactly like caciocavallo( horse cheese) with a string around it's neck to hang off the saddle for transport to market.In fact, fresh mozzarella with a little age is scamorza, age it a little longer and it is called caciocavallo, age it further and you get provolone.
If you are interested, I will arrange a tour of the Connecticut plant.

Jackie Tran · « **Reply #33 on:** June 19, 2011, 02:42:28 PM »

I did a test this weekend comparing fresh Calabro cheese to frozen and thawed Calabro cheese. I was interested in this b/c I bought 2 tubs (6 lbs. of cheese) and can't eat it all quick enough.

I'm not sure how long the tubs will last if the seal isn't broken, so with the open container I froze 2 balls about 5 days ago. I wrapped them tightly in plastic food wrap and then vacummed sealed them in ziplock freezer bags. I thawed them out the night before.

Upon thawing I noted that the cheese gave off very little excess water or cheese juice. I gave the (cheese) balls a squeeze and they were as soft as the fresh ones. Cutting into them gave a very similar consistency. The only thing I notice different about the 2 is that the fresh one had an ultra white color on the outside while the thawed cheese had more of a cream color.

After cutting each in half, I noted that the colors were the same on the inside. The tasted amazingly similar with the thawed ball having just slightly less of a creaminess, not much though. They melted similarly on baked pizza.

I went ahead and packaged the unused portion of tub 1 and tub 2 ready for the freezer.

JConk007 · « **Reply #34 on:** June 19, 2011, 09:28:18 PM »

Chau , From what they sell at RD it looks like it would go 2-3 weeks max if seal is un broken. Thanks for posting the results of the feeze thaw. I do a lot of freezing of the shredded becuase I buy the 5 lb bags and I never notice much differnce if used in a month of so. I am able to use most everything I buy now (mostly fresh mozz. so I have never frozen the Calabro. I am going for the Polly O- fiore next. at a Tues night event, any thoughts on that cheese?
john

Jackie Tran · « **Reply #35 on:** June 19, 2011, 09:40:35 PM »

Sorry haven't tried that one yet. What I can get around here is very limited. Can you post up a picture of it when you get it?

JConk007 · « **Reply #36 on:** June 20, 2011, 10:53:43 AM »

I will put up a pic here for you, it also comes in several sizes as with the Calabro.
J

JConk007 · « **Reply #37 on:** June 25, 2011, 10:09:26 PM »

I Did another gig with this Big Guy barrel oven again on tuesday. crazy week ! The owner of the Stone age company was there and I begged him to make a an in between size say 36" flooor and not square. He said " but you make this one work fine!" Yes if I am in the cord wood business its fine. The door and oven are just too big and minimal insulation top or bottom. I have put a lot of miles and pizzas on this undersized chimney, Big Guy Barrel Oven and if you get it going, it does put out a nice pizza. As mentioned you need a good wood supplier you can fit a 1/8 of a cord in the oven!

It gets a gets hot yes, But,- the heat all comes out the door and if I did not have a 59 1/2" turning peel I would have lost more than my arm hair. Oh this weeks tomatoes were the Baresi. Not as good as the other recent selections. I still favor the Sinatra / Ciao as my #1
here are a few pies from the bakes and a few crumb shots for chau.