NY Style Basics

[willran]

Hello All,
I've finally had some success using a variation of Tom's recipe and it felt great but not picture worthy. This forum has been a huge help.  But sometimes there can be too much information out there.  So, I was wondering about the folllowing for a NY style found at a mom and pop pizzeria:

What is a "typical" sauce used? Name brand, type?
What is a "typical" cheese used?  Name brand, type?
Do you put the dough in the frig right after kneading for cold ferment?
What is the optimum time leave in the frig?

Thanks All - Will

[Ev]

First of all, welcome to the forum. We're glad you're here and we all want you to make the best pizza possible.
Though you may not consider your pies "photo worthy", a picture really is worth a thousand words. Photos will help us greatly to help you with whatever it is you need to know.
 To answer your questions, I can tell you that many pizza shops are using a canned tomato such as Escalons 6in1, Stanislaus' 7/11, both of which is a crushed, ground tomato, or more of a tomato paste or heavy puree based product such as Stanislaus "Saporito". Of course there are many other suitable products to choose from.
 A typical cheese would be Grande whole milk or part skim mozzarella. Though it is widely used, it's not everyones favorite, and it can be hard to find on the home consumer level.  Personally, I'm happy with many different brands that I can get locally.
 As for fermentation, I like a two day cold ferment for N.Y. style, and yes, I put my dough in the fridge right after kneading and balling.
 Many of these things are subjective and completely up to your own preferences. Experimentation is key.
And we haven't even gotten to flour brands, oven temps and cooking surfaces yet!   Good Luck and Have Fun!

[Essen1]

Steve & Willran...

Grande cheese is now available on the retail level and sold under the name "Piacci"

http://www.piacci.com/

However, a less expensive and great alternative is Trader Joe's whole milk, low-moisture mozzarella. It's extremely close to the Grande and my personal favorite. It has exceptional melting capabilities, a nice tang to it and stretches just perfectly.

I wrote about it here:

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,8093.msg204951.html#msg204951

Hope that helps...

[Ev]

Thanks for that Mike! I'll keep an eye out for it.

[willran]

Thanks guys!  Very useful to know, as I need a baseline to start from.  My oven goes to 550 and I use a stone.  Appearently, the way to make this type of pizza is to nuke it.  I found a big difffernce in the crust when the stone was preheated (who would have thought) and I have been working with KASL, but I hear some folks talk about 00 flour.  Is the 00 flour hi gluten or just more finely ground?  Hey Ev, I was just in Lancaster yesterday.  I live in Kutztown, small world!

[atom]

Grande cheese is now available on the retail level and sold under the name "Piacci"

Well I'm not really sure where you get that from because the cheese on their site is fresh mozz.

[Ev]

Thanks guys!  Very useful to know, as I need a baseline to start from.  My oven goes to 550 and I use a stone.  Appearently, the way to make this type of pizza is to nuke it.  I found a big difffernce in the crust when the stone was preheated (who would have thought) and I have been working with KASL, but I hear some folks talk about 00 flour.  Is the 00 flour hi gluten or just more finely ground?  Hey Ev, I was just in Lancaster yesterday.  I live in Kutztown, small world!

Heck yeah, we're practically neighbors!

 By "nuking" I assume you mean high heat and not microwave, and this would be correct. A 550 oven is fine. Just pre-heat your stone a good long while. Some say at least an hour but I rarely go more than half an hour. A good stone (not one from say, Target or Walmart) works very well. Some like using steel plate. I haven't tried it, so I can't really say.
 KASL is very good, and it's what I use, though many people prefer a bromated flour such as All-Trumps, GM Full Strength or Kyrol.
Keep your mix/knead times down to 4-5 minutes to avoid an overly chewy crust.
 OO flours are finer and not considered  Hi-Gluten. These flours are best suited for high temp wood-fired ovens.

[willran]

Heck yeah, we're practically neighbors!

A good stone (not one from say, Target or Walmart) works very well. Some like using steel plate.

[willran]

What is the difference between a good stone and one from the above retailers.
One other question:  I read that one should add the sauce at room temp. and the cheese at refig. temp. what is the advantage?

Thanks

[Ev]

A good stone can be made of Cordierite or Fibrament and should be at least a half an inch thick. Some folk buy custom made kiln shelves from places like Axner Pottery. The cheap stones are little more than clay and way to thin. Not enough thermal mass to collect enough heat and prone to thermal shock/breakage.  With a little searching online you should easily find something suitable. I prefer Cordierite myself, though I'm sure Fibrament stones work well too. I bought mine at http://www.therestaurantstore.com/ in Reading. If you're in Kutztown, that's really not far to go.
 Putting cold sauce on a pizza stone you just waited an hour to heat up is counter-productive. Warm shredded cheese tends to get sticky and clump up.

[Essen1]

Well I'm not really sure where you get that from because the cheese on their site is fresh mozz.

They had whole milk mozza in their range of products:

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20081106005260&newsLang=en

I guess they must have changed it. That's too bad.