Pizza amateur looking to improve

[greenacarina]

Hey everyone! I am really glad I found this place.
I absolutely LOVE good pizza and have been on an eternal quest to find all the good pizza places in my area. So, being the DIY'er that I am....now it's the quest to make my own perfect pizza!
I've got a gas oven, pizza stone, and recently got a pizza peel (how did I ever live without this great tool!)
Now comes the education...and I see there's a LOT of amazing info here!

For my first question- Can anyone recommend a good book to get me started?? OR----
Do I even need a book with all the information that is on this forum??

Thanks

Chris

[Pete-zza]

For my first question- Can anyone recommend a good book to get me started?? OR----
Do I even need a book with all the information that is on this forum??

Chris,

I think the answer to your question depends on what your objectives are, how far are you willing to go to achieve those objectives, and how much time and effort you are willing and prepared to put into the process. Just about everything that one wants to know about pizza is on the forum but, unlike books on pizza, the material is not assembled to imitate cookbooks with nicely prepared recipes with everything organized and in the proper place. That means that you have to be prepared to make liberal use of the forum's search tools and other tools that were created to help the members. And, however you choose to proceed, if you are truly serious about your pizza making you might find it helpful to have a good digital scale and to learn about baker's percents. We have some highly skilled and talented members who are also good teachers and able to help new members along their journey but such resources are fairly limited and should be used judiciously and with respect for their time since the "student to teacher ratio" is quite high.

Peter

[mkevenson]

For my first question- Can anyone recommend a good book to get me started?? OR----
Do I even need a book with all the information that is on this forum??

Thanks

Chris

Welcome, here is a short list found on this site. Like all cook books you may find them all interesting and use one or two ideas from each. I too love books, have shelves of them but you will find much knowledge here every day and when you put your skills to work in the kitchen you will be amazed at how fast your pies will improve.

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,10486.0.html

Mark

[scott123]

Mark, while I think owning cookbooks is a worthy practice, and, for someone experienced, as you said, they might be able to pull one or two ideas from each of the cookbooks on that list, but, for the beginner, the amount of misinformation in the list is so staggering, I think it's best to avoid them completely until the aspiring pizza maker can develop the necessary skills and knowledge base to be able to read them with a more discerning eye.

Chris, it really depends on how you define 'perfect' pizza, but, imo, anything close to perfect pizza has yet to be outlined in either a book or a video.  For perfect pizza, the information is here. It can be spread pretty far and wide, but, as Peter pointed out, the search function is your friend.

[greenacarina]

Mark, while I think owning cookbooks is a worthy practice, and, for someone experienced, as you said, they might be able to pull one or two ideas from each of the cookbooks on that list, but, for the beginner, the amount of misinformation in the list is so staggering, I think it's best to avoid them completely until the aspiring pizza maker can develop the necessary skills and knowledge base to be able to read them with a more discerning eye.

Chris, it really depends on how you define 'perfect' pizza, but, imo, anything close to perfect pizza has yet to be outlined in either a book or a video.  For perfect pizza, the information is here. It can be spread pretty far and wide, but, as Peter pointed out, the search function is your friend.

Wise words, Scott. So, I've been thinking about this. While "perfect" is a word that can be taken many ways, it's probably better to focus on specific areas first. As a total novice I figure a good first step will be to emulate aspects of my favorite local pizzas.
So, that leads me to a couple other starting points- Finding experienced pizza makers in my area and sourcing ingredients in my area.
I am just north of Seattle. Anyone else??