Author Topic: My first try with Caputo 00 (Read 2458 times)

f.montoya · « **on:** January 28, 2013, 08:51:49 AM »

I've pretty much been on a solo, 10 year journey of pizza making that was, now that I reflect, because of the very fortunate closing of my local pizza delivery place down the road. I live in Japan, where pizza costs kinda its weight in gold. A 12" pizza goes for roughly $28 US and a 14" pizza with three toppings can run nearly $40 US. Well, after 10 years, and lots of reading on the subject of pizza, as well as finishing my wood fired oven, I have finally decided to see for myself what all the hoopla is about with Caputo 00.

I love it.

Here is a video shot by my daughter, so forgive the shaky and unscripted camera movements.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwf8kwOvcS8" target="_blank" class="aeva_link bbc_link new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwf8kwOvcS8</a>

dellavecchia · « **Reply #1 on:** January 28, 2013, 08:58:58 AM »

Excellent job. Your dough is perfectly fermented and you got great leoparding. Caputo begs to be cooked in a WFO, so it is no surprise that you were happy with the results.

Did you build your oven?

John

f.montoya · « **Reply #2 on:** January 28, 2013, 09:14:54 AM »

Quote from: dellavecchia on January 28, 2013, 08:58:58 AM

Excellent job. Your dough is perfectly fermented and you got great leoparding. Caputo begs to be cooked in a WFO, so it is no surprise that you were happy with the results.

Did you build your oven?

John

Thanks, John. The dough(65% Hydration btw) got 3 days refrigeration at 3 degrees C. Then another 3-6 hours at "slightly-cooler-than-room-temp" before seeing flame. Happy indeed. My wife and I are going to order a 25kg bag of Caputo 00 this week. It was really that good. And yes, I built my oven myself using Alan Scott's design from "The Bread Builders".

dellavecchia · « **Reply #3 on:** January 28, 2013, 09:43:25 AM »

Quote from: f.montoya on January 28, 2013, 09:14:54 AM

And yes, I built my oven myself using Alan Scott's design from "The Bread Builders".

Fantastic book - Every time I go back to it I find another tidbit of valuable information. And up until now I had never seen a true Neapolitan pizza come out of an Alan Scott design. Great job all around.

John

f.montoya · « **Reply #4 on:** January 28, 2013, 10:09:14 AM »

Wow! That's interesting. I was actually hoping to scour these forums to see other pizzas coming out of Alan Scott designed ovens.

Oh well. You saved me the searching. lol. In any case, I would recommend to anyone thinking of building an oven to consider this design. The only modification I made was to add a support island running across the center of the oven hearth. I just did not like the idea of the "floating" hearth supported only by 3/4 inch rebar. Other than that, it works beautifully and the dome shape is perfect for even baking of pizzas as the convection from left to right and right to left speed up the toasting/charring on the edges, as well as when you dome your pie, the flame almost licks the toppings and cheese on the curl over.

With that said, what is the most popular oven or oven design used by members here for VPN?

Ev · « **Reply #5 on:** January 28, 2013, 10:11:13 AM »

Great job on both the oven and the pizzas! I'm just curious though. Do you ever have problems with your dough sticking to the metal peel during launch? For myself, it only took one disasterous episode to learn that a wooden peel works much better for launching.

f.montoya · « **Reply #6 on:** January 28, 2013, 10:33:29 AM »

Quote from: Ev on January 28, 2013, 10:11:13 AM

Great job on both the oven and the pizzas! I'm just curious though. Do you ever have problems with your dough sticking to the metal peel during launch? For myself, it only took one disasterous episode to learn that a wooden peel works much better for launching.

I think you could have that problem with ANY peel, wood or aluminum, if you tend to build your pie right on the peel(meaning topping it while it's on the peel). I don't do that. I build my pies on a very smooth surface, with a little flour below them, and then "slide-pull" them onto my peel. I usually flick a very tiny pinch of flour on my peel before pulling the finished/topped pie onto it. Not much is needed because the pizza will not be on my peel for more than about 10 - 15 seconds at most...15 if I'm yapping for a youtube video. lol.

Serpentelli · « **Reply #7 on:** January 28, 2013, 11:39:28 AM »

You, my friend are no rookie.

It is a bit unfair to those of us "true noobs"

to see a new poster with pies of such high quality. Having said that, if you haven't already been challenged and awed by the members and the info on this site, get ready!

Question: What type of yeast did you use? And what types are available in Japan? ADY, IDY, CY? With all the soy fermentation going on (and malt for that matter!!) I imagine there must be a few options available?

Anyway, beautiful oven and pizzas, and your daughter should consider a career in movie diecting!

John Knab

mkevenson · « **Reply #8 on:** January 28, 2013, 02:00:48 PM »

f.montoya , welcome to the PM forums. I had run into your videos some time ago by accident. Nice work and thanks for sharing with us.

Mark

f.montoya · « **Reply #9 on:** January 28, 2013, 09:33:02 PM »

Quote from: Serpentelli on January 28, 2013, 11:39:28 AM

You, my friend are no rookie.

It is a bit unfair to those of us "true noobs" to see a new poster with pies of such high quality. Having said that, if you haven't already been challenged and awed by the members and the info on this site, get ready!

Question: What type of yeast did you use? And what types are available in Japan? ADY, IDY, CY? With all the soy fermentation going on (and malt for that matter!!) I imagine there must be a few options available?

Anyway, beautiful oven and pizzas, and your daughter should consider a career in movie diecting!

John Knab

Thanks for the kind words, John. I used Inoue's Hata Dry Yeast, which has given me very good results. For six 260g doughballs, I used about half a packet(roughly 3g). And yes, talk about challenges, I am constantly seeing a lot on these forums about using a sourdough starter and even making it yourself. That will be a BIG challenge for me as I have absolutely no idea where to start with something like that. But I intend to read more and experiment eventually.

Serpentelli · « **Reply #10 on:** January 28, 2013, 10:19:12 PM »

If you go to www.sourdo.com you can get the ischia and camaldoli starters in dry form. There is an international shipping option on the site so it probably is something they'd ship to Japan. They're light as a feather so probably wouldn't cost too much...

Please post more pics!

John

f.montoya · « **Reply #11 on:** January 29, 2013, 01:03:49 AM »

Quote from: Serpentelli on January 28, 2013, 10:19:12 PM

If you go to www.sourdo.com you can get the ischia and camaldoli starters in dry form. There is an international shipping option on the site so it probably is something they'd ship to Japan. They're light as a feather so probably wouldn't cost too much...

Please post more pics!

John

Thanks John. I am looking over their international order form and I don't see anything by the names ischia or camaldoli. Here is their order form in pdf, can you tell me which cultures you'd recommend?

Morgan · « **Reply #12 on:** January 29, 2013, 03:39:55 AM »

Quote from: f.montoya on January 28, 2013, 08:51:49 AM

Here is a video shot by my daughter, so forgive the shaky and unscripted camera movements.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwf8kwOvcS8

Looking very good

There is just no real substitute for wfo!

Great stuff on the brick oven, going to look the whole series for shure. Did you make the design by yourself ?

f.montoya · « **Reply #13 on:** January 29, 2013, 05:04:03 AM »

Quote from: Morgan on January 29, 2013, 03:39:55 AM

Looking very good There is just no real substitute for wfo!

Great stuff on the brick oven, going to look the whole series for shure. Did you make the design by yourself ?

Thanks! The design is a modified version of Alan Scott's design found in "The Bread Builders" book. The only thing I changed was putting the wood storage on the side instead of the front. This allowed me to put a support island under the center of the hearth slab, instead of leaving it as a floating hearth supported by only 3/4 inch rebar. I just felt better about that minor modification.

Serpentelli · « **Reply #14 on:** January 29, 2013, 10:04:51 AM »

Quote from: f.montoya on January 29, 2013, 01:03:49 AM

Thanks John. I am looking over their international order form and I don't see anything by the names ischia or camaldoli. Here is their order form in pdf, can you tell me which cultures you'd recommend?

Just get the Italian Combo. It should have both. That's how I ordered it, about 4-5 months ago.
You'll get details on how to activate it from sourdo.com. I got a lot of extra help from the people on this forum as well. Don't be afraid of the need to "wash" it along the way if it starts smelling poorly!

Good luck!

John

Morgan · « **Reply #15 on:** January 29, 2013, 12:22:58 PM »

Quote from: f.montoya on January 29, 2013, 05:04:03 AM

Thanks! The design is a modified version of Alan Scott's design found in "The Bread Builders" book. The only thing I changed was putting the wood storage on the side instead of the front. This allowed me to put a support island under the center of the hearth slab, instead of leaving it as a floating hearth supported by only 3/4 inch rebar. I just felt better about that minor modification.

So you can really call it your own and one of a kind. How much did it cost to build ?

f.montoya · « **Reply #16 on:** January 30, 2013, 07:43:09 AM »

Quote from: Morgan on January 29, 2013, 12:22:58 PM

So you can really call it your own and one of a kind. How much did it cost to build ?

Cost me right around 200,000 yen, or $2400, depending on the exchange rates at the time. Materials are a bit more pricy here in Japan. I'll post pics soon.

f.montoya · « **Reply #17 on:** January 30, 2013, 08:16:08 AM »

Me and my youngest daughter, who loves the pizza oven so much she thinks anything with redbrick is a pizza oven. The chimney actually is a bit higher now that it is complete.

The fire and coals just before cooking the first pizzas on this night.

My eldest daughter making a deluxe pepperoni and black olive pie.

More pics in separate posts since the limit is 128k per post...

f.montoya · « **Reply #18 on:** January 30, 2013, 08:19:43 AM »

More pics...

f.montoya · « **Reply #19 on:** February 01, 2013, 08:12:24 AM »

Quote from: Serpentelli on January 29, 2013, 10:04:51 AM

Just get the Italian Combo. It should have both. That's how I ordered it, about 4-5 months ago.
You'll get details on how to activate it from sourdo.com. I got a lot of extra help from the people on this forum as well. Don't be afraid of the need to "wash" it along the way if it starts smelling poorly!

Good luck!

John

Thanks so much! I will do so. Maybe when Spring rolls around I will get another video up with some pies made from this starter. Looking forward to it!