Oil Substitution?

[jabberwalken]

I recently tried both the thin crust and the pan crust recipes on the pizzamaking.com main site. Both crusts turned out wonderfully but I've been wondering what would happen if I subbed in extra virgin olive oil in for the vegetable oil, does anyone know?

I'm assuming the original recipes use vegetable because it has a higher smoking point, am I far off?

[Steve]

No, it's because some people don't like the somewhat pungent flavor of olive oil. I usually use Classico or Light olive oil for making pizza. I avoid Extra Virgin.

[Randy]

No, not at all.  Most of us use Olive oil instaed of vegtable oil.  Try Classico Olice oil instead of extra virgin.  Classico has a much milder flavor than the strong tasting extra virgin.  Available at all grocery stores.

Randy

[Pete-zza]

The choices are plentiful.  If you don't want to use extra-virgin olive oil, you can use the virgin olive oil, as mentioned in previous posts, but you can even use the next grade down, pomace.  And you can combine olive oil with vegetable oil.  Or olive oil with canola oil.  In pretty much any ratio you want. Many professionals use vegetable oil or pomace oil because they use a lot and they are cheaper.

Peter

[giotto]

There is another reason.  Oil, as with sugar, is hydroscopic, which means that it holds in moisture and therefore tenderizes the dough.  This becomes useful with higher gluten doughs.   All oils are not equal in their fat contents.  One top notch pizzeria that I know of uses vegetable shortening in addition to other oils when working with its high gluten flour and attains a texture in its dough that is very easy to work with and exceptional in quality, even though its quantity is similar to others.

[Pete-zza]

Giotto,

Unless I am mistaken, I believe you mean "hygroscopic", not "hydroscopic".  I saw that Peter Reinhart also used the term "hydroscopic" in American Pie--and assumed that he was right and I was wrong--but when I looked the term up in the dictionary, I saw that "hydroscopic" has to do with viewing objects much below the water using an optical device.  When I did a Google search on the term, the search results confirmed that "hygroscopic" is the correct term for describing the characteristic of a material to absorb water.  Maybe somewhere deep in the bowels of a dictionary somewhere, "hydroscopic" passes muster for water absorption, but I couldn't find it .

Peter

[giotto]

Well, back to the baker's toolbox for the ever-so-popular term, Hydroscopic:   http://www.progressivebaker.com/class/section2.htm

Some other common references to Hydroscopic:

http://forums.egullet.com/index.php?showtopic=44840

http://www.library.ubc.ca/ereserve/hunu201/fdmanual/page117.htm

[Pete-zza]

Giotto,

It's really a technical point and not of much consequence.  I had seen the word used by many in the baking profession but when I went looking for it to get a precise technical definition I just couldn't find it in any dictionary with the meaning we want.  I even checked four more dictionaries online this morning and couldn't find the word with the "hygroscopic" meaning.  I also did a Google search basically asking whether there is such a word, and found this: http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen99/gen99896.htm.

I'm glad I raised the point, however, since I like the article at the library.ubc link you provided.  I even bookmarked it in my baking bookmark folder.  Thanks.

Peter