Aiello's of Pittsburgh

[dbgtr]

I'm new to this forum, so if this needs to be moved to a different style section, Admin, go ahead.  I'm trying to replicate the wonderful pizza that I grew up with, made by Joe Aiello at Aiello's Pizza in Pittsburgh.  The crust is on the thin side, and has this great bite, and tender chewiness to it.  Anyone tried it have any suggestions as to how to replicate it?  They use Blodgett ovens with stone bottoms (no screens).

[scott r]

I grew up on Aillo's pizza.  If you can learn to use a pizza stone and peel you can replicate this pizza easily in your home oven.  You need to crank it all the way up to 550 and use a standard NY dough recipe.  The lehmann dough recipe found on this site will get you very close (especially with oil and maybe even a small amount of sugar), but to get it perfect you would unfortunately need to use bromated flour (which is a carcinogen so stay away!).   The hard part is getting all the proofing/dough handling right and that takes lots of practice.  Good luck, and make sure you use 100% provolone like they do!

[dbgtr]

If memory serves, they got away from the brominated flour and were using a good high-gluten one.  Oil sounds right, although not a lot as the dough is tender but not oily the way some doughs can.  My other sense was that they generally don't bake their pies really long, in that there is some carmelizing of the crust, but not much.

[scott r]

From what I have been able to tell 99% of the flour used in mom and pop pizzerias outside of California is unfortunately still bromated AND high gluten.   I hope you are right and they have switched, though.  Unfortunately the dangers are still largely unknown to the general American public.

[dbgtr]

It's entirely possible that I'm wrong about this.  Given the industry's opposition to its ban, citing their reasoning that it converts during baking into potassium bromide, if true this would pose more of a health risk to the baker due to inhaling flour dust than to the consumer.  There was an article not long ago that said Joe used a blend of four different provalones.  Any ideas what that might consist of?  Pennmac only sells a 50/50 blend from Grande.

[scott r]

I could be wrong, too, pizza operators are always changing, but I wanted you to know that switching to high gluten certainly doesn't mean getting rid of bromate!

It is a blend of cheaper "filler" provolone and some of the more pricey aged provolone.  Park provolone is one of the best in the bizz, and you can get it from penn mac on mail order.  Good luck!

[dbgtr]

Scott,

I was recently in the 'burg and noticed Aiellos doesn't have their ovens all the way up.  More like 475?  Does this make sense?

David

[scott r]

I was in NYC this weekend and observed the same thing.  As we all know here good pizza is really more about your technique.  High heat is only need for certain styles, and the typical NY style is not one of them.  As far as I can tell the pittsburgh style of pizza is just pretty much NY style with provolone and lots of love.

[dbgtr]

Scott,

I did an experiment last night that was partially successful.  Here's the breakdown:

Flour (100%)   556.28 g   19.62 oz   1.23 lbs      
Water (62%)   344.89 g  12.17 oz    0.76 lbs      
Salt (1.25%)   6.95 g   0.25 oz   0.02 lbs   1.45 tsp   0.48 tbsp
Oil (.75%)           4.17 g   0.15 oz   0.01 lbs   0.93 tsp   0.31 tbsp
Sugar (.75%)   4.17 g   0.15 oz   0.01 lbs   1.05 tsp   0.35 tbsp
IDY (.25%)           1.39 g   0.05 oz              0.46 tsp   0.15 tbsp
Total (164.75%)   916.47 g   32.33 oz   2.02 lbs   TF = 0.105   
Single Ball   458.24 g   16.16 oz   1.01 lbs      

The dough was kneaded, oiled and put in the fridge for 24 hours.

My oven isn't that great, but what it lacks in speed it makes up for in temperature accuracy.  So I set the oven at 475F.  Like Aiellos, it was sauced light to moderate, and since I didn't have any provalone it was all mozz.  It was baked on a stone. 

The lower temperature moderated the leatheryness of the typical NY pie, as did saucing it as Joe does close to the rim.  What I did find is that I think that Joe doesn't use a cold rise.  The reason I say this is that the dough had a good yeasty flavor that while I like, is not present in the crust of a pie from Aiellos.

What do you think?

David

[scott r]

I am pretty sure he is doing a cold rise.

[dbgtr]

So how do you moderate the yeastyness of the dough?

[Pete-zza]

So how do you moderate the yeastyness of the dough?

David,

With only 0.25% IDY and a 24-hour cold ferment, it is hard to imagine that you would end up with an overtly detectible "yeasty" flavor in the crust. Do you know offhand what kind of yeast Aiello's is using for its dough? Maybe you are getting the "wheat" flavor of the flour. Do you know what type and brand of flour Aiello's is using, and are you using the same flour?

Peter

[dbgtr]

Last time I saw flour it was the All Trumps.  I used KA unbleached bread flour and the fleishman instant rise (bread machine IDY).