scott123,
I completely share your vision of what a NY style, and especially a NY "street" or "slice" style, should be and look like. That wasn't always the case. For example, when I first started the Lehmann NY thread, without any real firsthand knowlege of the NY style, I made pizzas with large rims and the crusts were not particularly thin (being a novitiate, I was operating off of general thickness factor values that Tom Lehmann and Big Dave Ostrander discussed in articles). Then I was told by members who lived and grew up in NYC that NY style pizzas do not have large rims and also that they tend to the light side in terms of crust color. What I eventually discovered is that our members favor large rims with open and airy crumbs and with a lot of bubbles and fermentation blisters and a lot of crust color, including a decent amount of char. And a more artisan appearance, maybe more along the lines of the NY elite style, and often requiring unique oven configurations beyond a standard home oven with a simple pizza stone. Although I personally like a somewhat thicker crust for the NY style in my home oven and arrangement, over time I have steered others to lower thickness factor values that are more representative of the NY style.
What I would personally like to see is an 18" NY street or slice style pizza in the classic mold--and baked on a stone surface. Although I once said that 16" was a common NYC size, which I confirmed by looking at the menus of some of the more popular NYC pizza shops, I was told by members in the know that the most common sizes are 14" and 18". If a member can come up with a great looking photo of a real 14", 16" or 18" NYC street or slice style pizza, preferably along with a dough formulation that is detailed enough for our members to use, I would consider adding it to the links to photos in Reply 5 in this thread.
Peter
