Sour dough starters

[varasano]

I recently tried cheese from MozzNY.com.  Raw it was much better than what I get locally. But cooked it was only a little better.  I was surprised because it seemed very different but then broke down in a similar manner. The actual browning of the cheese that you see in the photo is due to the second kind of dry sliced cheese that I put underneath the sauce.  I do that most times, but not always. I know it's not authentic, but I've enjoyed the change that it's made in my pie.  But I'm going to leave it off when i do some experiments using your recipe. I want to get as close to authentic as possible.

Does anyone know any other place that ships high quality fresh mozz?

Jeff

[pftaylor]

For the past several weeks I have totally eliminated the use of commerical yeast. I have posted numerous photos of the finished product with closeups of the dough before cooking. Bubbles galore. The key is to whip up the biga into a frenzy which eliminates the requirement for a commercial yeast booster.

In fact, When a properly tweaked biga is boosted with commercial yeast, I couldn't control the over generation of bubbles which caused blister holes in the finished crust.

[pam]

Hi PTfTylor

you can probably have a try with this recipe, which I have posted some time ago on an Italian pizza forum:

1650g Caputo 00 Pizzeria
1 lt Water
50g of Criscito (starter) or 2.5g of fresh yeast
45g Sea salt

In baker's percentages:

100% Caputo 00 Pizzeria
60.6% water
3% starter (0.152% fresh yeast)
2.73% sea salt

[Matthew]

Pizza Napoletana,

Thank you for your reply.

While I was awaiting your reply, I did some calculations based on your recipe.
         

Hi Peter,
Where is Marco's recipe that you are referring to posted? 

Matt

[Pete-zza]

Matt,

This is the one I was referring to: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,1415.msg12915.html#msg12915 (Reply 4). You should keep in mind that the recipe was given as a starting point for our members to play with. I have been informed that it is not the dough formulation that Marco himself uses. That remains his secret.

Peter

[Matthew]

Matt,

This is the one I was referring to: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,1415.msg12915.html#msg12915 (Reply 4). You should keep in mind that the recipe was given as a starting point for our members to play with. I have been informed that it is not the dough formulation that Marco himself uses. That remains his secret.

Peter

Thanks Peter,
It's a good starting point.  I am going to play around with it until I get results that I am happy with.  Can't wait for the good weather so that I can start!

Matt

[s00da]

Matt,

I have so far used the Ischia 6 times with amazing results. To me, the most important thing was managing room temp. fermentation. I started with Marco's recipe but then increased hydration and decreased salt. My dough is mixed using room temp. water by gradually adding flour over an approximate 30 mins duration. It is then rested for 25 mins. and then punched and folded for a couple of minutes before placing it in a plastic container. The dough is then fermented for 16 hours at 77 F (after that it will start over-fermenting) until it's then divided to 5 balls that I leave to proof for 4.5 hours before baking.

The pies are coming out very beautiful with a nice char and an amber color. Oven spring is just perfect but I noticed that it had more spring when I use to ferment the dough for 12 hours initially as I was having problems with over-fermentation.

The Ischia flavor is almost undetectable and currently I'm trying to enhance this area by fermenting the dough for longer time in a cooler place that I found at home  72 F should let me shoot for longer time I hope.

Note that I'm replacing 00 with AP flour that's weaker than American AP flour and thus gives the desirable soft pies. We have no Caputo suppliers here but I guess I was lucky with this AP flour.

Below are my current percentages that yield 5 ~250g balls that are stretched to 12" pies:

Total Formula:
Flour (100%):    774.02 g  |  27.3 oz | 1.71 lbs
Water (62.02%):    480.05 g  |  16.93 oz | 1.06 lbs
Salt (1.795%):    13.89 g | 0.49 oz | 0.03 lbs | 2.49 tsp | 0.83 tbsp
Total (163.815%):   1267.97 g | 44.73 oz | 2.8 lbs | TF = 0.079092
Single Ball:   253.59 g | 8.95 oz | 0.56 lbs

Preferment:
Flour:    12 g | 0.42 oz | 0.03 lbs
Water:    12 g | 0.42 oz | 0.03 lbs
Total:    24 g | 0.85 oz | 0.05 lbs

Final Dough:
Flour:    762.02 g | 26.88 oz | 1.68 lbs
Water:    468.05 g | 16.51 oz | 1.03 lbs
Salt:    13.89 g | 0.49 oz | 0.03 lbs | 2.49 tsp | 0.83 tbsp
Preferment:    24 g | 0.85 oz | 0.05 lbs
Total:    1267.97 g | 44.73 oz | 2.8 lbs  | TF = 0.079092

[UnConundrum]

Giovanni mentioned a pending book several times but I don't see it in the list of books in the forum.  Does anyone know if it was ever published?  If so, could you give the details of where to find it?  Thanks.

[Matthew]

Giovanni mentioned a pending book several times but I don't see it in the list of books in the forum.  Does anyone know if it was ever published?  If so, could you give the details of where to find it?  Thanks.

I don't think it was ever completed.

[Pete-zza]

UnConundrum,

I believe that giovanni was referring to the book Classic Sourdoughs, by Ed Wood of Sourdough International. As I was scanning the posts, I saw pizzanapoletana (Marco) make reference to a "book" and, indeed, at one time he contemplated publishing a book, but, alas, it did not materialize. I'm sure that Marco would have informed us of such a momentous event.

Peter

[UnConundrum]

I did get them confused.  Thanks...  It is a shame that book didn't work out