Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana Dough formula Vs. Everything else

[Darren K]

Hi all, I have been enjoying a Pizza Party oven now for 3 years. As mainly a lurker on the forum when I first received the oven I tried several different dough recipe's, yeast amounts, hydration levels, Short Vs. Long Fermentations.... etc. etc.  Always having some decent success, some better than others... but never amazing. One day I found this page on the interweb and did my best to duplicate it exactly as written with the tools I had, Pies turned out to be about the best using this method and I have continued to use for the last 2 summers. ( I assume this is the real recipe and technique )

https://www.pizzanapoletana.org/public/pdf/disciplinare%202008%20UK.pdf

My question to you all, if this is the VPN standard that I believe most of us are trying to duplicate, Why stray so far from the original formula with different yeasts, starters, Hydration levels, fermentation times etc. I Guess what I am trying to ask is, Other than for the sake of experimenting what is everyone trying to achieve by swaying from the original VPN formula.

Thanks

Darren

[Bill/SFNM]

My question to you all, if this is the VPN standard that I believe most of us are trying to duplicate, Why stray so far from the original formula with different yeasts, starters, Hydration levels, fermentation times etc. I Guess what I am trying to ask is, Other than for the sake of experimenting what is everyone trying to achieve by swaying from the original VPN formula.

"Standard" doesn't mean "best". Many pizzerias in Naples stray from the VPN standard for ... a better pizza. Home pizza makers don't have to run a profitable commercial enterprise nor do they have to pump out hundreds of uniform pizzas per day. So they are free to forge their own path and cater to their own tastes for ... a better pizza. For my tastes using the equipment and ingredients I have access to, I think the VPN standard produces an inferior pizza.

Do you think the pizzas you have been making the past 2 summers are the best you can possibly make?

[parallei]

Well said, Bill.

[crawsdaddy]

Well said, Bill.

[Yael]

I would add that they cannot put the bar too high, meaning: do you think that if the VPN procedure was a complicated one with preferment and long 48H RTF and stuff it could be replicated easily? Don't forget there's a huge communication plan behind, they want to promote the culture worldwide etc., so they can't set it too hard otherwise it won't spread as easily as they hope. Well, this is what I assume 

[Heikjo]

VPN is primarily a business thing, not a recipe perfected for taste. There are lots of traditional recipes that can be improved.