Victory Pig Style Pizza - Northeastern PA

[norma427]

I just recalled that NepaBill posted on the boardwalk thread that City Mager in Wilkes Barre sells the 5 lb. blocks of Land O' Lakes cheddar at Reply 755 http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,9068.msg150534.html#msg150534  NepaBill also posted about the same thing at Reply 752 http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,9068.msg150442.html#msg150442

Norma

[mkoss]

Norma,

A while back I bought some pizza and sauce from Pizza L'oven to bring back to Boston. They gave me a cardboard container to carry it in that had Wisconsin cheddar labels but no manufacturer but I think a lot number on it. Probably threw it out but may have held onto it thinking I could track down where it came from. I will look it 

[norma427]

Norma,

A while back I bought some pizza and sauce from Pizza L'oven to bring back to Boston. They gave me a cardboard container to carry it in that had Wisconsin cheddar labels but no manufacturer but I think a lot number on it. Probably threw it out but may have held onto it thinking I could track down where it came from. I will look it

mkoss,

If you find the Wisconsin label I can give you a link so you will know which manufacturer made that cheddar from Pizza L'oven. 

Norma

Edited: 

This is a link that shows how to enable the user to locate and identify the business office and plant location of every licensed dairy plant in Wisconsin.  http://future.aae.wisc.edu/publications/dairyplnt6_01.pdf  There are other links, but right now I don't recall where they are.  Zing knows a lot about different cheeses for pizzas.

If you read Zing's post at Reply 1 http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,29728.msg297699.html#msg297699 you can see the pizza cheese world is very confusing.

Norma

[Joe_C]

An homage to Arcaro & Genell's, Old Forge PA.  Shrimp & Hot Peppers.  Sounds awful, but it's delicious!
By now, I have the crust perfected to where there's "a crunch in every bite".  We are totally enjoying steel_baker's VP recipe and thank him again for the hard work!  Happy New Year to all. 

[Chem1]

Is anyone doing a "group buy" on these pans in the not too distant future?

http://www.paprod.com/pans.html

If so, I would be interested in buying 2 of them.

[steel_baker]

Just in case anyone is curious. Here is my modified dough recipe for high altitude. I had to increase flour & water and completely eliminate the oil. I also use a 50/50 blend of Bread & Self Rising flour. This crust is extremely light & airy, crisps up beautifully & really carries the toppings. The altitude here is just a shade under 7,000' above sea level. It took me over a year to figure out this modified recipe. I had to determine how much to "slow down" the yeast to keep it from rising too fast. Too fast of a rise does not allow the structure of the dough to develop and if baked just falls apart into crumbs. When I first started over a year ago at this altitude, using the low altitude recipe, the dough would fill the pan corner to corner in about 45 minutes. It takes about 3 hours with this modified recipe.

Pizza dough 12x17 pan - High Altitude

Flour       | 100%| 430g
Water      |  70% | 301g
Salt         |  2.0%| 9g
IDY         |  2.3%| 10g
Sugar      |  2.0%| 9g

[steel_baker]

Last evening's tray of red, high altitude dough recipe. Used about 50% more sauce than usual since I had a few extra ozs to use up so it's a bit saucier than usual. Very pleased with the results.

[Joe_C]

Here's a photo of the Victory Pig kitchen, circa 2008.  The restaurant was featured in a local newspaper article.  I thought this pic was interesting so I ordered a high-res copy from the paper.  Owner Mr. Ceccoli is seated far left.  Mrs. Ceccoli is front applying sauce to the pizzas.  Note, this pic appears to show the assembly operation from start to finish.  Starting at upper right, it looks like those ladies pass the dough trays to Mrs. Ceccoli; She applies the sauce;  passes the tray to the boy to her right who applies the cheese and apparently then passes the tray forward to the baking area (not pictured).  Baked trays are passed to where Mr. Ceccoli is seated where they cool on a rack; then passed to the two boys at the wooden table who presumably cut the trays for serving.  Notice the small window located at the back of the boy with the red cap -  This is where trays are passed out into the restaurant/customer area.  You can see a server leaning against the counter waiting for the next tray. 

Another interesting observation is that Genoa Heavy Tomato Puree is evidently a part of their recipe. 

[steel_baker]

Here's a photo of the Victory Pig kitchen, circa 2008.  The restaurant was featured in a local newspaper article.  I thought this pic was interesting so I ordered a high-res copy from the paper.  Owner Mr. Ceccoli is seated far left.  Mrs. Ceccoli is front applying sauce to the pizzas.  Note, this pic appears to show the assembly operation from start to finish.  Starting at upper right, it looks like those ladies pass the dough trays to Mrs. Ceccoli; She applies the sauce;  passes the tray to the boy to her right who applies the cheese and apparently then passes the tray forward to the baking area (not pictured).  Baked trays are passed to where Mr. Ceccoli is seated where they cool on a rack; then passed to the two boys at the wooden table who presumably cut the trays for serving.  Notice the small window located at the back of the boy with the red cap -  This is where trays are passed out into the restaurant/customer area.  You can see a server leaning against the counter waiting for the next tray. 

Another interesting observation is that Genoa Heavy Tomato Puree is evidently a part of their recipe.

Great stuff Joe C. That is interesting about the tomato puree. I've seen a few different versions of their sauce which always seem to include tomato paste, puree, water, etc. I know that the Ceccoli's were, shall we say "thrifty" and so saved on many of their supplies whenever they could. I have a recipe provide by an employee but the hydration appears wrong. It's only 50% hydration and that dough would be far too dry & crumbly at that low a hydration. It appears to be on target with the other ingredients though.

[norma427]

Joe C,

After you posted about the photo you purchased, I looked on Google images for a similar photo.  There appears to be 6 photos (including the better one you posted) at http://citizensvoice.mycapture.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?image=41627847&event=1464320&CategoryID=48892 

I soon would like to give steel_baker's excellent formulation a try again.

Norma

[Joe_C]

Great stuff Joe C. That is interesting about the tomato puree. I've seen a few different versions of their sauce which always seem to include tomato paste, puree, water, etc. I know that the Ceccoli's were, shall we say "thrifty" and so saved on many of their supplies whenever they could. I have a recipe provide by an employee but the hydration appears wrong. It's only 50% hydration and that dough would be far too dry & crumbly at that low a hydration. It appears to be on target with the other ingredients though.

I'm not surprised that they would use Genoa products since that company is the leading supplier in the area.  I'm a little thrown off by the tomato puree though; my recollection of VP sauce is that it is actually a bit chunky and even has pieces of tomato in it.  Puree would be just completely saucy, right?  As you suggest, they likely use some sort of combination.  In addition to the Genoa puree can in the photo, notice the can of water to the right of the large stainless steel bowl.  I'd guess that she periodically replenishes the bowl with measures of puree, water and maybe crushed tomatoes(?). 

For us, it's all academic at this point.  You've cracked the code for the perfect home-made version, no doubt.

Meanwhile, a couple of other things of note in the picture:  The boy with the black cap standing at the wooden table.  In front of him is a stainless steel cutting template into which they place the pizza pies for perfect sized cuts every time.  I'll bet that's a custom-made item.   The other thing, in front of Mr. Ceccoli, note the cooling rack.  For my home version, I've found that cooling on a rack for a couple of minutes before cutting is key to maintaining the crispiness of the bottom crust.  Before using a rack, I noticed that placing an oven-hot pie immediately on a flat surface seemed to result in steam taking away from the crispiness.  Recall that, occasionally you would get a less crispy tray from VP.  That might have been attributed to their busiest hours when pies weren't allowed to cool sufficiently before moving over to the cutting table. 

[steel_baker]

Meanwhile, a couple of other things of note in the picture:  The boy with the black cap standing at the wooden table.  In front of him is a stainless steel cutting template into which they place the pizza pies for perfect sized cuts every time.  I'll bet that's a custom-made item.   The other thing, in front of Mr. Ceccoli, note the cooling rack.  For my home version, I've found that cooling on a rack for a couple of minutes before cutting is key to maintaining the crispiness of the bottom crust.  Before using a rack, I noticed that placing an oven-hot pie immediately on a flat surface seemed to result in steam taking away from the crispiness.  Recall that, occasionally you would get a less crispy tray from VP.  That might have been attributed to their busiest hours when pies weren't allowed to cool sufficiently before moving over to the cutting table.

Yes, the cooling rack serves two purposes; 1) to maintain crispiness when the pizza comes out of the oven, & 2) to reclaim the leftover oil from the pans. Further up in this thread, there is a posting from a former employee at Pizza L'Oven confirms the techniques & ingredients used to make this pizza. I believe it is post #13. Don't know quite how to copy & paste it into this reply but it's there. He explains the cooling rack & oil reclamation.

[Pete-zza]

steel_baker,

This is Reply 13: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,13048.msg142525.html#msg142525

An easy way to post a link to a selected post is to 1) click on the topic heading of the selected post, 2) right click on it as it appears in the address bar and select Copy, and 3) in the spot in the post where you want to insert the link, right click and select Copy. You can also use Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V keyboard commands as an alternative method. To make sure that the copied link is properly imbedded in the post, I suggest that you highlight the link and click on the Insert Hyperlink button. That button appears below the letter B in the group of buttons that appear above the emoticons.

Peter

[steel_baker]

Thanks Pete. Good info.

[norma427]

steel_baker,

I attempted another Victory Pig pizza today.  I didn't have peanut oil to oil the pan so I used Grape Seed Oil.  I don't know if my crust rose too much in the proof.  The bottom crust was crisp this time.  My family really liked this attempt.

I mixed the dough after lunch.  This sure was an easy dough to proof at room temperature.

Thanks!

Norma

Edit:  I couldn't find my slicer to slice the cheddar, so I had to use my mandolin.  The slices were not very even.

[steel_baker]

Looks good Norma. After my dough goes into the pan, it just sits all day at room temp. I make my dough by 9AM and bake pizza at 6PM so over the course of the day, it fills the pan corner to corner. Then I knock it down, top it, and bake it.

[norma427]

Looks good Norma. After my dough goes into the pan, it just sits all day at room temp. I make my dough by 9AM and bake pizza at 6PM so over the course of the day, it fills the pan corner to corner. Then I knock it down, top it, and bake it.

steel_baker,

I didn't knock the dough down.  I guess that was one of my problems.

Norma

This was when I put the dough in the steel pan.

[steel_baker]

Yes, knock it down just before topping. It will keep the thickness down a bit & the oven spring will take care of the rest.

[norma427]

Yes, knock it down just before topping. It will keep the thickness down a bit & the oven spring will take care of the rest.

steel_baker,

I don't how I missed the part about knocking the proofed dough before adding the sauce and cheese.  I will do better for the next attempt.

Norma

[steel_baker]

I used to think that I needed to leave the dough raised when I topped it. I realized then that it was coming out too thick so I started knocking it down before topping it. That gave it the correct VP thickness.