Is this Aldean (Aldine?) Stoudamire's Pizzeria Uno recipe from 1987?

[vcb]

Hello, fellow deep dish pizza-holics! (Hello, I'm Ed and I am a Pizza-holic. HI ED!!)
I'm in the process of writing a new series of posts for my website at RealDeepDish.com
and while doing some research, I stumbled on this post I thought you all might be interested in, which claims to be the recipe published in 1987 for the original Pizzeria Uno deep dish pizza, as provided by Aldean Stoudamire, who prepared pizzas at Pizzeria Uno since the late 1950's until she finally retired as head chef in 1996. I don't know if any of you have seen this yet, so I'm posting the link here & I'll add the text from the recipe to the end of this post.

http://www.justapinch.com/recipe/deb-crane/deep-dish-pizza-chicago-style-unos-recipe/chicken-for-kids

Photo of Aldean from 1976 (And a mostly accurate article on Deep Dish pizza; Phil Vettel spells her name "Aldine", incorrectly describes deep dish crust as thick):
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-chicagodays-pizzeriauno-story,0,6607114.story

Other Thread on Aldean, where The Sun Times interviews her in 2006 (and she tells it like it is!):
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=2856.0

-- Deep Dish Pizza Chicago-style UNO'S recipe - originally posted at Justapinch.com by Deb Crane --
http://www.justapinch.com/recipe/deb-crane/deep-dish-pizza-chicago-style-unos-recipe/chicken-for-kids

Deb's Notes:
Famous UNO'S restaurant in Chicago published Aldean Stoudamire's pizza recipe back in 1987. This is as close as you can get to a "real" Chicago style stuffed pizza! I made a cardinal sin with the pictures....I used sauce instead of canned tomatoes. A BIG no-no, but I really craved making one! To be a true pizza, use the canned tomatoes. I will take pictures the next time I make one with the way the "sauce" should be. (sorry Mama Aldean!)
I get requests to make this pizza, as it doesnt get much better then this! (short of going to Chicago)

Ingredients
olive oil (amount unspecified -ed.)
1 pkg    active dry yeast
1 c    warm water (110-155 degrees)
3- 3 1/2 c    ap flour
1/3 c    cooking oil
12 oz    sliced mozzarella cheese
1/2 lb    mild italian sausage, cooked, and crumbled
14 oz    can whole pear or plum tomatoes, drained
1 tsp    oregano, dried, crushed
1 tsp    dried basil, crushed
1/4 c    parmesan cheese
   sliced mushrooms, optional
   chopped green pepper, optional
   toppings of your choice, optional

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
You will need a deep dish at least 2 inches deep. You can also use a heavy 10x2 inch round cake pan or a 10 inch spring form pan. Which ever pan you use, brush olive oil generously around the whole pan.

2) In a large bowl, sprinkle yeast into warm water. Stir until dissolved. Stir in 1 1/2 cups of the flour, the 1/3 cup cooking oil and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
Beat at low speed 30 seconds,scraping bowl often.
Stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can.

3) Cover the dough and let rise in a warm place till doubled. Beat down. Let rest for 5 minutes.

4) Turn dough into pan. Using oiled hands, spread dough evenly over bottom and partially up sides of pan. Cover, let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes.

5) Arrange cheese slices in 1/4 inch thick layer on dough.
Gently press sausage on cheese.
Using hands, gently crush tomatoes into small pieces atop sausage.
Sprinkle with herbs and Parmesan.

6) Bake in a 500 degree oven for about 25 minutes to 30 minutes or until edges of the crust are crisp and golden brown.
If desired, add mushrooms and green pepper during the last few minutes of baking.

7) Let the pizza stand for 5-10 minutes before cutting. (this is the hardest part!)

ANOTHER CHEAT NOTE:
If you dont have the time to make this crust, I did come up with an alternative using the bread machine.

If you want to use the bread machine:
2 3/4 Cups AP flour
1/3 Cup olive oil
1 Cup hot water (110-115 degrees)
2 teaspoons yeast
Add the ingredients to the bread machine and put it on dough setting. Then put in the prepared pan and let rise again. Then follow the rest of the above instructions.

9) This is a serious recipe. It is well worth the effort as it is as close to the real thing as you can get at home. As I have said, I used a sauce in the pictures.... this is a no-no! Use the tomatoes and you will be in heaven!

I'd appreciate some feedback on this recipe.
At first glance, it looks like the dough recipe is more suited for a 12 inch pan than the 10 inch pan they suggest.

I would recommend avoiding her bread machine shortcut, as the "dough setting" on most bread machines would over-knead a deep dish dough, and you're really not saving much time.

They recommend crumbling and pre-cooking the sausage? Interesting. Well, the sausage patty version was originally a Gino's thing, right?

[Pizzamaster]

3 1/2 cups flour for a 10 inch pizza? Seems a bit much.

[BTB]

Ed, I think this is just one of the dozens and dozens of the Uno's "copy-cat" recipes haunting the threads of so many cooking/recipe websites on the internet.  Flour, water, non-instant yeast, oil and salt . . . well one is in the ball park and definitely on their way to getting close to one of the greatest pizza crusts in the history of Chicago Style pizza.  But like in horseshoes, not close enough. What kind of flour would they have used in the late 40's?  (Or flour combination?)  What kind of oil? 
 
You, I and others have been working on this for a while.  What was the general kind of flour available in the 40s and 50's.  Was AP flour a general staple then?  One of our members thought maybe it was cake flour, but my experiments showed that to be a total no-no IMO.  But the Uno's "franchise" frozen deep dish pizzas indicated cake flour as an ingredient on their packages.  But then again, the Uno's franchise Chicago style deep dish pizzas tasted NOTHING like the original Uno's and Due's.
 
What kind of oil would they have used back in the 40s and 50s?  Was vegetable oil with it's modern day component being primarily soy bean oil in existence back then?  Olive oil seems to be the most natural for use on a pizza then. Or were there other varieties?  All being a mystery that many would love to solve.
 
Regarding the alleged cook's recipe, I hadn't noticed anything clearly indicating that it was really from her.  Seems like "third-party" hearsay.  And she and some of the other cooks would never, never have indicated "cooked sausage" because all the classic Chicago Style deep dish (as well as thin crust) pizzerias never put on anything other than uncooked sausage (because the end product tasted much better that way).  Deb Crane's link that you provided said:  "Famous UNO'S restaurant in Chicago published Aldean Stoudamire's pizza recipe back in 1987."  That is very puzzling and I very seriously doubt that the Uno's Restaurant organization would have ever published their crust recipe back then as it was a multi-million dollar business not to be jeopardized by giving out their formula to everyone!
 
I used to frequent Louisa De Genero's famous pizzeria (http://www.louisaspizza.com/Home.html) in Crestwood, IL (a far south suburban deep dish pizzeria).  Louisa passed away recently, but she, too, worked as a primary pizza cook at Uno's for several decades before she opened up her extremely successful and highly rated deep dish pizzeria on her own back in the 80's or 90's.  One day long ago while I was sitting at her bar waiting on one of her great pizzas for pick-up, I mentioned to her that while her pizza was indeed great, it wasn't exactly like the Uno's crust I frequently had.  She quickly said something like . . . well all the cooks and staff are under restrictions and agreements not to use the same recipe, but her variation was close enough.  After thinking about it for a while, my guess would be that she and the other Uno's/Due's cooks (including Aldean Stoudamire) would have been under some sort of "confidentiality/non-disclosure agreement" restricting their ability to give out the real recipe.  But they could give out misleading, general ingredient "copy-cat" formulations, I guess.
 
The Phil Vettel article could mislead people into thinking it was published on December 3, 1943 but the article obviously talks about events and occurrences many years thereafter.  After thinking about it, I assumed that the date was originally part of the article's title, but my guess is that it was published some 40 to 50 years after that date.
 
And after my consuming pizzas at or from Uno's and Due's probably hundreds of times, I am absolutely in agreement with those who say that the Boston corporation substantially changed the recipe for the worse.  The Due's staff that I knew indicated that the Boston group thought pizza crust wasn't anything special and that they could easily duplicate or make "something close" that would be adequate.  But I was told by some in the old staff that the original crust formulation and recipe was NOT part of the purchase deal with the Boston group and that the Boston group could care less about it as they thought . . . crust is crust and was easy to make.  But they couldn't have been more wrong.
 
Lastly, the picture of the pizza that Deb Crane made shows an atypical Chicago Style Uno's deep dish pizza in that they almost never made a pizza with a fat "lip" or rim.  Their style was much like Lou Malnati's in that the edge of the crust was tightly pressed or crimped up against the edge of the pans, as is shown in the many TV programs about their pizza.  That way the crust usually turns out crispier and tastier instead of bread-like.  But I'm sure the alleged "copy-cat" recipe didn't stress that point so Deb Crane just put the dough in the pan without knowledge of further details.                        --BTB 

[vcb]

Ed, I think this is just one of the dozens and dozens of the Uno's "copy-cat" recipes haunting the threads of so many cooking/recipe websites on the internet.  Flour, water, non-instant yeast, oil and salt . . . well one is in the ball park and definitely on their way to getting close to one of the greatest pizza crusts in the history of Chicago Style pizza.  But like in horseshoes, not close enough. What kind of flour would they have used in the late 40's?  (Or flour combination?)  What kind of oil? 
 
You, I and others have been working on this for a while.  What was the general kind of flour available in the 40s and 50's.  Was AP flour a general staple then?  One of our members thought maybe it was cake flour, but my experiments showed that to be a total no-no IMO.  But the Uno's "franchise" frozen deep dish pizzas indicated cake flour as an ingredient on their packages.  But then again, the Uno's franchise Chicago style deep dish pizzas tasted NOTHING like the original Uno's and Due's.

All purpose flour was available back in the 40's. Hecker's and Ceresota brands had been around since the mid/late 1800's.
Ceresota is the brand I try to use when making deep dish.

What kind of oil would they have used back in the 40s and 50s?  Was vegetable oil with it's modern day component being primarily soy bean oil in existence back then?  Olive oil seems to be the most natural for use on a pizza then. Or were there other varieties?  All being a mystery that many would love to solve.

Soybean and Canola oils seem to be a more recent cost-cutting measure.
My best guess would be Corn Oil or Palm Oil (saturated fat didn't have as bad of a rap back then), with the possible addition of Olive Oil.
Cottonseed oil (Crisco, also original formulation for Wesson) was also available in the 40's.

Regarding the alleged cook's recipe, I hadn't noticed anything clearly indicating that it was really from her.  Seems like "third-party" hearsay.  And she and some of the other cooks would never, never have indicated "cooked sausage" because all the classic Chicago Style deep dish (as well as thin crust) pizzerias never put on anything other than uncooked sausage (because the end product tasted much better that way).  Deb Crane's link that you provided said:  "Famous UNO'S restaurant in Chicago published Aldean Stoudamire's pizza recipe back in 1987."  That is very puzzling and I very seriously doubt that the Uno's Restaurant organization would have ever published their crust recipe back then as it was a multi-million dollar business not to be jeopardized by giving out their formula to everyone!

Yeah, I spent a little time trying to find the original article from 1987 online, but so far, I haven't found it. There's a lot of web pages out there referring to articles on deep dish pizza, but failing to mention which one, or referring to something out of print that we probably have to search for in a library microfilm archive. I've been trying to find a copy of the 1956 Chicago Daily News article that many sites refer to that says Rudy Malnati invented the recipe for deep dish pizza, but they don't even post the exact date of the article.

I used to frequent Louisa De Genero's famous pizzeria (http://www.louisaspizza.com/Home.html) in Crestwood, IL (a far south suburban deep dish pizzeria).  Louisa passed away recently, but she, too, worked as a primary pizza cook at Uno's for several decades before she opened up her extremely successful and highly rated deep dish pizzeria on her own back in the 80's or 90's.  One day long ago while I was sitting at her bar waiting on one of her great pizzas for pick-up, I mentioned to her that while her pizza was indeed great, it wasn't exactly like the Uno's crust I frequently had.  She quickly said something like . . . well all the cooks and staff are under restrictions and agreements not to use the same recipe, but her variation was close enough.  After thinking about it for a while, my guess would be that she and the other Uno's/Due's cooks (including Aldean Stoudamire) would have been under some sort of "confidentiality/non-disclosure agreement" restricting their ability to give out the real recipe.  But they could give out misleading, general ingredient "copy-cat" formulations, I guess.
 
The Phil Vettel article could mislead people into thinking it was published on December 3, 1943 but the article obviously talks about events and occurrences many years thereafter.  After thinking about it, I assumed that the date was originally part of the article's title, but my guess is that it was published some 40 to 50 years after that date.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Phil Vettel wasn't alive in 1943. That was one of those "This Day in History" kind of articles. I can see how that could be confusing.
 

And after my consuming pizzas at or from Uno's and Due's probably hundreds of times, I am absolutely in agreement with those who say that the Boston corporation substantially changed the recipe for the worse.  The Due's staff that I knew indicated that the Boston group thought pizza crust wasn't anything special and that they could easily duplicate or make "something close" that would be adequate.  But I was told by some in the old staff that the original crust formulation and recipe was NOT part of the purchase deal with the Boston group and that the Boston group could care less about it as they thought . . . crust is crust and was easy to make.  But they couldn't have been more wrong.
 
Lastly, the picture of the pizza that Deb Crane made shows an atypical Chicago Style Uno's deep dish pizza in that they almost never made a pizza with a fat "lip" or rim.  Their style was much like Lou Malnati's in that the edge of the crust was tightly pressed or crimped up against the edge of the pans, as is shown in the many TV programs about their pizza.  That way the crust usually turns out crispier and tastier instead of bread-like.  But I'm sure the alleged "copy-cat" recipe didn't stress that point so Deb Crane just put the dough in the pan without knowledge of further details.                        --BTB 

I noticed the 'fat lip' on the photo too, which, for me, was another give-away that the recipe was too much dough for a 10 inch pan.
Still, it would be interesting to convert that into baker's percentages and see where it falls in line with some of our popular dough formulations. 

[vcb]

Found another article from Phil Vettel from 1993 (50th Anniversary of Pizzeria Uno)
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1993-04-16/entertainment/9304160144_1_pizzeria-uno-deep-dish-pizza-uno-pizza

I love how Aldean's pizzas were all made without a written recipe!

Aldean is no secret to the Pizzeria Uno faithful. To them, employees and customers alike, she's "Momma," a title that commands respect and affection. There are other cooks in the kitchen, other prep workers. Yet there is no doubt that every Uno pizza is one of Momma's.

Uno's pizza is an intensely personal work, made by hand and proportioned by feel. In all their years, the cooks at Pizzeria Uno and Pizzeria Due (the sister restaurant, younger by 14 years and a block away) have never used a written recipe-a fact that severely complicated matters when, in 1979, Ike Sewell agreed to franchise his concept.

"It was a nightmare," jokes Page Townsley, now general manager of Uno and Due. "We'd ask how much dough to use, and they'd pick up some and say, `About like that.' We'd ask how much water to add to the flour, and they'd say, `Just fill it up to the scratch on the bowl.' "

Eventually, a team of workers followed Stoudamire and Elnora Russell (Stoudamire's now-retired counterpart at Pizzeria Due) around the kitchen, piecing together the recipe by watching Stoudamire and Russell in action.