John Arena and Peter Reinhart
John Arena wrote an article about pizza dough making for Peter Reinhart’s Pizza Quest. I was so moved by the incredibly useful information shared in this piece, I felt I need to respond.
John is a master pizza maker but at the same time a student of pizza. Although he has been making pizza for over 50 years, John maintains he is still learning about the process. FYI: John and his cousin Sam are the owners of Metro Pizza. located in Las Vegas, Nevada.
John’s article called the “Do’s and Doughn’ts” is filled with an incredible amount of useful information for any pizza maker
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John starts out by explaining you need to know what is the goal of your pizza making. What are you trying to achieve. Once you have your target down you will be easily be able to set your goal.
Next he states you need to realize that every step you take in the dough making process can change your result. you need to be careful he cautions. He also recommends getting a copy of Peter Reinhart’s “The Bread Maker’s Apprentice. I have a copy of this incredible book. I refer to it as the “Bible of Bread”. you can discover incredible tips and tricks for making breads of all kinds as well as pizza dough.
Finally John implores you to throw out your measuring spoons and measuring cups. This is an advanced baking technique. To get accurate consistency in your dough making, you need to do what the professional bakers do: they weigh out all of their ingredients. John states you need to be totally consistent with your dough so that it will turn out the same, each time you create dough.
This is something I have been doing in my own dough making. For years all of my pizza dough ingredients were measured out. Now I use a food scale to make all of my pizza. I will say I have noticed quite a different in my pizza. Understand, not that there was anything wrong with it before, but by using a scale I have been able to make a dough which comes out the exact same every time I make pizza.
John also gives he personal advice on the cold ferment method of making dough. He explains about the autolyze aspect of creating dough. He also touches on the use of salt and why he uses fresh yeast.
Here is a video review of the article.
You can read the rest of the article here: “Do’s and Doughn’ts.
Visit John Arena at:
Metro Pizza
1395 East Tropicana Avenue
Las Vegas, Nevada
Tropicana & Maryland Parkway
Phone: (702) 736-1955And various other locations.
Learn to make pizza with Peter Reinhart! Free Pizza Making Class with Peter Reinhart
Check out Peter’s incredible book:
Here is the scale that I now use to make all of my pizza dough.
