[Sca-cooks] pizza OOP

[Jeff Gedney]

Olwen writes:
>    I suppose it is two fold.  One is the artist in me.  If it is
>    not attractive I find it very difficult to consider it for eating.
>    IMO food and meals should look appealing.  Colour, texture, size,
>    etc should all lend themselves to that end.

Oh I agree.
Actually my kids have gotten into the act of making pizza, and try to
arrange the ingredients in interesting  patterns. last year, my Youhnges, 9
at the time put on fresh basil, sauce and mozzeral cheese, and called me
over: "Look dad!  tHe Italian Flag!"

>    I suppose
>    the other aspect  of pizza is the grease (which also is a big
contributor
>    to the ugly part).  I simply find it totally unappealling for food to
>    slide down my throat in a wash of grease,which leads to the gag reflex.
>    I have eaten pizza.

Well there is grease and there is grease.
I find that a LOT of the "grease" in we see in pizza is really olive oil,
with tomato as a coloring agent which has "percolated" through the cheese as
the cheese melted, followed by the cheese's own oils. Clearly the
consistency of the Oil on the plate left by pizza is more like Olive oil
than meat grease, and it does not harden as it cools until it is
refrigerated.

I like the richness that the fat (olive and meat) adds to the pizza.

My wife, does not. so I strive for a balance that we both like.
the thicker the crust, too, the more less fat is on the surface, as the
bread absorbs a fair amount of moisture and oil.

(I have one _old_ recipe for pizza which actually says to brush the whole
surface of the cooked pizza with olive oil. James Beard said to at least
brush the crust after baking to soften it)

Brandu