2:00 if you freeze this stuff and defrost it you will see there is significant water separation (this can be good if you wanna discard the water, sauce will be richer)
There is a secret about Stanislaus tomatoes. The alta cucinas are the first picks from the field when harvested. The alta cucinas are always the best canned tomatoes you can get.
I gotta say, this is a cooks channel. I’m not saying people who don’t cook that much can’t enjoy but I am the cook at my house and this is how I think. Why does this taste this way, what would happen is I changed this? Always trying to discover a perfect flavor in my mind that no one gets! Lol I gets that normal people may not think that way but I appreciate insane work in detail that you do and love the passion
Something that wasn't mentioned - For a thin crust pizza, cooking the sauce will significantly help with a crisp crust. Less water content helps a lot to reduce a floppy dough.
Put the pizza on a nonstick pan on the stovetop burner. Remember, NY style pizza slices sit out on display, and then they get popped back in the oven for a quick bit when you buy them. Better yet, from the start, cook your pizza in the pan on the burner and brown the bottom, finishing it off in the oven on broil on a sheet pan or steel on a low rack. Keep the pan on the heat on the stovetop. Right before pulling out the pizza when the top has reached your desired doneness, turn off the stovetop burner but leave the pan on it. Slice the pizza, then put the slices back in the pan to rest, instead of on the cutting board, a plate, or a rack. Guaranteed crispy crust, regardless of the sauce and cheese quantity.
Ive been watching your deep dives into pizza and love them. One video I saw for sauce (not yours) the guy strained uncooked hand crushed good quality tomatoes through a sieve to keep them less watery. This is what I have been doing with great results. I keep the left over tomato water and add it to my spaghetti sauce so I dont waste the good tomatoes. Thanks for the entertainment.
@@CharlieAndersonCooking 02:00 Why are you freezing the sauce for only two days? The sauce can be refrigerated for two days without a problem. How bizarre!
Lately, I have been extremely surprised at --- Walmart. Their canned crushed tomatoes are unbelievable, at around $1.30 per can they are also a great deal. They are a bit more liquid (I don't think they use Roma-derived tomatoes) but unbelievably sweet and with a lot of tomato taste. I grow tomatoes so I have a good understanding of the range of tastes. Try them out and tell me what you think.
I just bought a NUWAVE induction cooktop and it is awesome. The digital display shows the temperature and the even heating is awesome. It is great for simmering sauces or braising meat.
Queens NYC resident here. My neighborhood is old Italian/Greek so I've learned a thing or two. Nearly every joint around here uses a cooked sauce. I don't know anything about "Detroit" style but if it's a spinoff of our Sicilian or Gramma Style then the sauce is cooked long. The best places cook down the tomatoes and add some ingredients (never any dry herbs! or tomato paste!). Imagine a focaccia style crust, browned perfectly with lots of delicious imported olive oil, at least two kinds of cheeses. The end result is an unbelievably delicious slice that will stick in your head for all of eternity.
If you ever get a chance, go to Detroit and have some of their pizza. Oh man, so good. I'm not saying one type of pizza or the other is better, but just try it if you get the chance. Just wow.
@@Heymrk I’m totally down for trying any style of pizza. From the videos it looks tasty. The only Detroit style I’m aware of is Little Caesar’s which I might have tried in the 1980s but can’t remember or it just wasn’t memorable.
There’s a place in Washington DC called Red Light Pizza that serves Detroit style. I love all good pizza but generally prefer Neapolitan or NY style with a Neapolitan style Margherita my hands down favorite both to eat and make. That said last summer I had a Detroit style pizza at the Red Light, my first, and it was easily some of the best pizza I’ve ever had bar none. Although it’s a deep-dish, pan style pizza it was impossibly light with a nice crisp to the crust and perfect char around the edges. It’s a substantial slice but so all-around light to be almost delicate and not the least bit oily or greasy. If you get to the DC area give it a try, I live in California and I would plan a weekend trip there just to get a slice! ;)
Great video! I like your scientific and testing approach! I've been making pizza on Fridays for years and in my sauce, I add fennel seeds to hot oil in the saucepan until fragrant (5-10 seconds), then pour the blended tomatoes in. I usually cook between 30 and 60 minutes. The cooking softens the fennel seeds as well.
Having worked at a pizzeria before, the combination of crushed tomatoes and a little tomato paste helped increase the tomato concentration and thicken the sauce. But like the crushed tomatoes, not all tomato pastes are created equal…
This is why for my homemade sauce I reduce half my tomato sauce in the oven low and slow over the course of six to eight hours. I throw in shallots, garlic, ect... And create a flavor bomb that I then marry with a five to ten minute simmered fresh sauce with fresh basil and oregano. It's bright, acidic, fresh, fragrant, but also deep, earthy, and complex.
I might actually try that. I've had Great Results with tinny bit of high quality tomato paste and fresh herbs mixed into uncooked tomatoes. Like said above. For Newyork style
That’s the best tomato by far. Only lift the whole tomatoes out of the can, shake off the excess sauce, and grate them with a small cheese grater. You’re really only after the flesh for the best sauce of any kind.
The pursuit of the perfect home style Detroit pizza is the pursuit of the divine. Also, here's a trick I picked up a really long time ago. I think it was on the pizza making forums when they were new. It was to put your sauce together, then split it into two parts. One a little more than the other. Set the smaller amount aside. Cook the larger amount. Not to paste, but definitely more than you would want your pizza sauce cooked. Then combine them. It's NOT The same as cooking the whole batch halfway.
That is actually a very interesting idea, pizza making forums is the be all... end all... of pizza quests. That site has helped me so much I just can't say enough good things about it.
@@_-JR01 That's entirely dependent on your preference, and based on how watery or sauces to start with. For me, with the crushed tomatoes I use, It's closer to 60/40. Best thing to do is start at 50/50 and adjust from there.
I had a patient we had in the past tell me that best brand he found was Mutti It's at the local Italian Store nearby, I tried it, and the sauce was delicious. I'll have to check this one out too. Thanks.
Dude idk why but the Mutti at my place is almost tasteless versus when I’ve made from scratch cherry tomato pizza sauce I’ve had taste. Great taste. Just cnt get the taste on Mutti right for whatever reason
Begin from Detroit, living two blocks away from Louies, and having Jets and Buddies everwhere I can say cooking the sauce for me is mandatory. Subbed, thumbs up, Im liking what I see here. Add small amount of Fennel to the sauce, at least for me thats Jets secret.
The alta cuchina sauce is the best. I hand crush mine and freeze it in mason jars at a proper size that I use for the pizza. The only downside is you loose that bite when you bite into a chunky piece. It's really not bad, you still get the flavor bomb when you bite one. Another plus to freezing is when you take it out to slow thaw, the water separates and floats on the top. With the tomato still frozen, just spill out the water and you now have a more concentrated sauce without having to cook it.
Charlie, I am so glad that I came across your videos and sub'd. Dude these Alta Cucina tomatoes are absolutely next level. They are by far the best tomatoes for pizzas. I made 3 different pizzas and brought friends over for each type of pizza which were detroit stye, new york style, and neapolitan pizzas. I used my old go to tomatoes for my pizzas which were a san marzano tomatoe and one with the Alta Cucina. I even made a raw, and a slightly cooked version, same ingredients (salt, sugar, oregano, and one garlic clove) and same cook time of 10 minutes. I really do not like cooked sauce much but I will say, the Alta Cucina's completely stole the show. Not just on one pizza but all them. Every single person loved them and the funny part was that we liked the cooked version on the Detroit style pizzas but the raw on the new york and neapolitan pizzas. It's a bummer they come in the big #10 cans but I froze the remainder of the tomatoes. I can't wait to try them in other dishes now. Again, I really appreciate you bringing them up on your video. Game changer for sure.
The ultimate budget version is gonna be 100% tomato paste + water. To bring in that fresh tomato acidity, add citric acid (and malic if you have it). Just test it between tiny pinches until it tastes right for you. Optionally, add a small amount of sugar if the paste doesn't start out sweet enough. You can even do this trick for pasta, in which case I recommend adding a splash of apple cider vinegar or balsamic to make it taste a lot like it has wine in it (before adjusting with acid & sugar).
@@BlackJesus8463Yeah, whether it's a good fit for you is gonna depend on your budget and preferences. I just wanted to point out that it's not necessary to buy the expensive tomatoes if that's feeling like a barrier to good sauce.
@@railasvuo The Alta Cucina tomatoes range $10-20 per can. For me, tomato paste is $1. Cheaper whole tomatoes exist near that price, but they usually taste worse than the paste trick.
thank you for the sauce recipe. i have been struggling with the sauce for months. never knew it was as easy as just buying a specific brand of canned and just lightly spicing it and simmering. really awesome stuff and you definitely elevated my pizza to a way better level
You should try the "Pizzaiolo" sauce that Stanislaus makes. It may be very close to what you're looking for. I love it for my NY style pies. I'm from California but was visiting my daughter who lives in Brooklyn last week. We went to a pizza place that was delicious and I noticed they had Alta Cucina, 7/11, Tomato Magic and Pizzaiolo - maybe they make a blend using all those? Also congrats on hitting 100K.
I always throw a splash of wine and a dash of sugar into my crushed tomatoes, salt to taste and that is all the raw sauce I ever need. Good video, thanks for the info.
I've been making my detroit style pizzas with beer dough for a while now, and it adds crazy good flavor. Idk if you ferment your detroit style pizza dough but if you don't then it's a quick way to add a similar flavor. Credits to Brian Lagerstrom for the idea but he used it in a cast iron pizza
Recently I've been creating pizza sauces with some home grown san marzano tomatoes. With fresh tomatoes you really need to reduce them for a while to get the flavor (and color) where you want it to be. I over reduce the sauce slightly and then add a couple fresh tomatoes at the end to add some more liquid and add some of that acidity back.
@@BlackJesus8463 I don’t know if the actual acids are going away. I think the heat just breaks down more complex sugars so it tastes sweeter and that dominates the flavor. But yea for a pizza sauce I’d prefer to cook it over adding sugar.
hey bud, you don't cook pizza sauce. simple hand crush with extra virgin olive oil and a touch of sea salt...that's all the master's do. No sugar, no black pepper, no powdered crap. best of luck!
@@frankb7811 if you use fresh tomatoes you have to. There is simply too much water otherwise. Canned tomatoes have significantly less water content so it’s not necessary with them.
I use Bianco DiNapoli pelati. Whole peeled tomatoes. I buy them by the 6 pack from Amazon. I may hand crush or in a food mill. I cook them with olive oil, salt, sliced thin garlic and basil stems I pick out later. Cook out on low for 40 minutes. Still fresh and reduced. So gooood.
Instead of using plastic tubs (which take up more space), we pour our Alta Cucina's into large freezer bags, and carefully work out the air on a flat surface, and then freeze them thin and flat (no more than 1.5 - 2cm thick). This yields a few benefits: 1) If you freeze it thin enough, you can take a bag out out and break off just the amount you need, 2), they are far easier to fit into the freezer, as they are flat and thin and can be placed on top, underneath, or in between whatever else is going on. Oh, and in Toronto Canada our local Costco Business Centre (not the regular store but the one that serves foodservice) sells Alta Cucinas, which felt like the find of a lifetime when we discovered that.
As a 44 year old who has been growing and cooking tomatoes since I can remember, I prefer long cooked tomatoes or fresh salted tomatoes over anything else. Nothing in-between.
I prefer San marzano, they do make a difference and hand blend them... crushing the seeds adds bitterness and hand blending avoids that. I cook the sauce overnight while the dough is resting and it makes it super flavorful. Sauce for me is a several day process, put fresh basil and oregano in 24 hrs before I cook it. Give it a try charlie, it's fantastic
Very informative video! You covered the bases. Centro Tomatoes is readily available at my local Walmart. So seeing it was one of the acceptable alternative brands you suggested I'll go with that. I'm from Detroit and use to live about two miles from Buddy's original location. Ate it most of my life. I'm 71. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Tomato sauce is like adding hops to beer. Hop additions go in at different times, giving a deep mildly bitter taste, all the way up to a very raw floral taste bordering on perfume. I like a tomato sauce that is blended: heavily cooked, somewhat cooked, and raw.
I did try that actually! It’s not a bad method if you want to maintain the raw tomato taste with a thicker consistency. But the leftover juice actually tastes really good too so personally I think the flavor is better with the juice included.
@@CharlieAndersonCooking interesting. I never considered the juice to have that much depth of flavor, but now I'll have to separate it and check it out. Thank you. And Thx for replying. Really appreciate your efforts and the way you approach these trials. As a life long pizza enthusiast it's truly appreciated. Stellar videos!
maybe to enrich the flavour of the sauce without removing the fresh taste you could try dehydrating the sauce in a dehydrator or cooking it a really low temperature on a baking sheet (like 50-60c or 120-140f) hopefully you wont lose the freshness of the sauce, but citric acid may help regain that happens.
So I tried this with your NY style recipe (which I am a huge fan of) and Cento All-in-Ones. While I agree the sauce had a "better" flavor in the abstract, the resulting slice to me tasted a little less authentic. I guess I'm used to that relatively bland uncooked sauce flavor on a NY thin crust slice. For a deep dish though, especially Detroit style, I could see this working much better.
Lot's of great info in this video! Here's a couple things that might be worth trying. 1) Mixing uncooked sauce with heavily cooked sauce. 2) Using a better quality tomato paste such as Stanislaus Saporito or Super Dolce. I live near Detroit and love Jet's pizza. Their sauce definitely has a flavor in it that I've only gotten from Saporito Super Heavy Pizza Sauce. I haven't tried Super Dolce yet but it sounds like it's a similar product but even sweeter. I rarely eat at Buddy's anymore since it's expensive and the quality isn't consistent at the one near my house.
@I like to open the can and leave in the fridge a few days to let the excess moisture evaporate. Thickens it up. I also put my seasonings in a when I open the can. Might be an interesting test if cooked vs fridge evaporated.
Thanks CA, AC is pretty pricey if you buy it on the net but just to say i tried I stopped into the shamrock Food Service outlet in Fort Collins and there it was, $8.09 for the #10 can which brings the cost in way below any of the 28 oz can alternatives I have at Krogers, Whole, Trader Joe's etc Nice call 😀
Good to hear! Yeah it’s nice how affordable it is as long as you don’t mind freezing whatever you’re not using right away. Let me know what you think of them once you give them a try!
You're basically trying to concentrate the sugars through evaporation. You want more, so keep simmering, throw a cartouche on it, and aim for somewhere between sauce, and tomato jam. A saucy-jammy, situation, or just go with a sundried-tomato pesto/sauce? Then factor that with the salt/sugar/yeast/ferment, etc. on your dough, and adjust accordingly.
Congrats on hitting 100K! 🎉 So happy I stumbled across your page. I love these kind of deep dive food videos, quality is top notch. I think a collab between you and Ethan Chlebowski would be awesome.
I love San marzano tomatoes but I’ve never tried anything else. I may see if I can try to find the ones you use and see how they taste! Looks like they’re pretty good 😊
I cook for about 20 min, but add a 1/2 tsp of beef paste to a small can of sauce. Go easy, it’s like anchovy, a little goes a log way, also darkens the sauce.
I think tomato magic is their best product.. Nice and thick crushed tomatoes and no seeds. I use it uncooked and just salt with it and sprinkle the dough with oregano
my favorite hometown pizza joint has used doctored-up Hunt's tomato paste for their sauce for decades. I've recreated it at home by adding just a smidge of water, garlic powder, and dried italian herbs to the tomato paste. tastes fantastic!
I love the super dolce. I add water to thin it to my desired consistency and add my spices. I keep it thick for Detroit and thin it more for thin crust.
One way to reduce the water content without having to cook is simply to pour the entire contents of the can in a fine mesh strainer. The thin watery stuff will drain through, leaving the thicker sauce and whole tomatoes in the strainer. You can also crush the tomatoes a bit by hand or lightly pulse them in a blender to free up even more water before putting it all in the strainer. I like raw sauce, and this has become my move for ensuring I don't end up with a watery soggy mess on my pies.
Tired of burning tomato stuff, get an extra pizza stone and use it as a simmer stone over your burner! Get the stone surface reading to about 270 degrees then place your sauce. It takes longer to get to the simmer but qualuty is everything!
Nice sauce! If you're up for two other options have a look for the video "How to Make Tomato Sauce from Fresh Tomatoes" by Serious Eats culinary director Daniel Gritzer. His tomato sauce recipe is pretty intensive, but the resulting sauce is complex and worth trying once. Who knows, maybe you could adapt the recipe with one or more Stanislaus tomato sauce varieties. Another option would be to take a tip from "Chef John's Secret Pizza Sauce Recipe" by cooking two anchovies (in olive oil) at the beginning to add an umami element to your sauce. Perhaps neither recipe matches the flavor profile you're looking for your pizzas, but may have other options worth considering.
It appears my local resturant supply house carries the alta cucina so that will be noted. I recently cam across your channel and followed along your NY pizza journey. I built my own recipe but came to find out our doughs are nearly identical as is crushed tomato blend. (cento all in one) Ironically the cento has been hard to find lately but my local store started carrying the pastene brand crushed tomatoes and they have a very nice flavor. I've also noticed they are thicker and the crushed tomatoes are a bit more chunky. That seems to be how I recall the sauce being when I was a kid in NY. While I've gone back several time to some of the places I've been to as a kid they just aren't quite the same... maybe my memories are biased. What I can say is that they were all still significantly better than a lot of slices I've gotten in NJ over the years. Not throwing shade or anything either... It just seems bad places last longer here because the competition isn't as much competition near by depending on the area. There are plenty of good places here too... you just have to find them. I did have my confirmation bias strengthened when I took a few friends to a place from when I was a kid... They all called me a pizza snob because nothing "impressed me" so when we got there I let them eat. They all kind of looked at me when I told them this was just an average place... From then on they understood why I was the way I was... It was consistent, good and you always knew what you were getting.
All this information is awesome, thank you. I would like to suggest that you give "Carmelina" brand "San Marzano" tomatoes a try. They are packed in a puree of the whole tomatoes that didn't remain whole for packing. The "Alta Cucina" are packed in juice which really makes a difference in the consistency and texture if you cook your sauce. I cook my sauce, but only for about 20 minutes or so. I believe that these tomatoes are an equal quality to "Alta Cucina" and the fact that they're packed in puree not juice makes a huge difference in the flavor profile and texture of the final product.....at least in my opinion. Give em a shot.
I'm curious what it would be like if you added some water back to the cooked sauce to replace it. That would tell you if it's the cooking or concentrating of the flavors that is doing the heavy lifting. Thanks for the video!
I have subscribed and I really have learned a lot from your pizza skills. But, I noticed that you pureed the can with the tomatoes and juice then reduced. Why not just use the tomatoes strained from the packing juice? No need to reduce.
My fondest childhood pizza memory was a deep dish made at a Buddy's in the Detroit area. Me and a friend make pizzas at home but we are total amateurs. We dream of slinging pizzas and pasties but we have a long way to go and a lot to learn.
Interesting factoid, Charlie. Many top pizzerias use uncooked tonatoes for their pizzas. However, there are some pizza makers like Mark Iaccone who swear by using cooked tomato sauce (Mark says ge still uses his grandmother's recipe).
A mill is a lot better than an immersion blender as it is much less oxidizing. Also consider discarding the puree or water and only retaining the tomatoes.
Why not try browning the tomato paste a bit? In cooking classes, we'd do that before making a tomato sauce, and the flavor was out of this world IMO. At the least, it should change the flavor profile considerably, and with less paste.
So you split the blended alta cucinas at the beginning and said you didn't see a flavor loss after freezing. Have you tried the experiment of just cooking the whole can or multiple cans for however long, to get it over with in bulk, then freezing, then trying it after thawing?
Nice video. So, have you tried using the Long Cooked sauce then add some fresh no cooked tomatoes to "Brighten" the long cooked sauce with some fresh tomato flavor.
@@saucyruben when I did a deep dive into trying to make real Chicago pizza deep dish (e.g. Lou Malnati or Giodano's), I saw in some forum that the best Chicago places use 6 in 1. They did taste way better than any other canned tomato I had access to.
After growing different tomatoes and then growing San Marzano the last couple years, I concur with the other comments. They are my favorite tomato to make sauce out of, even if it is spaghetti sauce.
I'd LOVE to know if you've tried using pressure cooker to cook sauce? This lets the water evaporate but takes 1/3 to 1/4th the time! I'd love to start making my own sauce but don't want to spend an hour.
Have you tried Red Gold vs Red Pack?..Apparently they are the same brand...But some people say they taste the same..And others say they taste different..I haven't had money to make pizza in like 2 years so I haven't had a chance to try out Red Gold since reading about it although I don't think Red Pack is available near near me regardless. Back when I was making Pizza I never felt like I knew what I was even going for with the sauce... I was pretty confident in everything else...But the sauce always felt random.
I prefer sclafani, cheap and great taste, red pack are good also.... Depending on what kind of pizza you're making, you may need San Marzano tomatoes, which are the only for Neopolitian style pizza, but, have other great uses....
Long cooked to concentrate the flavor and then adjust to the preferred acidity. You can use the classics of lime/lemon... or, if you want to add acidity without adding flavor, add some food grade acid powder. That way you can add the "brightness" back into the dish with zero additional flavors to interfere with the tomato taste. Edit: save time the old time way - make a huge batch, portion it out, and freeze most of it
Looks delicious Charlie! I am definitely on the hunt for those tomatoes! One question, why are you using an Immersion blender and not a food mill to keep it the sauce less liquid?
Some fancier Neapolitan style pizza places strain the canned tomatoes and only use the whole, (unstemmed/ unseeded if necessary, then handcrushed) tomatoes to make their sauce. I have never tried it because decent tomatoes are very expensive where I live, but it might taste better, and I imagine it would be less liquidy. The internet also says that that leftover liquid makes great mexican rice, so it wouldn't need to be a waste if it does make the pizza better. I've really been enjoying your videos! I really hope to one day see a series on immitating New Haven pizza at home, I have so ideas, but have never had the real thing.
#MadPizzaScientist A few things to consider.... - Thin crust pizza will cook much faster than thick Sicilian, Grandma, and Detroit style pizzas that take longer to cook and are twice baked. That means the sauce will be less cooked. So cooked sauce will be better on thin crust pizza. Uncooked thick sauce will be better on thick crust pizza. - Plum peeled tomatoes are always better than crushed and pureed canned tomatoes which have lots of extra liquid. So hand crush the peeled tomatoes for a pizza sauce, whether they are cooked or uncooked before topping the pizza. You can strain the peeled tomatoes before crushing them by hand for a thicker chunkier pizza sauce. Don't puree the peeled tomato in the can, since they will be too watery uncooked. - Thick crust pizza demands a chunkier thicker sauce. Thin crust pizza requires a smoother sauce with no chunks. Remember that a watery uncooked sauce will make for a pizza with a soggy crust. The ideal is a crispy crust regardless of whether you are making a thin crust pizza or a thick crust pizza. #NoFloppyPizza
It looks like you're blending the whole tomatoes with the can juice? Maybe just pick out the tomatoes and blend them independently, and reduce the pan juice separately? I think I've seen ATK do this. I'm personally always torn on what to do with the can juice (blend it in or separate it out), and it probably depends on the brand too.
I did try that recently, but I it tasted surprisingly similar to when I cooked the puréed tomatoes themselves. When I cooked the juice, it developed a sort of “tomato soupy” flavor, so it still overwhelmed the fresh tomato taste.
@@cyclopsvision6370 Yeah, I usually just blend up the whole can and mix in a good amount of paste. I think @CharlieAndersonCooking is a supertaster or something, I can't taste all these nuances. 😆
Tomato Magic is my favorite base for my pizza sauce. The flavor profile is slightly acidic and not too sweet and the texture/consistency is exactly what I want.
2:00 if you freeze this stuff and defrost it you will see there is significant water separation (this can be good if you wanna discard the water, sauce will be richer)
There is a secret about Stanislaus tomatoes. The alta cucinas are the first picks from the field when harvested. The alta cucinas are always the best canned tomatoes you can get.
How about the Tomato Magic variety from Stanislaus? I was under the impression that those were the ground version of the Alta Cucina?
They taste great but you gotta strain a lil bit of the extra juice/puree
I gotta say, this is a cooks channel. I’m not saying people who don’t cook that much can’t enjoy but I am the cook at my house and this is how I think. Why does this taste this way, what would happen is I changed this? Always trying to discover a perfect flavor in my mind that no one gets! Lol I gets that normal people may not think that way but I appreciate insane work in detail that you do and love the passion
Something that wasn't mentioned - For a thin crust pizza, cooking the sauce will significantly help with a crisp crust. Less water content helps a lot to reduce a floppy dough.
yup!
Par-baking the crust can help too, though one will have to experiment with the par-bake, so it's not burnt at the end.
@@borbetomagus I used to do that as well. I now use a 60% hydration, 375 for 20 mins.
Yo momma has floppy dough!
Put the pizza on a nonstick pan on the stovetop burner. Remember, NY style pizza slices sit out on display, and then they get popped back in the oven for a quick bit when you buy them. Better yet, from the start, cook your pizza in the pan on the burner and brown the bottom, finishing it off in the oven on broil on a sheet pan or steel on a low rack. Keep the pan on the heat on the stovetop. Right before pulling out the pizza when the top has reached your desired doneness, turn off the stovetop burner but leave the pan on it. Slice the pizza, then put the slices back in the pan to rest, instead of on the cutting board, a plate, or a rack. Guaranteed crispy crust, regardless of the sauce and cheese quantity.
Ive been watching your deep dives into pizza and love them. One video I saw for sauce (not yours) the guy strained uncooked hand crushed good quality tomatoes through a sieve to keep them less watery. This is what I have been doing with great results. I keep the left over tomato water and add it to my spaghetti sauce so I dont waste the good tomatoes. Thanks for the entertainment.
Your videos have come a long way in such short time, kudos! I'm really becoming a huge fan of your channel.
Thank you, I really appreciate that!
@@CharlieAndersonCooking
02:00 Why are you freezing the sauce for only two days? The sauce can be refrigerated for two days without a problem. How bizarre!
I am so glad that I found your channel. EXCELLENT content! I am looking forward to all of the other iconic foods/recipes that you tackle.
Lately, I have been extremely surprised at --- Walmart. Their canned crushed tomatoes are unbelievable, at around $1.30 per can they are also a great deal. They are a bit more liquid (I don't think they use Roma-derived tomatoes) but unbelievably sweet and with a lot of tomato taste. I grow tomatoes so I have a good understanding of the range of tastes. Try them out and tell me what you think.
My Man. Exactly the video I was looking for. Looks like i'm going to have to binge watch the rest of your videos. Keep it up.
I just bought a NUWAVE induction cooktop and it is awesome. The digital display shows the temperature and the even heating is awesome. It is great for simmering sauces or braising meat.
Queens NYC resident here. My neighborhood is old Italian/Greek so I've learned a thing or two. Nearly every joint around here uses a cooked sauce. I don't know anything about "Detroit" style but if it's a spinoff of our Sicilian or Gramma Style then the sauce is cooked long. The best places cook down the tomatoes and add some ingredients (never any dry herbs! or tomato paste!). Imagine a focaccia style crust, browned perfectly with lots of delicious imported olive oil, at least two kinds of cheeses. The end result is an unbelievably delicious slice that will stick in your head for all of eternity.
If you ever get a chance, go to Detroit and have some of their pizza. Oh man, so good. I'm not saying one type of pizza or the other is better, but just try it if you get the chance. Just wow.
@@Heymrk I’m totally down for trying any style of pizza. From the videos it looks tasty. The only Detroit style I’m aware of is Little Caesar’s which I might have tried in the 1980s but can’t remember or it just wasn’t memorable.
@@ryangies4798 Obviously no one would call Little Ceasars representative of anything but the cheapest possible take-out pizza haha
@@ryangies4798 Just don't try California style. Just don't. It isn't good. And I'm from Sacramento originally.
There’s a place in Washington DC called Red Light Pizza that serves Detroit style. I love all good pizza but generally prefer Neapolitan or NY style with a Neapolitan style Margherita my hands down favorite both to eat and make. That said last summer I had a Detroit style pizza at the Red Light, my first, and it was easily some of the best pizza I’ve ever had bar none. Although it’s a deep-dish, pan style pizza it was impossibly light with a nice crisp to the crust and perfect char around the edges. It’s a substantial slice but so all-around light to be almost delicate and not the least bit oily or greasy. If you get to the DC area give it a try, I live in California and I would plan a weekend trip there just to get a slice! ;)
Great video! I like your scientific and testing approach!
I've been making pizza on Fridays for years and in my sauce, I add fennel seeds to hot oil in the saucepan until fragrant (5-10 seconds), then pour the blended tomatoes in. I usually cook between 30 and 60 minutes. The cooking softens the fennel seeds as well.
fennel seeds ha? atm i dont have the taste of those seeds in my mind, isnt this a rather untypical flavour in a pizza?
@@DELTA9XTC fennel is used in sausages sometimes, it goes really well with tomato based sauces like pizza sauce
Having worked at a pizzeria before, the combination of crushed tomatoes and a little tomato paste helped increase the tomato concentration and thicken the sauce. But like the crushed tomatoes, not all tomato pastes are created equal…
This is why for my homemade sauce I reduce half my tomato sauce in the oven low and slow over the course of six to eight hours. I throw in shallots, garlic, ect... And create a flavor bomb that I then marry with a five to ten minute simmered fresh sauce with fresh basil and oregano. It's bright, acidic, fresh, fragrant, but also deep, earthy, and complex.
I might actually try that.
I've had Great Results with tinny bit of high quality tomato paste and fresh herbs mixed into uncooked tomatoes. Like said above. For Newyork style
Cento San Marzano DOP from italy are easily available at most big box grocery stores. Very good. Whole peeled, then stick blend
That’s the best tomato by far. Only lift the whole tomatoes out of the can, shake off the excess sauce, and grate them with a small cheese grater. You’re really only after the flesh for the best sauce of any kind.
The pursuit of the perfect home style Detroit pizza is the pursuit of the divine.
Also, here's a trick I picked up a really long time ago. I think it was on the pizza making forums when they were new. It was to put your sauce together, then split it into two parts. One a little more than the other. Set the smaller amount aside. Cook the larger amount. Not to paste, but definitely more than you would want your pizza sauce cooked. Then combine them. It's NOT The same as cooking the whole batch halfway.
That is actually a very interesting idea, pizza making forums is the be all... end all... of pizza quests. That site has helped me so much I just can't say enough good things about it.
What would you say the ratio should be? 60/40, 80/20 etc?
@@_-JR01 That's entirely dependent on your preference, and based on how watery or sauces to start with. For me, with the crushed tomatoes I use, It's closer to 60/40.
Best thing to do is start at 50/50 and adjust from there.
I had a patient we had in the past tell me that best brand he found was Mutti It's at the local Italian Store nearby, I tried it, and the sauce was delicious. I'll have to check this one out too. Thanks.
I concur, Mutti sauce is like home made.
Dude idk why but the Mutti at my place is almost tasteless versus when I’ve made from scratch cherry tomato pizza sauce I’ve had taste. Great taste. Just cnt get the taste on Mutti right for whatever reason
Begin from Detroit, living two blocks away from Louies, and having Jets and Buddies everwhere I can say cooking the sauce for me is mandatory. Subbed, thumbs up, Im liking what I see here. Add small amount of Fennel to the sauce, at least for me thats Jets secret.
The alta cuchina sauce is the best. I hand crush mine and freeze it in mason jars at a proper size that I use for the pizza. The only downside is you loose that bite when you bite into a chunky piece. It's really not bad, you still get the flavor bomb when you bite one. Another plus to freezing is when you take it out to slow thaw, the water separates and floats on the top. With the tomato still frozen, just spill out the water and you now have a more concentrated sauce without having to cook it.
Charlie, I am so glad that I came across your videos and sub'd. Dude these Alta Cucina tomatoes are absolutely next level. They are by far the best tomatoes for pizzas. I made 3 different pizzas and brought friends over for each type of pizza which were detroit stye, new york style, and neapolitan pizzas. I used my old go to tomatoes for my pizzas which were a san marzano tomatoe and one with the Alta Cucina. I even made a raw, and a slightly cooked version, same ingredients (salt, sugar, oregano, and one garlic clove) and same cook time of 10 minutes. I really do not like cooked sauce much but I will say, the Alta Cucina's completely stole the show. Not just on one pizza but all them. Every single person loved them and the funny part was that we liked the cooked version on the Detroit style pizzas but the raw on the new york and neapolitan pizzas. It's a bummer they come in the big #10 cans but I froze the remainder of the tomatoes. I can't wait to try them in other dishes now. Again, I really appreciate you bringing them up on your video. Game changer for sure.
The ultimate budget version is gonna be 100% tomato paste + water. To bring in that fresh tomato acidity, add citric acid (and malic if you have it). Just test it between tiny pinches until it tastes right for you. Optionally, add a small amount of sugar if the paste doesn't start out sweet enough. You can even do this trick for pasta, in which case I recommend adding a splash of apple cider vinegar or balsamic to make it taste a lot like it has wine in it (before adjusting with acid & sugar).
I know it would be good but it just seems wrong. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@@BlackJesus8463Yeah, whether it's a good fit for you is gonna depend on your budget and preferences. I just wanted to point out that it's not necessary to buy the expensive tomatoes if that's feeling like a barrier to good sauce.
In Finland tomato paste is the same price as canned tomatoes
@@railasvuo The Alta Cucina tomatoes range $10-20 per can. For me, tomato paste is $1. Cheaper whole tomatoes exist near that price, but they usually taste worse than the paste trick.
@@NickCombs Mutti's tomatoes 1-2€. Paste 1€ + other stuff
thank you for the sauce recipe. i have been struggling with the sauce for months. never knew it was as easy as just buying a specific brand of canned and just lightly spicing it and simmering. really awesome stuff and you definitely elevated my pizza to a way better level
Congrats on the pizza pop up! You should definitely make a behind-the-scenes video of what that’s been like
Thank you! Yeah that would be a good idea
You should try the "Pizzaiolo" sauce that Stanislaus makes. It may be very close to what you're looking for. I love it for my NY style pies. I'm from California but was visiting my daughter who lives in Brooklyn last week. We went to a pizza place that was delicious and I noticed they had Alta Cucina, 7/11, Tomato Magic and Pizzaiolo - maybe they make a blend using all those? Also congrats on hitting 100K.
I always throw a splash of wine and a dash of sugar into my crushed tomatoes, salt to taste and that is all the raw sauce I ever need.
Good video, thanks for the info.
Congrats on 100k subscribers, Charlie!
Thank you!
I've been making my detroit style pizzas with beer dough for a while now, and it adds crazy good flavor. Idk if you ferment your detroit style pizza dough but if you don't then it's a quick way to add a similar flavor. Credits to Brian Lagerstrom for the idea but he used it in a cast iron pizza
Yup! Aged dough smells like beer if not alcohol. Legit shortcut like using paste in the sauce and low moisture mozz. 👍
Recently I've been creating pizza sauces with some home grown san marzano tomatoes. With fresh tomatoes you really need to reduce them for a while to get the flavor (and color) where you want it to be. I over reduce the sauce slightly and then add a couple fresh tomatoes at the end to add some more liquid and add some of that acidity back.
I didn't know you could cook the acidity out. Seems a much better option than adding sugar.
@@BlackJesus8463 I don’t know if the actual acids are going away. I think the heat just breaks down more complex sugars so it tastes sweeter and that dominates the flavor. But yea for a pizza sauce I’d prefer to cook it over adding sugar.
hey bud, you don't cook pizza sauce. simple hand crush with extra virgin olive oil and a touch of sea salt...that's all the master's do. No sugar, no black pepper, no powdered crap. best of luck!
@@frankb7811 if you use fresh tomatoes you have to. There is simply too much water otherwise. Canned tomatoes have significantly less water content so it’s not necessary with them.
Plum tomatoes are not San Manzano tomatoes
I use Bianco DiNapoli pelati. Whole peeled tomatoes. I buy them by the 6 pack from Amazon. I may hand crush or in a food mill. I cook them with olive oil, salt, sliced thin garlic and basil stems I pick out later. Cook out on low for 40 minutes. Still fresh and reduced. So gooood.
I ran a bakery and wood fired pizza joint for 15 years and Alta Cucina were my destination tomato. Good choice!
Instead of using plastic tubs (which take up more space), we pour our Alta Cucina's into large freezer bags, and carefully work out the air on a flat surface, and then freeze them thin and flat (no more than 1.5 - 2cm thick). This yields a few benefits: 1) If you freeze it thin enough, you can take a bag out out and break off just the amount you need, 2), they are far easier to fit into the freezer, as they are flat and thin and can be placed on top, underneath, or in between whatever else is going on.
Oh, and in Toronto Canada our local Costco Business Centre (not the regular store but the one that serves foodservice) sells Alta Cucinas, which felt like the find of a lifetime when we discovered that.
As a 44 year old who has been growing and cooking tomatoes since I can remember, I prefer long cooked tomatoes or fresh salted tomatoes over anything else. Nothing in-between.
I prefer San marzano, they do make a difference and hand blend them... crushing the seeds adds bitterness and hand blending avoids that. I cook the sauce overnight while the dough is resting and it makes it super flavorful. Sauce for me is a several day process, put fresh basil and oregano in 24 hrs before I cook it. Give it a try charlie, it's fantastic
Very informative video! You covered the bases. Centro Tomatoes is readily available at my local Walmart. So seeing it was one of the acceptable alternative brands you suggested I'll go with that. I'm from Detroit and use to live about two miles from Buddy's original location. Ate it most of my life. I'm 71. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Tomato sauce is like adding hops to beer. Hop additions go in at different times, giving a deep mildly bitter taste, all the way up to a very raw floral taste bordering on perfume. I like a tomato sauce that is blended: heavily cooked, somewhat cooked, and raw.
What about straining the no cook to get the water out?
I did try that actually! It’s not a bad method if you want to maintain the raw tomato taste with a thicker consistency. But the leftover juice actually tastes really good too so personally I think the flavor is better with the juice included.
@@CharlieAndersonCooking interesting. I never considered the juice to have that much depth of flavor, but now I'll have to separate it and check it out. Thank you. And Thx for replying. Really appreciate your efforts and the way you approach these trials. As a life long pizza enthusiast it's truly appreciated. Stellar videos!
Dude, at 9:20ish is where I started realizing how much thought you were putting into your lighting and camera placement. Seriously excellent, Charile.
maybe to enrich the flavour of the sauce without removing the fresh taste you could try dehydrating the sauce in a dehydrator or cooking it a really low temperature on a baking sheet (like 50-60c or 120-140f)
hopefully you wont lose the freshness of the sauce, but citric acid may help regain that happens.
So I tried this with your NY style recipe (which I am a huge fan of) and Cento All-in-Ones. While I agree the sauce had a "better" flavor in the abstract, the resulting slice to me tasted a little less authentic. I guess I'm used to that relatively bland uncooked sauce flavor on a NY thin crust slice. For a deep dish though, especially Detroit style, I could see this working much better.
Lot's of great info in this video! Here's a couple things that might be worth trying. 1) Mixing uncooked sauce with heavily cooked sauce. 2) Using a better quality tomato paste such as Stanislaus Saporito or Super Dolce. I live near Detroit and love Jet's pizza. Their sauce definitely has a flavor in it that I've only gotten from Saporito Super Heavy Pizza Sauce. I haven't tried Super Dolce yet but it sounds like it's a similar product but even sweeter. I rarely eat at Buddy's anymore since it's expensive and the quality isn't consistent at the one near my house.
@I like to open the can and leave in the fridge a few days to let the excess moisture evaporate. Thickens it up. I also put my seasonings in a when I open the can. Might be an interesting test if cooked vs fridge evaporated.
Thanks CA, AC is pretty pricey if you buy it on the net but just to say i tried I stopped into the shamrock Food Service outlet in Fort Collins and there it was, $8.09 for the #10 can which brings the cost in way below any of the 28 oz can alternatives I have at Krogers, Whole, Trader Joe's etc
Nice call 😀
Good to hear! Yeah it’s nice how affordable it is as long as you don’t mind freezing whatever you’re not using right away. Let me know what you think of them once you give them a try!
You're basically trying to concentrate the sugars through evaporation. You want more, so keep simmering, throw a cartouche on it, and aim for somewhere between sauce, and tomato jam. A saucy-jammy, situation, or just go with a sundried-tomato pesto/sauce? Then factor that with the salt/sugar/yeast/ferment, etc. on your dough, and adjust accordingly.
I live in Modesto where Stanislaus Foods is located. Great company. Great workers and the Cortopassi family are really good people.
Congrats on hitting 100K! 🎉
So happy I stumbled across your page. I love these kind of deep dive food videos, quality is top notch.
I think a collab between you and Ethan Chlebowski would be awesome.
Thank you!!
Yeah! Charlie,Ethan and that dude that beats up the refrigerator would be an awesome collaboration! 👍
I've used Redpack for years. It's just so good and you can get it everywhere. Though my favorite is Sclafani - though it does come in a large can.
I love San marzano tomatoes but I’ve never tried anything else. I may see if I can try to find the ones you use and see how they taste! Looks like they’re pretty good 😊
I like your approach & your process of honing it in. Best luck w your pop-up!
I cook for about 20 min, but add a 1/2 tsp of beef paste to a small can of sauce. Go easy, it’s like anchovy, a little goes a log way, also darkens the sauce.
Great work Chaz! Where’s the food truck?
I think tomato magic is their best product.. Nice and thick crushed tomatoes and no seeds. I use it uncooked and just salt with it and sprinkle the dough with oregano
my favorite hometown pizza joint has used doctored-up Hunt's tomato paste for their sauce for decades. I've recreated it at home by adding just a smidge of water, garlic powder, and dried italian herbs to the tomato paste. tastes fantastic!
Hunts is high quality.
I use 2/3 cooked sauce and then add 1/3 uncooked, blend em up and swirl it on the dough. Best of both worlds, and it works quite well.
great vid as always and congrats on the 100k
Thank you!!
I love the super dolce. I add water to thin it to my desired consistency and add my spices. I keep it thick for Detroit and thin it more for thin crust.
Great videos! Is this the last of the series or is there one more? It seems like one more, but it’s been a while.
One way to reduce the water content without having to cook is simply to pour the entire contents of the can in a fine mesh strainer. The thin watery stuff will drain through, leaving the thicker sauce and whole tomatoes in the strainer. You can also crush the tomatoes a bit by hand or lightly pulse them in a blender to free up even more water before putting it all in the strainer.
I like raw sauce, and this has become my move for ensuring I don't end up with a watery soggy mess on my pies.
Tired of burning tomato stuff, get an extra pizza stone and use it as a simmer stone over your burner! Get the stone surface reading to about 270 degrees then place your sauce. It takes longer to get to the simmer but qualuty is everything!
You can increase the intensity of the Alta Cucina without cooking it by pouring out 1/2 to 3/4 of the packing liquid.
Nice sauce! If you're up for two other options have a look for the video "How to Make Tomato Sauce from Fresh Tomatoes" by Serious Eats culinary director Daniel Gritzer. His tomato sauce recipe is pretty intensive, but the resulting sauce is complex and worth trying once. Who knows, maybe you could adapt the recipe with one or more Stanislaus tomato sauce varieties.
Another option would be to take a tip from "Chef John's Secret Pizza Sauce Recipe" by cooking two anchovies (in olive oil) at the beginning to add an umami element to your sauce.
Perhaps neither recipe matches the flavor profile you're looking for your pizzas, but may have other options worth considering.
It appears my local resturant supply house carries the alta cucina so that will be noted. I recently cam across your channel and followed along your NY pizza journey. I built my own recipe but came to find out our doughs are nearly identical as is crushed tomato blend. (cento all in one) Ironically the cento has been hard to find lately but my local store started carrying the pastene brand crushed tomatoes and they have a very nice flavor. I've also noticed they are thicker and the crushed tomatoes are a bit more chunky. That seems to be how I recall the sauce being when I was a kid in NY. While I've gone back several time to some of the places I've been to as a kid they just aren't quite the same... maybe my memories are biased. What I can say is that they were all still significantly better than a lot of slices I've gotten in NJ over the years. Not throwing shade or anything either... It just seems bad places last longer here because the competition isn't as much competition near by depending on the area. There are plenty of good places here too... you just have to find them.
I did have my confirmation bias strengthened when I took a few friends to a place from when I was a kid... They all called me a pizza snob because nothing "impressed me" so when we got there I let them eat. They all kind of looked at me when I told them this was just an average place... From then on they understood why I was the way I was... It was consistent, good and you always knew what you were getting.
All this information is awesome, thank you. I would like to suggest that you give "Carmelina" brand "San Marzano" tomatoes a try. They are packed in a puree of the whole tomatoes that didn't remain whole for packing. The "Alta Cucina" are packed in juice which really makes a difference in the consistency and texture if you cook your sauce. I cook my sauce, but only for about 20 minutes or so. I believe that these tomatoes are an equal quality to "Alta Cucina" and the fact that they're packed in puree not juice makes a huge difference in the flavor profile and texture of the final product.....at least in my opinion. Give em a shot.
I'm curious what it would be like if you added some water back to the cooked sauce to replace it. That would tell you if it's the cooking or concentrating of the flavors that is doing the heavy lifting. Thanks for the video!
I always add a can of Cento tomato paste to thicken the sauce and add umami flavor
I have subscribed and I really have learned a lot from your pizza skills. But, I noticed that you pureed the can with the tomatoes and juice then reduced. Why not just use the tomatoes strained from the packing juice? No need to reduce.
My fondest childhood pizza memory was a deep dish made at a Buddy's in the Detroit area. Me and a friend make pizzas at home but we are total amateurs. We dream of slinging pizzas and pasties but we have a long way to go and a lot to learn.
The Alta Cucina has basil. You removed basil from your previous sauce recipe. Do you feel like the basil is strong in these?
Interesting factoid, Charlie. Many top pizzerias use uncooked tonatoes for their pizzas. However, there are some pizza makers like Mark Iaccone who swear by using cooked tomato sauce (Mark says ge still uses his grandmother's recipe).
A mill is a lot better than an immersion blender as it is much less oxidizing. Also consider discarding the puree or water and only retaining the tomatoes.
This
Why not try browning the tomato paste a bit? In cooking classes, we'd do that before making a tomato sauce, and the flavor was out of this world IMO. At the least, it should change the flavor profile considerably, and with less paste.
My mouth is watering now... 🤤
Can’t wait to learn more about your pop up!
Congrats on the 100k subscribers !
So you split the blended alta cucinas at the beginning and said you didn't see a flavor loss after freezing. Have you tried the experiment of just cooking the whole can or multiple cans for however long, to get it over with in bulk, then freezing, then trying it after thawing?
Nice video. So, have you tried using the Long Cooked sauce then add some fresh no cooked tomatoes to "Brighten" the long cooked sauce with some fresh tomato flavor.
If you can find 6 in 1 tomatoes, get them. Years ago, I got lucky and found them in 28oz cans. I only see them in #10 cans anymore.
yes! he showed them in video for a second so maybe he’ll talk about it soon. those are my favorite so far
@@saucyruben when I did a deep dive into trying to make real Chicago pizza deep dish (e.g. Lou Malnati or Giodano's), I saw in some forum that the best Chicago places use 6 in 1. They did taste way better than any other canned tomato I had access to.
#1 reason chefs avoid blenders on tomaters is breaking up the seeds, which add off flavor vs hand mashing or similar. I agree with cooked. Well done.
Slicing the seeds adds a bitter flavor!
After growing different tomatoes and then growing San Marzano the last couple years, I concur with the other comments. They are my favorite tomato to make sauce out of, even if it is spaghetti sauce.
I'd LOVE to know if you've tried using pressure cooker to cook sauce? This lets the water evaporate but takes 1/3 to 1/4th the time! I'd love to start making my own sauce but don't want to spend an hour.
Have you tried Red Gold vs Red Pack?..Apparently they are the same brand...But some people say they taste the same..And others say they taste different..I haven't had money to make pizza in like 2 years so I haven't had a chance to try out Red Gold since reading about it although I don't think Red Pack is available near near me regardless. Back when I was making Pizza I never felt like I knew what I was even going for with the sauce... I was pretty confident in everything else...But the sauce always felt random.
I haven’t actually tried Red Gold, but I’ll have to do that comparison at some point!
I'd love to hear what you think if you end up testing!@@CharlieAndersonCooking
I go back and forth between Alta Cucina and Tomato Magic. Both amazing.
Do you feel like the basil in Alta cucina is strong. I don’t love basil
I prefer sclafani, cheap and great taste, red pack are good also.... Depending on what kind of pizza you're making, you may need San Marzano tomatoes, which are the only for Neopolitian style pizza, but, have other great uses....
Chicago Pizza next!
Try getting Cento crushed or whole peeled and puree with Cento tomato paste and spring or R.O. water. 👌
Long cooked to concentrate the flavor and then adjust to the preferred acidity. You can use the classics of lime/lemon... or, if you want to add acidity without adding flavor, add some food grade acid powder. That way you can add the "brightness" back into the dish with zero additional flavors to interfere with the tomato taste.
Edit: save time the old time way - make a huge batch, portion it out, and freeze most of it
Looks delicious Charlie! I am definitely on the hunt for those tomatoes! One question, why are you using an Immersion blender and not a food mill to keep it the sauce less liquid?
How about PDF link so you can save and print these? Thank you
I am jealous of you when I hear you bite into those slices....the crunch!
Fermented tomato sauce!!! you have to try it!
If you're trying for something different, add some Hungarian paprika. It will enhance the flavor profile of your sauce nicely.
What if you use a fine sieve to reduce water content?
SMH, I didn't even consider freezing portions of the #10 can. I just started using them, and was worried about waste! Thank you for the great tips!
Some fancier Neapolitan style pizza places strain the canned tomatoes and only use the whole, (unstemmed/ unseeded if necessary, then handcrushed) tomatoes to make their sauce. I have never tried it because decent tomatoes are very expensive where I live, but it might taste better, and I imagine it would be less liquidy.
The internet also says that that leftover liquid makes great mexican rice, so it wouldn't need to be a waste if it does make the pizza better.
I've really been enjoying your videos! I really hope to one day see a series on immitating New Haven pizza at home, I have so ideas, but have never had the real thing.
Try adding some finely chopped fresh parsley to the sauce; I've seen that in a lot of midwest pizza spots.
What about adding back in some uncooked sauce after the reduced sauce cools? Best of both worlds?
#MadPizzaScientist A few things to consider....
- Thin crust pizza will cook much faster than thick Sicilian, Grandma, and Detroit style pizzas that take longer to cook and are twice baked.
That means the sauce will be less cooked. So cooked sauce will be better on thin crust pizza. Uncooked thick sauce will be better on thick crust pizza.
- Plum peeled tomatoes are always better than crushed and pureed canned tomatoes which have lots of extra liquid. So hand crush the peeled tomatoes for a pizza sauce, whether they are cooked or uncooked before topping the pizza. You can strain the peeled tomatoes before crushing them by hand for a thicker chunkier pizza sauce. Don't puree the peeled tomato in the can, since they will be too watery uncooked.
- Thick crust pizza demands a chunkier thicker sauce. Thin crust pizza requires a smoother sauce with no chunks. Remember that a watery uncooked sauce will make for a pizza with a soggy crust. The ideal is a crispy crust regardless of whether you are making a thin crust pizza or a thick crust pizza. #NoFloppyPizza
It looks like you're blending the whole tomatoes with the can juice? Maybe just pick out the tomatoes and blend them independently, and reduce the pan juice separately? I think I've seen ATK do this. I'm personally always torn on what to do with the can juice (blend it in or separate it out), and it probably depends on the brand too.
Came here to say this. Can't speak for this particular brand but it's definitely a difference for others.
I did try that recently, but I it tasted surprisingly similar to when I cooked the puréed tomatoes themselves. When I cooked the juice, it developed a sort of “tomato soupy” flavor, so it still overwhelmed the fresh tomato taste.
wouldn't it be easier to just add some tomato paste to counter the water content?
@@cyclopsvision6370 Yeah, I usually just blend up the whole can and mix in a good amount of paste. I think @CharlieAndersonCooking is a supertaster or something, I can't taste all these nuances. 😆
I think the brands he used/recommended are canned in their puree and not in water.
@11:13 aka greater surface area, greater evaporation. Great video too!
Aren’t the tomatoes “cooked” in the canning process?? So the tomatoes are cooked 3 times by the time you eat it?
Tomato Magic is my favorite base for my pizza sauce. The flavor profile is slightly acidic and not too sweet and the texture/consistency is exactly what I want.
I looked through all your amazon links, and perhaps I just missed it, but what Immersion Blender do you use?