I love how serious you take your pizza making. Most cooking shows are total crap. With pizza every little detail matters . I've been on a seven-year pizza making journey, and every time I make a pizza I change one little detail, and I write down the results. This is the only cooking show that takes cooking seriously. Every other cooking show is just porn. You're doing God's work brother! I made a Excel sheet for my dinner recipes, but I ditched it for yours. That's a very good one. Anybody who is making pizza needs to get your Excel doc.
I'm glad you enjoy it! I completely agree that the small details really matter when it comes to pizza. I think it's pretty easy to make average pizza at home, but it's hard to make great pizza.
I think the key to keeping your cheese from separating is to keep it COLD before you're ready to cook. I even throw mine in the freezer about 20 minutes before it goes on the pizza. The cheese goes from cold to melty without passing through the phase where it breaks. Never let your cheese come to room temp before cooking.
Man, nice tip! I'm going to try for sure. I won't find Wisconsin brick cheese in Italy, but I love grandma/Detroit/Sicilian style pizza and I need to try this trick for sure.
for the over charring, fold up paper towels to the size of the side of the pan. Wet the folded up paper towels with water and wrap them on the outside of the pan. it will cool the outside of the pan a little to stop the burning. My mom is a cake maker and she uses this technique when baking cakes.
love the scientific approach to simple foods such as pizza and even though its seen as a simple pizza it can be a very deep rabbit hole and complex with the amount of options
Heat oven to 500-550F with ¼ inch baking steel on middle rack (steel better than stone for us). Make pizza for 8x10” Lloyd pan, put lots of olive oil in pan, layer dough (rise in pan), seasoned hamburger, cheese (we used 65 grams each of grated sharp white cheddar, muenster, and fontina, for a total of 195 grams), and put sauce stripes on top. We put almost a whole green pepper (thinly sliced) on top of that. Cooked for 13.5 minutes on top of the steel. Good stuff.
I would have loved to see you try out the other cheeses on the NY style pizza as well and see if they have the same issue of breaking from the heat. Mozz can get bland and I've heard quite a few people are starting to use blends. Would love some more depth of flavor to my thinner pies. Thanks Charlie
Some of my best pizza's have been cast iron pizza. I consider it my Detroit style because I don't have the pan. Other than that, as long as you make a good dough, the toppings are complimenting the pizza dough. Fermenting the dough gives it much more flavor. Good luck on your pizza adventure!
It’s really cool seeing how one can come close to the flavor and texture profile of brick cheese with different types of cheeses! I am very happy that Muenster ended up being used as a cheese for this experiment - the subtle tanginess and creamy mouth fuel has always been my main draw to that cheese, especially on pizza! I’m eager to see what comes next!
Check out "New England Style Greek" Pizza. It's made with a dough that's enriched in olive oil, along with thick tomato sauce and a 50/50 blend of Mozzarella and Cheddar and then almost pan-fried for that super crispy bottom and crust. When done right is amazing, my favorite type of pizza!
There are several cheeses available in different parts of the US which are very much like brick. On the west coast we have, for example, Monterey Jack, widely available. More fat and more flavor than mozz. Old country Italians buy Monterey Jack in quantity, wrap it in olive-oiled cheesecloth and store it away for months until it quite dries out. Then it makes a very useful grating cheese. Lots of pizza makers out here use Monterey Jack rather than mozz. It works very well.
Northeastern PA pizzeria’s have been using this type of cheese for a century. I’ve worked at many joints and it was never a mix, always straight up white cheddar. So much better than mozzarella.
@CharlieAndersonCooking Thank you for your NY style aka Joes pizza recipe. I'm near Berlin, Germany and miss my NY pizza so I've been making it here using your recipe. When I make the Detroit style pizza I will definitely have to substitute something for Wisconsin cheese since I don't think I can source it here. I'm thinking Muenster or just mozzarella. I'm curious how shredded gouda could be used on pizza. I'd love to see you create a video about how to create a Chicago style pizza, a Joe's Sicilian and/or a grandma's pizza.
After a bit of research I discovered Monterey Jack is also made in Wisconsin and probably other non-western states. Many descriptions of Monterey Jack on the internet describe it as a semi-hard. It is not necessarily semi-hard; it comes in several styles and most are semi-soft or sort rather than semi-hard.
Thank you for putting in the work!!!! You get deeper in to the details than anyone else. About the brick cheese, I found it locally and unintentionally (in Arcadia, Ca) but thought it was not worth it at all.
I am very jealous of your options at GFS. I am in the Chicago area with three GFS stores in short driving distance to me. Across them all, their options for non-grated cheese are extremely limited. None have Wisconsin Brick and the only mozz they sell is Gordon branded.
Yeah it's interesting how different the stock is between locations. I'm currently living in Cleveland, but have to travel back to Michigan sometimes to get certain products from there (like Grande Mozzarella). I was actually surprised that the Cleveland location carried wisconsin brick cheese.
I haven't managed to get my hands on brick cheese, but I have made a nice detroit style with 2 parts mozz, 1 part Monterey Jack, and a little white cheddar. I actually really enjoyed the flavor combo, almost tasted like a really nice grilled cheese. Definitely something to try if youre craving pizza, but something a little different.
Where I'm located, brick cheese is very readily available. If your brick cheese is tangy, it ain't brick cheese. Brick is salty, buttery, and mild. It has poor stretch and very readily oils off. Muenster is the closest substitute however, it's flavor profile is more milky rather than buttery.
We follow you because of the way you do do things. Please dont change. Keep the controversy and keep going. Love the way you do things, brother. Please dont change when the views come!
A local pizzeria offer half-baked pizzas with a pack of Provolone cheese slices. (They seem to include about a pound!) Most in my family like it when the cheese is cooked to a darker color (without toppings or sauce on top). I wonder how Havarti would do, as it is really good in grilled cheese sandwiches.
I'm UK based and I always blend in some of our chedder with mozeralla for the exact flavour I'm looking for, more umami than the mild moz we have in stores anyway
I've used grocery store Oaxaca cheese instead of mozz and it is FANTASTIC. Your description of brick cheese is kinda similar, but saltier rather than tangier.
I will definitely look for this and mix, I usually use fontina, and grate aged asiago. mozzarella doesn't have flavor that I want, ok on ...Parm with romano, Parm or aged asiago. I'm open to trying new things
Sal’s Ny Pizza here in Australia imports Wisconsin and it really makes their pizzas. I wish I could get ahold of some. I have to go for locally made Mozzarella though, hoping a new one I’ve got with higher fat % will be potentially decent.
@@AvenueD417 Yep well aware of Grande Mozz from my many years on the pizzamaking NY Style forum. I don't know which specific Wisconsin Mozz Sal's are using here in Sydney but it could well be Grande. With that said, I'm not going to lose my sh*t if I find out they aren't as the fact they're the only pizza stores marking a totally credible NY Style here in Australia is a major accomplishment in itself. It's a damn fine pizza.
I have previously used a combination of the mildest cheddar I can find locally and colby jack, about 40/60 favouring the colby jack. Gonna have to do some experimentation with some of the cheeses you use and see what I can get. Aloha and Mahalo!
I'm glad someone else uses Wisc. brick cheese on pizza. I use a combination of WBC, Oaxaca (Chihuahua cheese), and Provolone to get the taste and texture I desire for my pan pizzas. It's fun to see others trying different ways too.
@CharlieAndersonCooking You can find Wisconsin Brick Cheese in 8 oz blocks at Marc's stores if you don't want to buy the huge blocks at GFS. I'm pretty sure it's the Great Lakes brand too.
based off what Charlie is saying, what I've seen on reddit, as well as the comments of this video, I think I'm going to try a half blend of Muenster and Oaxaca cheese. I've always been moderately disappointed with Mozzarella cheese.
We have a GFS here where I live in central Illinois, but no brick cheese there. One local store briefly carried it, but that was five years ago, and I haven't seen it since.
Aged brick or not??? I'm assuming not, since the aged stuff has a strong funk. But really surprised you didn't address this at all. I once called Buddy's, and they told me they used aged brick on their pizzas.
I live in Finland and I never use mozzarella on pizza. It's pretty tasteless imo. I use Finnish cheese. its name is "arkijuusto" and translated into English "Everyday cheese" 😅. Awesome video as always!
i'd say the higher fat content with the brick cheese is causing the edge to fry even more than the mozz. side. Much like we have on the bottom of pan pizza frying the dough lining it with oil.
Is brick cheese similar at all to deli-style block American cheese like Land-o-lakes or Boar's Head? Based on the video it doesn't seem like it. But regardless, (even if it sounds like total sacriledge) Charlie I would highly recommend you give this cheese a try on your Detroit style. I find it's got just enough funk and creaminess to blend great with mozz on a Detroit style.
When I make pizza at home with (full fat) mozzarella it tastes like absolute nothing to me to, like, a concerning degree. But when I buy pizza from somewhere the mozz (I assume) is mild, yet plenty tasty. I don't understand why it's so different at home, but it's driving me nuts trying to figure it out. I've tried different brands of mozz and it's the same bland, completely tasteless result every time. I think I just need to give up and try blends like what you're suggesting.
Probably because pizza shops can order Grande mozz, which is generally considered the best. Have you tried Boar’s Head Full Fat Low Moisture? It’s usually pretty pricey though at like $9/lb
@@bgaviator I've heard the hype around Grande but have never been able to find it. If that's actually the difference maker I would face palm pretty hard. Haven't tried Boar's Head but I'll definitely add that to the list, thanks. It's just the weirdest experience when the cheese tastes like absolutely nothing so I'd love to figure it out.
Try mixing in Oaxaca mexican cheese. It's what I use because I can't find any brick cheese and it seems to have all the same characteristics people describe the Wisconsin cheese having.
Is it just me or is Muenster cheese highly underrated??? I started making pizzas with Muenster cheese recently, and they're absolutely the best tasting pizzas I've ever made. These are the first pizzas I've made that my wife prefers over take out. Shes an honest critic (to be fair, I ask her for the brutal honesty because I want to improve my pizzas), and she seems to really love the pizzas I'm making these days. Maybe Muenster cheese gets a bad wrap because Little Ceasars uses it? Regardless, it makes an absolutely delicious pizza and i recommend anyone to try it on their next pies.
I live 30 miles north of a major city and the small grocery store near me has the brand of Wisconsin brick in this video, and cooper’s American cheese to boot.
I read that Little Caesar's uses a mix a whole milk mozzarella and Muenster. I have no idea if this is true, but my 2/3 mozz to 1/3 muenster tastes awesome.
Pizza cheese melting from the heat coming from the pizza stone? If that was the case, the crust-side of the cheese would brown first leaving the top side of the cheese less brown.. Since the top is brown and the bottom of cheese is less brown (if you do not broil nor use residual oven heat near the top of the oven). Had you had two pizza stones cooking two pizzas, and you didn't swap them sometime during the cook, the one on the top would have been far more brown than the one on the bottom. Obviously, check pizza stone temps to be the same before cooking. One thing that many do not realize with dynamically heating up things is that the item being heated is subject to its volume to surface area ratio. The higher the ratio, the slower to heat up. The lower the ratio, the faster to heat up. This is why it'd take days to roast an elephant compared to mere moments to roast a hummingbird. Chunks/cubes of cheese with the same weight of shreds of cheese will take on the heat slower than the high surface area shreds. Because the shreds transfer the heat faster, it's more likely to reach a burning/brownies temperature sooner.
I've been curious about using Oaxaca cheese on a pizza. It's a Mexican type cheese developed with cow tripe. It's tangy, melty and stretchy. Ever try it? I might try it on a pizza in my own experiment.
I think Chihuahua would work better if you're doing Mexican cheeses. Oaxaca is a bit stringy and I don't think melts all that well. Now if you were making a margarita style pizza, it would probably work as a good fresh mozzarella replacement
I'm curious what you would think of shredded Chihuahua cheese on your thin crusts. I think it might have the potential to beat the Mozzarella V&V Supremo is the easiest quality brand to find in the US
@@bgaviator not super shocked - especially as a pizza maker in Detroit (well, okay, the suburbs). Brick Cheese is weirdly hard to find depending on what vendors you use, at least in Metro Detroit. I've definitely seen it at some of the GFS locations in the area, but also not at others. My usual go-to place is a little hole-in-the-wall retail front for a food service distributor in the area. Very much looks like it's still out of the 80's
I'm not sure what you did with the white text to represent the 4 areas of the pizza but it's really disorienting to read (example at 11:10). Maybe just an editing error?
If it's fattier I'm not interested. Honestly there's a way to do this pizza thing without breaking the caloric budget, I need a pizza I can eat everyday.
I am resisting buying a carbon steel pan for the same reason. I tend to just do a slightly fluffier more artisan NY style dough topped with mutti aromatica sauce and some olive oil. I cook it all the way till charred like it's a tomato pie. Right at the end I top with a parmesan of my liking that I've pre-shredded and let it melt on for 10-15 secs but not separate. It's light but tasty so I can eat it on a regular basis. The parmesan stores much longer in the fridge, easier to grate, less required and has more taste.
@@BlackLotusVisualArchiveDepends how you make it and also what you're comparing it to. It's healthier than a bag of chips for example which may have been the alternative meal.
My understanding of Munster in Europe is that its really not a mild cheese. If you get the stuff from Alsace it actually stinks to high heaven in a good way and has a much stronger flavour.
Muenster cheese in the US (typically spelled with an e) is not the same thing as munster cheese in Europe (spelled without the e). US muenster cheese is soft, melty, and relatively mild - as a kid, I really loved it in grilled/ toasted cheese sandwiches. The edges are dyed to imitate a rind, but it's not washed like munster is and there's no real rind to it like there is with French munster. French munster is also made with raw milk and has PDO status. In my opinion, the cheese I've had in Europe that tastes the most like US muenster cheese is Spar's own brand of Hungarian trappista cheese.
