"George" > ha scritto nel messaggio
...
> Bob (this one) wrote:
>
> >
> > Look to the oven for the taste. Pizza ovens - the deck types, not the
> > modern conveyor ovens - always have a little leftover stuff in them that
> > burns and makes smoke.
> >
> > The baking process at very elevated temperatures changes taste and
> > texture of everything on the pizza.
> >
> > But no ingredients to give a smoky flavor.
> >
> > Pastorio
> >
>
> You hit it exactly. That good taste comes from a really hot well used
> oven. There was an excellent mon & pop pizza place one town over. Dad
> retired and Jr took over. One of the first things he did was remove the
> good anthracite coal fired oven and put in one of those conveyer "air
> ovens". The recipe seems exactly the same but now he produces mediocre
> Dominos/Pizza hut style pizza.

One option at this point, if you've got a yard with a little space or a
patio (couldn't do this in an apartment building, alas) is to get a
wood-fired pizza oven and cook your own. A friend of mine imports them to
the US, and the pizza I had at his house was very good. You can see a
picture of his, which he assembled in the course of a day, at
http://italianfood.about.com/od/brea...s/pizzaovn.htm, which also has
links to his site. If the house I'll moving into this spring didn't already
have a pizza oven I would consider getting something along the lines of what
he sells -- Italian hardware stores carry pizza ovens in kit form, and sell
a lot of them.

James also uses his to bake bread, and says it's fantastic for roasting,
especially vegetables.

Kyle
http://italianfood.about.com