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I don't get why other areas of the country have such a hard time making decent pizza. I was on a neighborhood tour of the Lower West Side a few weeks back and

I don't get why other areas of the country have such a hard time making decent pizza. I was on a neighborhood tour of the Lower West Side a few weeks back and this came up when we sampled slices from what I think was the 2nd oldest pizzeria in NY. The guides attributed it to two things. One, the water used, the NY water supply comes from springs in the Catskills Mountains which have some sort of environmental protections. The other is the quality of the ingredients, the guide pointed out that the simple slice of cheese pizza didn't have any oil pooling on top of the cheese, cheap cheese will result in the oil separating during the cooking processed (that seems legit based on the pizza I get in TX).

aeromusek 9y ago
Freakonimics (great podcast!) did a test a few years back that pretty convincingly dispelled the whole 'it's the water' argument: http://podcastnotes.org/2015/11/09/freakonomics-food-science-victory/ http://podcastnotes.org/2015/11/09/freakonomics-food-science...
- AndrewNCarr 9y ago
  Varasano also rejects the "special water" claim. I think the historically poor quality of pizza in rural areas is due to the "trade secret" recipe factors (which Varasano identifies) not being widely shared. I've been to small towns with a "House of Pizza" that made an awful flavorless and bready crust, and the locals loved it because they had no reference for anything better.
  - ericd 9y ago
    Yeah, it's probably mainly New York's intense competition that has made the pizza excellent. Unless you're in Times Square and have lots of tourists to prey on, you just can't pay the rent if you make bad food in NYC, it's too easy to find (and walk to) 10 other restaurants making the same thing.
- jbigelow76 9y ago
  That was a really interesting podcast. Thank you for the recommendation, I'm considering picking up Kenji-Alt's book as a result!
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

aeromusek 9y ago

Freakonimics (great podcast!) did a test a few years back that pretty convincingly dispelled the whole 'it's the water' argument: http://podcastnotes.org/2015/11/09/freakonomics-food-science-victory/ http://podcastnotes.org/2015/11/09/freakonomics-food-science...

AndrewNCarr 9y ago
Varasano also rejects the "special water" claim. I think the historically poor quality of pizza in rural areas is due to the "trade secret" recipe factors (which Varasano identifies) not being widely shared. I've been to small towns with a "House of Pizza" that made an awful flavorless and bready crust, and the locals loved it because they had no reference for anything better.
- ericd 9y ago
  Yeah, it's probably mainly New York's intense competition that has made the pizza excellent. Unless you're in Times Square and have lots of tourists to prey on, you just can't pay the rent if you make bad food in NYC, it's too easy to find (and walk to) 10 other restaurants making the same thing.
jbigelow76 9y ago
That was a really interesting podcast. Thank you for the recommendation, I'm considering picking up Kenji-Alt's book as a result!
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]