If you have not tried it at Sally's, Pepe's or Modern, you have not tried the real thing. Those are the "Holy Trinity" of New Haven style pizzerias that everyone else copies.
It's not bitter. It's charred, which gives it a distinctive flavor. Coal burns hot and dry, and not with steam. As it says on the Pepe's website:
"Frank Pepe knew in 1925 that only coal burns hot and dry, and doesn’t give off steam like a wood fire. He knew that only a coal fire could give his “tomato pies” their famous crisp, charred, chewy crust.
We knew when we began to bring Pepe’s Pizza closer to you that we had to recreate his original oven, brick by brick, with a fire door cast from a mold of the original. And even in today’s fast-paced world, we knew that our customers might at times be willing to wait a few minutes longer for our world famous pizza. So that’s how we do it today. Grandpop, you taught us well."
and that is why i have, only these places. it wouldn't otherwise have been worth claiming to having properly experienced the places for NH style to which the style came from.
OH it most certainly
is bitter.
You've obviously never tasted good brick oven bread you'd have that palette transcending whatever form a dough takes whether baguette or pizza crust.
Because bitterness is about taste.... flavor. And I am saying its flavor profile emcompasses a hint of bitterness from the fierce fire, the char.
Your discussion should be about it's charred, not burnt. If you had read closely enough however that's not the point I made.
"But fierce fire, char, gives you that bitterness not unlike a master bread bakery with a hard wheat, high glutine flour, brick oven loaf.
leading to which, the new haven style also has that signature hint of bitterness as well, i mean hey, they have coal fired ovens.
however what their dough lacks is flavor from fermentation... it's a rather bland dough... "
Frank Pepe's description wasn't needed, but he is saying his stuff isn't burnt, it's charred. The taste, or flavor of which, will be bitter. A hint, I would address it again as that, as not the entire pie is burnt nor tastes burnt.
I can easily quote Bon Apettite but I won't,
essentially, charring is controlled burning, as in you diiberatly burn some, but not all of your product, purposely.
Going back to my point, which the uncharred parts of the NH pies are rather bland. Charring can compensate, or covers up shortcomings in doughs. To which I suspect they, for saving time as time is $, their doughs don't have a long fermentation time. The same can be said of 'certain' famous NY places btw.
I've had better crust taste experiences of non charred, gas fired pies than the pale spots on a NH pie. Because their doughs were given enough time to age, like a proper wine.
When i order my pies, I tell them well done regardless where I am. I seek the taste of slight bitter nuance.
But since it's there, i would say the suggestion from their 'grandson' about wood and why he uses coal, is partly marketing and it casts a good story. Green wood would give off steam but proper cured wood, which is what you'd want to only use anyway, is negligible. Charcoal, if it is true charcoal, would be lump charcoal, which is wood too anyway.
Doesn't stop the Neapolitan pies from Italy at 900-1000 degrees from using wood (requiring it for certified Neapolitan).
The classic montreal pies suffer from several faucets... the doughs beg to be stretched a bit thinner... the low moisture mozz cheese seems to lack butter fat, it does not noticably sweat the 'orange' oil, and develops brown spots a bit too early in the baking process, going past creamy melted too fast, and the oven temps are maybe too low for maximzing oven spring. Neverthless I'm still looking for places that have the best of its style.
patch.com
nypost.com
