Since I started my journey for the perfect Neapolitan pizza more than 15 years ago, I’ve experimented with countless techniques and recipes, and that has taught me one crucial lesson. The key to success is to log every step in your pizza-making process, so you know what’s making your pizza better and what’s not.
In this article, I will dive into the importance of keeping track of your pizza-making so you can avoid making the same mistakes over and over. You will also learn how to identify which changes improve your pizza so you can speed up your journey to the ultimate pizza.
Small changes have a huge impact on your pizza
The pizza-making process consists of a series of steps, and each step is a crossroad where the choices you make take you in a different direction. And each choice you make, right or wrong, will lead you to vastly different destinations.
Consider the seemingly small choice of making dough with 70% hydration instead of 60%. This decision will lead you down a completely different path. The dough will be stickier and harder to handle, it will speed up fermentation, and make the dough more extensible. As a result, it will produce a very different pizza with a taller, airier crust.
And that’s just one example, when you make pizza, you face countless of these small decisions.
We often know what the goal is. Whether it’s a tall and light crust, an explosion of flavor, or to replicate Franco Pepes legendary “Margherita Sbagliata”. But how do you get there?
That is the true challenge. Whether you’re a total beginner that just wants to understand why your pizza dough is tearing when you stretch it, or you’re a seasoned pizza maker that just wants that last oven spring to make the perfect pizza, we all want to figure out which path will lead us there.
Improve your pizza by keeping a log
It took me 10 years of pizza-making to realize how simple it is to create consistent pizza and to constantly improve.
Sometimes my pizza came out just perfect. The dough was amazing to work with, the crust was light and airy, and the flavors were simply mouthwatering. I thought I’d mastered it, but the next time I tried replicating that success, it ended in failure. When I believed I’d made progress and had it all figured out, I took one step forward and two steps back. This emotional roller coaster fueled my determination to find the secret to consistently exceptional pizza.
Tracking progress by logging every step
One late Friday night, I stumbled upon the quote, “What gets measured gets managed” by Peter Drucker.
It hit me like a ton of bricks! The solution to my inconsistent problem was to keep a log of what I did and how I did it. It seemed so obvious. After all, I’d been lifting weights in the gym for years and always kept a log to track my progress. Similarly, when I dabbled in beer brewing a few years ago, every book, YouTube video, or blog post on the subject always talked about the importance of keeping a log. Yet, it appears that no one is talking about this in pizza-making!
Now I’m logging every step of the process every time I make pizza, and it has had a tremendous impact on my results. Since I started applying this practice, my pizzas have become much more consistent. Logging has also made it easier to pinpoint the changes that brought me closer to my pizza goals, whether it’s achieving a light and fluffy crust or developing stronger and more complex flavors.
And most importantly, it has helped me avoid repeating the same mistakes.
What to track for success
The question is what exactly should you log? In this section, I’ll go over the key aspects you should include in your pizza-making log so you can make better pizza.
The more you log, the faster you’ll improve your pizza
To get the most out of your log, you should be as specific as possible.
Write down even the smallest details, because taking a left turn instead of a right turn will lead to a completely different pizza. And to progress, you need to know which turn is the correct turn.
The first thing you should keep track of is the recipe, including precise measurements of your ingredients. Secondly, record the overall process, the different steps, and the order in which you perform them. Additionally, document the fermentation time and temperature, your stretching technique, and the toppings you’re using, as well as the baking time and temperature
By logging all these details you can go back to your notes when things don’t turn out as expected and identify what you did differently this time.
Don’t be shy about your mistakes – and never repeat them again
Remember, you don’t need to show your log to anyone, so don’t hesitate to record every error you make. Failing and acknowledging it allows you to learn from your mistakes and succeed faster.
Use your log to analyze and adjust your pizza process
Once you’ve gotten in to the habit of tracking your prograss, it’s time to work on improving your pizza.
Change one variable at the time
The most important thing when making changes to your pizza dough is to only change one thing at a time. If you change the flour, the hydration, and the fermentation time you don’t know which of them made a difference. All of them probably had an impact on your pizza.
By making only one change, you can observe how for example using Caputo Pizzeria flour instead of bread flour affects your pizza’s texture, flavor, and overall outcome. If the pizza is closer to your goal, you can go ahead and experiment with hydration next time.
Isolating each change will give you a better understanding of how each variable affects your pizza, allowing you to make informed decisions for future adjustments.
Identifying patterns in your log so you know what to adjust
When you log your pizza-making process, you’ll start to notice patterns. For instance, if you experiment with different recipes, you might notice that every time you cold-ferment your dough you like the taste and texture of the crust better.
Sometimes noticing these patterns takes a long time. For example, you may notice that your dough always turns out better in the summer than in the winter, despite following the exact same recipe and method. But then you realize that the humidity is lower in the winter, so your dough actually ends up having lower hydration. With this knowledge now understand which variable to adjust to improve the dough
Identifying patterns that you may only find after a long period of logging data will provide valuable insights and help you make adjustments based on your preferences and goals.
Re-evaluating and adjusting your approach based on your pizza log
To eliminate mistakes, and speed up the path to the perfect pizza you constantly have to evaluate your methods.
The first step is to focus on eliminating consistency and eliminating mistakes. How the dough turns out should not be like playing the lottery.
One of the most important things you can do to instantly improve the consistency is to measure your ingredients using a scale rather than using cups and tablespoons. Next, is to record your process as accurately as possible. Did you start with dry or wet ingredients first? Did you run your stand mixer for 12 or 18 minutes? These are all important questions to know when you want to replicate the exact same pizza. And trust me, you will not remember every single detail next time you make pizza.
When you’re making consistent dough, eliminating mistakes is easy. Then all you need to do is keep adjusting one variable at a time, and when it’s working, you’ve solved the problem forever.
When you’ve eliminated the mistakes, that’s where the fun really starts! Now you can start focusing on how to make your pizza better. What is your perfect pizza? Do you just want to make the pizza slightly crisper, or do you want to recreate the magic of the memorable vacation to Naples 8 years ago?
Keep experimenting and trying new things
It’s also important to not get stuck with one single goal.
As you continue your pizza journey, you should experiment and try new methods and approaches so you can have new, eye-opening pizza experiences. I always encourage pizza bakers to try new techniques and flavors, because there is a lot more out there. I’m 100% certain that you haven’t tried the best pizza in your life yet.
You should acknowledge that even if you set out on a journey, your goals will evolve over time, and new interesting ideas, techniques, and flavors are everywhere.
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