Posted on 05/27/2017 9:54:55 AM PDT by Trillian
AN AVALANCHE OF CHEESE pours into the test kitchen at the Denver headquarters of Leprino Foods, the mozzarella supplier to Pizza Hut, Domino's and Papa John's. First, thin wisps of low-moisture mozzarella, then a diced alternative, followed by an "artisanal" version, cut short and wide. Then come flavored cheeses made with a mozzarella base, as well as provolone, cheddar and Monterey Jack.
Cooks bring out a take-and-bake pizza, a New York-style pie and a stuffed crust, fresh from nearly a dozen ovens. Another course features frozen food made with Leprino products, including ham-and-cheddar Hot Pockets, Stouffer's lasagna and Smart Ones baked ziti. Then come the cheese cubes marketed as snack pairings: pear flavor with nuts or Gorgonzola with pretzels. Team Leprino next brings out dessert: salted-caramel-flavored mozzarella wrapped in hot dough, rolled in cinnamon sugar. After an hour, the plastic shot glasses appear for sampling the company's lactose and whey powders, which end up in protein bars, Yoplait yogurt, Pillsbury Toaster Strudel and baby formula consumed by millions of infants annually.
Two floors above this dairy deluge, in a dark-wood-paneled office with white marble floors, Corinthian columns and gold accents, sits James Leprino, the Willy Wonka of cheese. "It's hard for me to believe I agreed to this," the 79-year-old billionaire says. "I really like to keep my privacy."
Indeed he does, to a nearly unprecedented degree, given the way he dominates his industry. Leprino has somehow eluded photographers for decades: A Google search picks up photos of fellow Colorado billionaire Philip Anschutz and cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder. There isn't a single image of Leprino on his company's website. But after nearly 60 years running the business and more than a decade on Forbes' list of billionaires, Leprino, worth an estimated $3 billion, is finally willing to be interviewed about
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
No more than twice a year. Honest. Little Squeezers is an apt nickname.
I make my own pizza also, ‘cause I won’t spend $25 on a mediocre pizza and mine are as good as they get.
Working with yeast isn’t that difficult, though it takes some practice.
I use Romanelli Pizza Sauce, out of the can, probably the same stuff your local pizzeria uses since they do sell it in #10 cans.
The REAL SECRET is: get a cast iron pizza pan! Crust is perfect every time at 450 degrees. Nice chewy texture and slightly burned-crisp depending how long you bake it. You can find Lodge Cast Iron pre-seasoned for about $25.
Pizza hut, papa johns, and dominos, is not pizza. At best an unreasonable (yes, unreasonable) facsimile thereof.
You want real pizza, you go to an independent pizzeria in brooklyn.
The rest of you out of new york state freepers ought to be ashamed of yourselves. ;-)
He must be the guy that cut the cheese . . .
Cast Iron sound good. I am checking out a Lodge Cast Iron Pizza Pan right now . . .
. . . From what I read, cast iron takes longer to get up to baking temperature. If that is true, maybe that’s the secret towards preventing a soggy crust caused by the toppings sweating out their liquids into the tomato sauce layer and into the crust. What you don’t want to do is burn the bottom of the crust while trying to get the toppings to dehydrate.
Reviewers of such cast iron pans complain about warping. That does not bother me. My aluminum pan works even with all the ridges from the multitude cuttings I have carefully made with my pizza cutter: A Chinese meat cleaver!
Explians to me why all the pizza these days tastes like garbage. 60 years ago when you bought pizza, you bought PIZZA! Today ALLpizza and ALL Chinese food stinks. You have no idea what your missing.
One of the secrets of the sauce is basil, don't know the other spices. The sausage, I believe, is seasoned with fennel seed. Chef John did a video on mixing just a little chopped fennel with ground pork and frying it up for sausage.
Not the best photo, can't embed it from Harris Pizza in the Quad Cities
Washington Post - Why your next homemade pizza should hail from the Midwest, not New York"
If I find myself in Windsor hell better be frozen over. If I find myself across the river in Detroit I had better be dead already.
In this video you may learn how pizzas are made or just stare at the women speaking perfect english which I did.....
The Pizza Vending Machine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pyrav_9Pbsc
Nice!!
Ed
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