This article is a perfect example of ‘go far enough in one direction and you wind up back where you were’.
Pizza, when it began rising in popularity in the 40s and 50s, was a specific particular thing by definition. To sell it you had to figure out the craft of making it.
Fast forward to the late 70s early 80s and pizza parlor saturation everywhere and...now it’s a business and in stiff competition with other businesses. This drove the decline in the craft of making pizza. Lowering the temp of the ovens considerably. Dumbing down the flour to a cheaper less glutinous variety. Getting rid of the sourdough starter. No more semolina in the ovens. And, some argue moving away from he and kneading for a specific length of time. Don’t get me started on the cheese. It turned to plastic. The sauce is the only improvement over that time span. The fact of the matter is EVERY pizza parlor pizza was a 48 hour fermented sourdough pizza.
The difference just temperature alone makes is profound. Last holiday season we ordered a pizza on Thanksgiving eve. Being a monster volume night the cooks were forced to raise the temp of the ovens to maintain a decent operating temp. To raise the temp of these ovens it has to be done well in advance as the process takes hours to get to the specified temp. I took one bite and could taste the difference. Judging by the char they still were a good ways off the average 1968 oven temp but the magnitude of difference in smell and taste amazed me.
Now people are investigating the craft of making pizza because a hell of a lot of pizza parlor pizza isn’t anything special.
BAKING IS CHEMISTRY! It’s as simple as that.
All of the above applies to bagels and soft pretzels as well.
I always say, the crust and the sauce are the most important things, I think assembly has rules too as I posted earlier, but dude if you eff up the dough and the sauce, you got nothin. Also, keep it simple stupid.
I'd say 625F is a good temp for production purposes.