November 10, 2018 • 51 mins
Sure it's everywhere and there's a more-than-90-percent chance you eat it once a month. But we'll bet you don't know the full history of that pizza (or tomato pie) you're about to chow down on. Join Chuck and Josh as they explain it to you, bite by bite.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
How do you Everybody? Happy Saturday? Chuck here to introduce
my pick for the stuff you should have select this
week about pizza. Boy, oh boy, do we have fun
on this one. October eleven, two thousand twelve shall live
in infamy because we talked all about pizza from its
from its origins to where it stands today, Where to
get the best pizza? Oh my goodness, it was so
(00:24):
much fun. It's gonna make you hungry too, so please enjoyed. Everyone.
Welcome to Stuff you should Know from house Stuff Works
dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark,
There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. I'm a little under the weather,
(00:46):
a little rundown, but I feel better than I sound.
I am over the weather. Yeah whatever that means. It
means you're in great spirits, good shape. Sure can put
your hand through that wall next to you. I probably
could actually on certain days, but not today. That's a
good Chuck. Yet you're doing okay? Yeah? Great, guld your
feeling better Even though you sound crappy, man, I really don't.
(01:08):
It's always reminiscent of the six month period that you're sick. Earlis. Yeah, now,
I'm healthy. I don't smoke, I exercise, I eat right
a juice. Isn't it remarkable how you don't get sick
as often when you live right? Yeah, when you treat
your body exactly? Um, well, chuck. It's an excellent segway because,
(01:28):
in my opinion, one of the best ways to treat
your body is to stuff it full of really good pizza. Yeah.
Have you had pizza before? Yeah? Dude, I love pizza.
I don't eat that much of it. Oh really No,
I mean I don't know how much. I mean, we
have stats on the average American and stuff. May I
spit one out? Sure? Every day Americans eat about a
(01:52):
hundred acres of pizza. I guess it would be Sicilian
because an acres it would be squared, although that have
to be square. No, you can have a round acre.
Uh yeah, I guess you could. Just forget what I said.
I've never seen a round acre before. I'm gonna imagine
an island. If it's round, Oh yeah, it would be
round acreage. There's not really any real round islands. There's
(02:15):
there's no such thing as a perfect circle of Gilligan's
Island was so round. It's just a circle. No, Yeah,
I love pizza. I don't know how much I eat
of it though compared to most people. Like i'd say
we order a pizza, like maybe once a month. What
we'll order a pizza? Are the only pizza you have?
Every every month? Yeah, we'll get like it. We'll order
(02:37):
a pizza delivery or and then probably will throw in
one visit to Antico which a month that you got
me beat there. I need to get out there more often. Yeah,
once every six weeks to two months for Antico. Yeah.
Here in Atlanta, Um, Chuck and I have a pizza place.
I guess everybody in Atlanta has it, but we're very
fortunate to have a place called Antico Pizza. It's really good.
And now I understand the name after researching this article.
(03:00):
Uh yeah, it's kind of close to the original pizzeria.
I think that's the point, is it, I would imagine.
I don't think they follow the traditional rules though. Okay,
we're spoiling all of me, well for my part. You
mean and I are crazy about pizza and we eat
it like all the time. Everything. We're frozen pizza to
Dominoes to um pizza out like by the slice. Yeah,
(03:22):
it's good. I have a lot more pizza when I
lived up in the New York area. Yeah, because I
would like get it after class. Just the single slice
would be huge slice and you fold it in half
and it's just great. Did you want pizza while you
were researching this? Did you? Oh? Yeah? Yeah? Alright? So
by the Antico though, it is really really good pizza,
the best pizza in Atlanta, most people agree on. And
(03:44):
judging by the line out the door every single day,
then uh, I would say, we're right. I've even gotten
into an argument with them on the phone, which I
don't do very often, about whether or not you can
order a cheese a pizza without cheese, and I'll still
go back there after hanging up on them in anger. Yeah,
they do it their way. They definitely do that. That's
the man. They also have the big the dressing station
(04:08):
which is like the basil plants. They don't even have it,
like it's not dried basil or even leaves. It's like
the plant. You pick the leaves off there and they
got the big chunks of garlic and it's just so good. Yeah,
you can hear your food. Go now, I want pizza, Okay,
good all right, that's what I was going for, Chuck.
You got it worked. Um so everybody. I'm sure it's
(04:29):
familiar with pizza. I don't think there's gonna be too
many huge surprises there. But there's a lot about pizza
that I would imagine you don't know. Yeah, we're gonna
tell you that kind of stuff. Like, for example, at
its core, pizza really is bread, cheese, and sauce. Yeah,
that's it, tomato sauce, right, unless you're getting funky. But
(04:51):
you can't get funky and still call it pizza customarily. Yeah,
it's one of those things where like it has to
be made a certain way or else it's not really pizza.
It's like a tomato a pie. I don't know though,
like I would call like a pesto pizza pizza. But
you were born American? Yeah sure, yeah. Well do you
think I was speaking as like a native Sicilian? Well no,
(05:12):
but I'm saying like maybe as a citizen of the world. Okay,
you know we're in the midst of globalization, Chuck, Let's
let's do this, all right, let's talk pizza history then,
huh uh. Yeah. I used to hear from uninformed people
like you know, pizza is really American. It didn't even
come from Italy, right, they're talking about chop suey. Just
not true at all. Pizza did come from Italy in
(05:34):
a way. We need to back up eiven even further,
probably to Greece, where some people attribute like the original
flatbreads that they would decorate with things, is like the
first pizza style thing. Right, you're talking like third century BC,
a long time ago, right, But I don't mean they
didn't call it pizza until what eighty one thousand in Naples? Yeah,
(05:56):
of course, Well Naples is like the cradle of pizza. Yeah,
I did didn't realized. I didn't notice that it went
back that far. That's pretty interesting. Well that's what was
first named pizza, meaning pie. Okay, so I also saw
a discrepancy here. I saw pizza also could mean um
to pinch or slice. That's that's what I got, pizza mint,
(06:16):
not necessarily pie. Well that's what this person says. Okay,
So we're at a D one thousand, right, Yes, this
is such a cool cold date. Um. And the the
reason pizza started to take off was because the peasantry
didn't have that much money, and this stuff was kind
of easy to come by. You made your bread, you
(06:37):
had some cheese, maybe some kazu marzou with the maggots,
uh and um, maybe some seasonings and some olive oil.
That's about it. It wasn't until you know, the one
of the biggest main ingredients. It wasn't until um, the
Colombian Exchange started to take place, that tomatoes were introduced
(06:58):
to Italy because those are a new world for Yeah,
I did a little tomato research because that's kind of
fascinating on its own. I think tomatoes come from Peru,
they believe originally. And uh, because the fruit of the
night shade, the deadly night shade, looks like a tomato,
a lot of people thought it was poisonous over the years,
(07:19):
many years ago. And uh, actual stems and leaves of
a tomato plant do contain a toxic tomatine. Huh. But um,
like what is it was a lot of it. But
what will happen to you? Well, I think there's been
one reported death from eating tomato stems and leaves supposedly.
(07:40):
I don't know if that's true though. They figured out, well,
the stems and leaves are kind of gross anyway. Let's
just see the tomato, so thank you spain um. And
also interestingly, even though it came from like South America,
you would think it made its way up through the
States via Central American Mexico, but it didn't. It like
took the circuit circuitous route via European immigrants, probably through
(08:05):
the Philippines too. If you're interested in that, dude, you
should really read four all about it's all about that stuff.
Is that gonna just keep writing books as they're going
to be There is a benevolent god. Yes. So anyway,
tomatoes all people discovered, Hey they're not poisonous, they're really delicious.
(08:27):
Let's start throwing them on the bread exactly. Then now
we have pizza, so we're talking like the seventeenth century
I think was when the term uh no, it wasn't okay,
so that kind of yeah, that goes against that research too.
I think I saw somewhere that the term was coined
in the eighteenth century, like seventeen thirty eight, they started
(08:48):
making pizzas as we know them today. You know, I
think there's some discrepancies just in pizza lore because that
long ago. I don't think they're necessarily keeping track of
all this stuff like we do today. Okay, so possibly
in a D one thousand or in seventeen thirty eight,
about seven hundred fifty years later, the word pizza was
used to describe this flatbread right, consisting of now tomato, sauce,
(09:12):
cheese bread right. Um. And but the one thing that
is not disagreed upon was that both of these took
place in Naples, that's right. And Naples was the center
of it. Like we said, the peasantry was really hip
to pizza because it was cheap and it was abundant. Yeah,
and so if you wanted to go find pizza, you
basically had to go into the peasant districts of Naples,
(09:36):
and uh there it was an abundance being sold from
street carts. Now, is that where the first pizzeria was, yes,
peasant Land, Yeah, okay, so Antiqua Pezzeria port Oliba. Yeah,
so Antiqua. I wonder if that's the same as Antiko.
Who won't know what the difference is. I don't know.
Someone will probably explain it to us, hopefully in Italian.
(09:59):
Is there an authority on at all? Right, So that's
eighteen thirty the first pizzeria, right, And also, um, I
didn't see it in here, but I came across it.
A Pizzaioli was a pizza maker. That was the name
of a pizza maker. Yeah, So the peasantry in Naples,
and probably it's starting to spread a little bit beyond that,
but the peasantry in Naples has been eating pizzas for
(10:20):
well over a century, almost two centuries by the time
Queen Margharita and King Umberto. Queen Margharita, Yeah, does that
name sound familiar in regards to pizza. Yeah, especially when
you see it spelled out right, you're like, oh, wait
a minute, that's where it came from. Exactly. Reportedly, so,
Queen Margharita was apparently like a pretty um hip queen.
(10:41):
She was down with the common person. And she and
Umberto went and toured the country in eighteen eighty nine,
and one of the places they went was Naples, and
one of the things they did was eat pizza. And
she was like, I love this, I want more of this.
Bring me Raphael Esposito, her personal chef. Yeah, I don't
(11:02):
know if it's a personal chef. It was a personal
pizza chef at least, And he said, Queen, the one
gonna make you some good a pizza, including one of
looks luck at the Italian flag. And that is the legend,
at least of how we got Margharita pizza because you
have the red tomato, the white mozzarel and the green basil,
and uh, there's your Italian flag. Yeah, it's a great story,
(11:23):
hopefully true. So supposedly he made her that one, the
Margharita pizza, which she liked the most and is named
after her. Um, another one with pork, fat, cheese and basil.
It sounds pretty awesome, uh, and then another one with
garlic oil, olive oil and tomatoes. All of them sound great,
but she chose the Margharita and that's the one that
was named after her. But the upshot of all this
(11:45):
is that the queen was suddenly eating peasant food. The
Queen's the most popular person in all of Italy all
of a sudden, and now, all of a sudden, places
other parts of Italy where pizza wasn't heard of or
eating or whatever, people are starting to make it. That's right,
And that's like uh eighteen nineties, yes, which is a
great time for pizza to be coming into its own
(12:08):
Because there was a little country called America coming into
its own and uh with the arrival of Italian immigrants
in the late nineteenth century in places like New York
and Chicago. In Philly, New York light, Uh, they would
eat pizza and it was again sort of like street food.
Um at the time, at least right UM so about
(12:30):
the time I guess when Margarita was extolling the virtues
of pizza, I guess her. Um, this wave of immigration
had such a tangible connection to the old world that
like almost immediately they were making pizzas in these cities.
Like you said, apparently New York was the first city
with an actual pizzeria. I believe that. Um, Lombardies, General
(12:54):
Lombardi apparently opened his shop in nineteen o five at
fifty third and a half Spring Street, New York. I
wonder what's there now? Lombardi was still there, I believe. Still. Wow,
that's pretty great. Yeah. And did we say that Antico
Pizzeria in Naples is still in the same spot, still
selling pizza since eighteen thirty. We did not, but that
is true. Yeah, and that is very cool. That makes
(13:16):
me want to go to Naples quite badly. Yeah, I mean,
you could get an original pizza from the original pizzeria. Yeah,
that's pretty cool. And we'll get to this in a
little bit. But you may be kind of surprised when
you eat a pizza, a Neapolitan pizza at the place
where it all started, compared if you're used to like
Papa John's. I had pizza and Italy once. Yeah, you know,
(13:38):
I was there and I figured why not. I guess
I'll do is the Italians do exactly? Okay, so that's
pretty much. Oh no, we didn't. We didn't finish the history. Yeah,
United States was coming into its own Italian immigrants coming
in bringing in pizza. Then after World War Two, of course,
with a lot of things. G I's came back with
these flavors for different UH countries, foods and drinks, and
(14:01):
they said, man, this pizza stuff is really great, so
let's start building chains and degrading the product. And we
did so with Shaky's in Ur was the first pizza
chain in the United States. California chain Pizza Hut was
founded in Kansas, of all places, and the reason, apparently,
(14:24):
as legend has it, that their named Pizza Hut is
because the place, the building kind of looked like a
hut and there was only room for nine spaces on
the sign. So pizza hut, that makes sense. Yeah, uh,
shaky Have you ever been the Shaky's? No, As a
matter of fact, um no. The only time I've ever
seen Shaky's was in the movie License to Drive with
the Two Corries. Yeah, they're all over l A and uh,
(14:47):
you know, sort of pizza huttie and feel like a
family joint pictures of beer. Not so great pizza. But
apparently Sherwood Shaky Johnson got in that name because of
some like affliction and he had that made him change. No, yeah, goodness,
but I guess he embraced it. Well, yeah, he name
this is very popular chain after it, and there's still
around huh oh. Yeah, I'm surprised it hasn't spread by now.
(15:10):
N there's pizza huts everywhere. Yeah, I mean I think
they have them outside of California, although I'm not positive.
I didn't get to look that up, but I know
they don't have them over here down south over here
in the Southeastern Bible Belt, all right, dough. Yeah, so
that's a piece of history. Yeah, we should probably get
(15:30):
to the basics. And there's nothing more basic than dough.
And there's an art to this. There's three ingredients that
are demanded, flour, water, and yeast. Everything else is just
icing on the cake. Yeah, but you probably are gonna
throw little salt in, little sugar, a little shortening to
make it do the things you wanted to do, perform
(15:50):
like you wanted to perform. Yeah, and you can go
to Mellow Mushroom Pizza and get a gluten free pizza.
I myself have not had one because I don't have Celiac, right,
and I'm not about to just no. Yeah, but um,
if you if you are into, if you are gluten free,
you are s o l in a lot of ways because, um,
the flower used in pizza crust, pizza dough, um is
(16:13):
high gluten, high gluten flour. That's why gluten free pizza
tastes like crap. I've not had it, so I can't say, yeah,
well that's just my opinion. Yeah you've had it. Yeah,
I've tried it. It's just not it's not the same.
I'm sorry everybody. They need gluten in the flower because
gluten makes a crust tough and uh, it won't crack
crack apart, makes it stand up to the water keeps
(16:36):
it ropey. Yeah, it keeps it nice and ropey. And um,
I guess we need to talk about water at some
point anytime, because waters, you know, the old saying about
New York pizzas is because the water. Oh yeah, that's
like the old saying. I don't know. So they change
the water. Now they have like water you can drink
right out of the tap. Did they change their water?
(16:57):
Oh yeah, man, they overhauled their serious system. There's bottled
water you can buy now. That's just New York City
tap water and stuff is so like clean and pure. Well,
it's because it comes from it comes from two aqua
aqua ducts, and the cats skills ship it into Manhattan.
We should do a podcast on how Manhattan gets water.
It's pretty amazing. Okay, now now can we wait until
(17:20):
we research it. Yeah, that's pretty amazing though. But um,
I read this Wired article that kind of broke down
the pizza water New York thing, and um they got
in touch with Mario Batali, very famous tian cheff and
asked him and he said, well, one of the reasons
before we get to water is that, um the oven,
(17:40):
he said, captures the gestalt or if you're German, the
gestalt of a beautifully cooked pizza. So basically over time
totally did say that over time, Well, it makes sense
to overtime, you're gonna get uh, particles like volatized particles
caking onto the walls and the roof of your oven,
and then the convection process will just like work that
(18:02):
into whatever you're cooking over the years. So, because they've
been making pizza for so long in New York, some
of these old ovens like have this gestalt, they can't
be matched anywhere else, he says, in Chicago as well. Um,
but then with the water, he says, Yeah, the biggest
problem with California pizza is the water. It's just not
the same. Although he doesn't he doesn't use New York,
(18:26):
New York water at his restaurant Del Posto. He actually
clones water from Italy. He doesn't, he does, yes, clones it,
That's what he said. It's uh, he's created his own
mineral water composite, working from a chemical analysis of Laua, Italiana,
and it said basically it's a clone of this Italian water.
(18:50):
It sounds kind of pretentious. We should go sell some
real estate or something. But that's why the I think
the Food Detective Show did a test, a blind test
on New York water and pizza crust, and everyone picked
the New York pizza in a blind test. So there
may be something to at the mineral composition. I'm sure
there is. Yeah. I mean, if you have even the
(19:11):
slightest belief in molecular gastronomy, it makes sense, which would
explain why New York bagels are the best too, because
bagels are boiled. Everyone knows or the right if you
make it the right way, it's boiled. Yeah, when you go, chuck,
that's my water sidebar chuck on water. Well, I've always
heard that you know New York pizzas because the water
is because the water from the Catskills. I had heard that.
(19:32):
I didn't know it was from the Catskills or had
anything to do with just stalt or anything like. Yeah,
all right, if you want to know, then you're in luck.
(19:57):
Just just The third vital ingredient is yeast, and yeast
basically creates the precursor to beer. Remember in the beer episode,
could you imagine if there was no yeast, we'd be
(20:17):
in big trouble. No pizza, no beer, what's the point?
No bread? This would be this world would be, it'd
be sad. Actually, there's yeast free bread, I think, but still,
you know, yeah, no, I know. So what what what's
to deal with you? Well, basically, the yeast goes in
and it eats the sugars found in the flower um
(20:37):
and then you may also add your own sugar to
increase the fermentation. Um. But it causes the dough to
rise because it expels gas as a byproduct, and that
gas gets trapped in the dough and it causes it
to rise. It makes it up more malleable, it makes
it um tastier, the texture of it is softer. It's
(21:00):
just basically yeast is It's the happy fun guy that
you add to the whole, the magic ingredient. Yeah. Uh,
if you add a little salt, it's gonna add some flavor. Obviously,
it's going to slow the fermentation. Shortening is gonna make
it more pliable by providing lube and shortening would be
like olive oil. You're not gonna use criscoe unless you're
some sort of heathen. No, you can just connote oil.
(21:21):
But olive oil is what I would go. But sure,
um yeah Crisco. Chrisco is great though for some things.
Oh yeah, for like sugar cookies, especially the kind that's
like just the just the the shortening, the thick solid Yeah,
shortening that stuff is crazy. That's what I thought if
that's the only way I thought you could cook growing up,
(21:42):
because of like my grandmother's. Yeah, I thought, well, when
you cook, you get out that big can and big
ice cream scoop and you cut it down with that
wadded up piece of like wax paper in there that
you used to scoop it out. Yeah, it's completely covered
in crisco now. Yeah. Uh, either that or the grandmother's
also used you know, they say aived all their greats,
so they would be cooking with grease that they've been
(22:03):
using for like the past year. It's really good. Um.
Sugar changes the fermentation rate. Yeah, you can accelerate it.
It can increase the amount of gas released. And it
also causes the crust of brown. Oh yeah, yeah, that's
the sugar. Ye. So what if you don't put sugar,
you get a glowing yellow crust, doesn't brown as much,
(22:24):
It doesn't brown. Okay, you want to bail it up,
use your your hands. Yeah, I think I think you
should say here, like you're teaching people how to make legitimate,
real pizza dough here, Yes, I mean gold in rough strokes. Okay,
Like I don't think anyone could like we're not providing measurements,
you know what I'm saying. No, no, but I'm saying,
once you've, once you've created this dough, now you're about
(22:44):
to tell them what to do with that, how to
make it. You want to bail it up with your hands. Um,
you don't want it all cracked. You want it tight,
and you want to put it on an oil cheap
pan and then proof it, which means you cover it
with wax paper and let it sit and let the
yeast do its thing until it like doubles in size
because the uses just sitting there eating sugars and pooping out. Yes. Uh,
(23:10):
then you need to retard it. Um. You need to
put it in the fridge for about twelve hours, and
then this slows the yeast down, but it's still doing
its thing. They're like this sugar, it's cold. Um. And
then if you do this, you've got pizza dough that
you can use for like three to five days. Yeah,
I would imagine most people who are really really into
(23:31):
pizza would be like, you can't save that for three
to five days? You think, I would think so fresh?
You think almost also do it like yeah, the same day. No,
I'm not saying that, but I'm saying like a pizza pierist, like,
can't use five day old dough for a decent pizza,
but I buy the dough sometimes like Trader Joe's, you know,
(23:51):
the Farmer's market, like the pre made dough balls, and
those are you know, not necessarily that day, and or
eat the oven. Well, you left out the sauce. Most
of the time it's tomato sauce. But if you're still
worried that tomatoes are poisonous and that the aristocracy is
trying to kill you by giving them to you, um,
you can eat garlic butter sauce, which will give you
(24:14):
a white pizza. You don't like white pizza. I don't
love white pizza. And if you go to Fellini's, We're
gonna name every single pizza place in town. If you
go to Fellini's in order a white pizza slice, you
know they use the pre made slice and they build
a white pizza on top of So you get a
little tomato sauce with your white pizza. That's really good,
but it's not white pizza then, right, No, not, you're
(24:37):
the one who calls like everything pizza you run around, Now,
that's a pizza. Look, there's a pizza over there. I
don't want to hear from you, all right, I'm not
a fan of white pizza, like some tomato sauce something. Yeah,
I'm with you if I like white pizza. Took um
and the cheese, you know, mozzarella traditionally, right, and the
way you build it is actually kind of important to Yeah,
(24:59):
depending on where you are. It's it's not just the ingredients,
it's the amount and the um, the distribution. Yes, where
they are in relation to one another vertically, well, let's
go ahead. Then New York is sauce, then cheese from
the dough, dough sauce, cheese, and then not that many toppings.
(25:21):
If you're a purist, again, cheese, a cheese slice is
what you're going for. I have not big on just cheese.
What are you? Pepperoni guy? No, not anymore, and that
since I was a kid. No, I'm just kind of
like pepperoni. So I like a good homemade Italian sausage.
Oh yeah, that's good. Yeah, that's really good. Um, I
like sliced tomatoes on it, not sun dried fresh. Yeah. Basil,
(25:44):
black olives, basil always am not into olives. I like sausage.
I don't like the green olives. I like black olives.
Do you like the Hawaiian pizzas. I've only in the
last couple of months gotten into pineapple, and I'm still
feeling my way around it. Pineapples and strawberries. I just
I used to strawberries when I was a kid, and
I've rediscovered him recently. I'm like, yeah, when we were
(26:04):
in the suite at the Marriott, when we were doing
interviews at Comic Con, ate like fifteen pounds of strawberries.
They were so good. The chocolate covered are regular, No,
they're regular. Yeah, I don't even need chocolate covered anymore.
It's like I'm free. Strawberries are delicious. Yeah, but Hawaiian
I'll tell you in a minute or two, I'll try.
Emily likes that she's big on mushroom, green pepper and
(26:25):
pineapple together. Yeah. She doesn't do the meats, you know,
at all. Just as a food as while we're talking
about wives and pizza preferences. Yeah, you may have this
place in DC she used to go to and she'd
get like a huge slice of pizza in this place
also sold Indian food, so she'd get chicken sog and
put the sog on the pizza and she said it
(26:45):
was really awesome. Wo yeah. Yeah, we have to do
the half and half and I get like sausage on
one half and she does veggie and then it's like,
your sausage juice got on my hat, Like, well, your
mushroom got on my half. You like a cheeseburger pizza.
I love cheese. I'm not too big on beef on
the pizza. I'll give you one more tip. Okay, get
yourself some complete seasoning some I can't remember what it
(27:09):
is in Spanish, but um complete seasoning. It's like a
Mexican blend, and put it on your pizza. It doesn't
matter what kind of pizza it is. It works on
popcorn too, but then your pizza. It's just it'll make
you smile. Well, my friend Eddie, who you know, would say,
get a bottle of ranch dressing in your all set.
Oh yeah, that's good alright. So man, that was a sidebar.
(27:31):
So you were saying, New York you build from the
dough up doe dough, sauce, cheese, and then maybe a
couple of topics. Chicago, it's the opposite. Yes, And this
is apparently a tomato pie the way it's built. Yeah,
because super deep dish right, baked in a pan, and
then you've got the cheese on the bread itself on
the dough, and then the toppings and then they put
(27:52):
this like ungodly thick, delicious sauce on top. Yeah. I've
not had it really, and I love pizza huts, pan pizza. Well,
the I mean you should definitely have like a true
Chicago style pizza. I mean it's it's great. You eat
it with a forking knife. I am a New York
pizza guy through and through. But you know, every once
in a while, if like when in Chicago, well this
(28:13):
is like um, when in Italy exactly. This is one
of those things where I don't think you have to
choose sides. No, let's just all eat all kinds of
pizza all the time. But people get really passionate about
their pizzas I know, but these are you know, It's like, man,
it's it's pizza. Enjoy all pizza. If there's one thing
we can all just settle down about. It's pizza, even
(28:34):
Mexican pizza coming. Yes, oh yeah, it's not pizza. What
are you crazy? You can't just run around saying that
what you eat is not pizza unless it's exactly what
the um Neapolitans are making. It's not pizza. It's not
a Neapolitan pizza. No, it's not pizza. Alright. So now
the ovens, I guess said this was an odd little
(28:58):
thing that they put in there. What about the different
kinds of ovens. Yeah, it just seemed intuitive to me. Well, sure,
well you use a peel. Not many people know that
that that big spanking paddle it's called a peel. I
didn't I have to say, okay, so you slide it
in there. They can be electric, they can be uh
cooked right on a conveyor belt, like if you're a
big pizza Chaine, which you know if you have a
(29:22):
belt even at home. That's true. But the king daddy
of all is the brick oven. Pizza cooked with wood
and like your crush should have little bits of black
char on it if you ask me for the best
for the best taste, which is actually soot it's been carbon. Yeah,
a little spoiler there for an upcoming show. And then
(29:43):
here in Atlanta, the Antico, I think they brought those
three ovens over from Naples, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah,
I can see that. So a lot of gestalt going
on there. There's tons of gestalt. Um. Neapolitan pizza. Yeah,
so Neapolitan pizza. Um is extremely thin crust, that's bubbly crust. Um.
(30:05):
You put on sauce and then maybe basil and mozzarella.
You don't cover the sauce. It looks like pretty much
equal parts. Just visibly looking down over the pizza, it
appears like equal splotches of basil, mozzarella and um sauce. Yeah,
kind of spare they don't overdo it and to be
a true Neapolitan pizza. As of December two thousand nine,
(30:27):
the European Union issued a protection that regional protection that
like champagne and what was the other thing we talked
about recently? Uh was it a cheese? I had to
have been probably yeah, um. And also I think neu
Chatel neuf Chatel has regional protection as well, but basically like,
(30:48):
it has to be produced in the area under these
certain guidelines to be considered that. Um, Neapolitan pizza enjoys
that economic protection now as well. And to beat Neopolitan
it has to be round. It can't be ostentatious no
more than thirteen and a half inches in diameter. Um,
it can only be a tenth of an inch tall,
(31:10):
which is thin at its center. Yeah. Yeah, Um. The
crust has to be no more than three quarters of
an inch thick. This is a really thin crust pizza, man. Yeah,
but not ultra thin. I got taken to task on
Facebook today because I said it was ultra thin. They
were like, not not ultra thin, ultra thins and tortilla.
I guess Mexican pizza. You have to kneed the dope
(31:32):
by hand, right, Yeah. And I got a couple of
more that weren't in the article. Supposedly, it has to
be in a wood fired oven above nine and five
degrees fahrenheit only San Marzano plum tomatoes, okay, which you
know to me, that's the only tomato we're gonna be
cooking Italian style? Is that right? I think so? Is
that can. Yeah, okay, then I know what you're talking about.
(31:53):
I mean, I'm sure you can get them fresh obviously,
but yeah, the the can San Marzano's are like what
I use in my spaghetti sauce. Have you been to that?
It tell you market by five seasons on the West Side.
I have not. It is like right like half a
block down and it is authentic. Really. Yeah, you should
check it out if you're into that. I am into that.
We'll check it out, all right. Um. And I think
(32:13):
that's all too to buy law. And of course no
one's they pointed out in the article I read that
no one's going out and like, you know, punishing anybody.
It's just a set of standards that they like to
hold deer. Uh. You know they're not gonna throw you
in jail for calling something in theopolitan, right yeah? Um,
although they should. So that's neopolitan. We talked about New
York and Chicago. Um, California pizza that is super thin crust,
(32:39):
usually made with um, what what vegetables are in season?
I like California Pizza Kitchen. It's okay, it's pretty good.
Like barbecue sauce on your pizza. H. No, they have
a tostada pizza that's really good too. You should check, man,
you gotta expland your horizones. It's not just New York.
In Chicago, there's a lot. There's a whole world of pizza.
(32:59):
I've been to CPK. It's fine. The black bean salad
there is delicious. They're they're guacamole is pretty good too, alright.
And then Greek. Yeah, that's also in a pan like Chicago.
It's just fetta. I'm not thinking feda fetta and spend
it sometimes olives, yeah, I like feta um. And then
uh Sicilian, and there's American Sicilian and Italian Sicilian. That's right.
(33:23):
And if you're an American, you're making a Sicilian pizza.
It's rectangular, square, thick crust. The reason it's thick is
in uh Sicily, they baked the ingredients into the crust. Yeah,
I'd like to try that. Actually, it's like, um, they
heard about stuff crust pizza and started mimicking it. Oh man,
pizza head drives me nuts. With all those things. It's
(33:43):
like the rope of cheese in the crust. Or then
they had the one crust. There was the one the
pizza eat backwards, like they just can come up with
all these things that are completely unnecessary. There was the
pizza that eats you the pizza. Yeah. Speaking of Soviet Russia, Um,
there's some pretty crazy toppings around the world. What do
(34:06):
they eat there? In Russia? They eat something called makba,
which is a blend of tuna, mackerel, sardines, onions, and salmon,
which I have to say, sounds kind of good. You
know what I thought good was good was the Japanese
the mayo yaga jaga yeah, man, mayonnaise, bacon and potato mixture.
They their their hot dogs in there too. Gosh, yeah,
(34:26):
it's really good. A lot to check that out. Uh.
In India, little pickled ginger and tofu maybe and little
minced mutton. Yeah, sounds good to me. You don't like
mutton had a pet goat? That's this is a lamb.
Totally different animals. They can't even mate, I don't think.
Oh I bet they could. Well, they can, but they
can't reproduce. Okay, Um, Brazil, you might get some green
(34:52):
peas on your pizza. Yeah. Costa Rica you might get
a little coconut equally wolf, Yeah, I think so. I'm
not big on coconut and antrovies are generally regarded as
the least favorite pizza topping. What's the number one pizza
topping in America? Pepperoni? Of course? Really it got toppled
this last this year. Chicken, as far as protein goes, chicken,
(35:15):
really yep? And is that how do they calculate that?
Is that like in restaurants or there's an actually surprising
amount of pizza industry UM marketing and lobby groups in
trade groups, And that's true of the pizza and association.
I ran across the blog post and I don't remember
I followed it to this press release from some pizza
(35:38):
association UM, and I don't remember which one it was,
but they said that, um, chicken topped pepperoni as far
as pepperoni toppings goes. So that means that Americans consume
more than two hundred and fifty million pounds of chicken
on their pizza. Yeah, which makes sense because chicken's heavier
than pepperoni, that's true, and a lot of pepperoni. Maybe
(36:01):
they're good by weight. Yeah, we've got some awesome stats here,
don't we go ahead and fire some of those out? Uh? So,
the number of pizza sold in the US each year,
three billion. I'm responsible for at least a million and
a half of those three slices sold every second. Yeah,
not bad. And uh, every year, the average American eats
(36:23):
forty six slices. That's child's play. Americans eat pizza at
least once a month. Yeah, that's a lot. That is
a lot. I mean that is that means like almost
every American eats pizza at least once a month. That's
pretty staggering. I can't imagine that there's any other food
like that except maybe a cheeseburger. I bet pizza tops
(36:43):
that even I would think. So it's just such an
easy because vegetarians can eat pizza, cheese, pizza. Yeah. And
if you if you go to like McDonald's or something
like that and you have a family of four, uh,
you're going to spend more than you would on a
pizza that will feed that family of four to and
you don't get the cold breakfast leftovers either. Uh, exactly
what McDonald's you do. But what else was there anything else?
(37:09):
I had? There was a guy in my elementary school actually,
you know remember the little rectangle elementary school pizzas. They
were so great. There was one dude, Brett Standish, that
did not eat pizza, and he was like the only
kid I ever knew that it didn't eat pizza. So
every time we had pizza, it was like there was
a battle royal to find out who would get Brett
Standish's pizza. And he would like up his you know,
(37:31):
his asking price each week when you know it was
like a valuable commodity. Smart kid, Yeah, what do you
what was the most he ever got for it? No?
I have no idea. Probably a bunch of pringles and
like a little time behind the school, you know what
I'm saying. Uh no, when my imagination is racing right now? Okay? Um?
Oh yeah. There was this little sidebar in this article
(37:53):
that said that more than thirty pizzaias in New York
are operating under the name Raise more than It's like
that sounds like a lot until you realize there's nine
thousand pizzerias in New York alone. New York City. Well,
I thought this is pretty interesting. Should we talk about Raise? Um?
If you've ever been to New York or Atlanta's got
four Raised pizzas? Is that right? Famous original race? Atlanta
(38:16):
has raised New York pizza UM. And you know how
I always says since whatever year, since nineteen in Atlanta,
that's not too bad. But yeah, they're by the count
I got. There are forty nine UM pizzerias in New
York that use some form of the name Ray. And
here's the story behind it, Um Ray. Uh. Ralph Cuomo
(38:40):
opened the first race on Prince Street nineteen fifty nine.
He's grandfather de Rivers and father of Mario. And his
nickname he claimed to be Ray because he said it
was Ralphie than Rayphie than Ray. I'm not quite so
sure about that. Um that he opened a second one
in the nineteen sixties, and then someone named Rosalino Mangano Majano.
(39:03):
But the second race changed the name to Famous Original Rays,
even though that wasn't true, So things started a little messy. Uh.
Then man John out now goes by Ray, which is
also bogus opened, Uh several more Famous Original Rays all
over the city. Sold that to new owner who begin
(39:24):
using other variations of the race. So it kind of
just spread. But ironically, three quote unquote Rays got together
to trademark the name. None of them our name Ray.
Yet they have all gotten together to try and trademark
the name Ray and to shut down at least in
name places like Atlanta's Nearer Pizza Raised Nearer Pizza in Atlanta,
(39:48):
who you just probably got in trouble. And I don't
think so they know about them, so you don't know that.
It sounds like a cartel. I think it is speaking
of Cartel's Chuck, the Big Three, Pizza Hut, Dominos, Papa John's. Um.
Of those three, the one that has the most urban
legends associated with it, as Dominoes. I had heard. I
(40:10):
think one of these. Well, the thirty minutes or less
went away because they killed some kid in a car
delivery person, ready made urban legends supposedly, Um, they there
were lawsuits from people being hit. At least one person
was hit, but they didn't say it had anything to
do with the thirty minutes or less. One person was killed. Yeah, well, yeah,
(40:34):
that's right, one person killed at least, so then at
least one person hit. We're both kind of right. But
they did do away with that. There was also a
rumor that the owner of Dominoes contributed a lot to
anti abortion groups um, which may or may not have
been true, but he didn't known Dominos probably at the
time because the guy who founded the company, um, Tom Monahan. Yeah,
(40:56):
he sold a billion, which is pretty tiny. But he
is a staunch Catholic and obviously a supporter of pro
life and is building his own little Catholic town outside
of Miami. Yeah, one of those. And I've heard of
these before. We basically like, I'm gonna build my little
my own little town, like filled with people that are
(41:19):
like me, exactly because I'm incredibly wealthy exactly. So I
don't know what the status is on that now, but um,
supposedly more than thirty thousand residents will occupy this town
and eventually they'll go to war with Celebration Florida. Uh.
And then there's all these goofy pizzas. I don't get
into all this stuff, like the the three thousand euro
(41:41):
pizza with Klagnac marinated lobster and edible gold. And okay,
so that holding suked caviare for the most expensive with gold.
There's actually two categories in Guinness as far as most
expensive pizza with edible gold and without. Apparently, if you
just want to like throw some edible gold on your pizza,
you can just you know tip the scales by wise,
(42:02):
but if you want the most expensive pizza in the
world without gold, that record was recently broken. Uh and
Stevenson Pizza Company in Vancouver, which apparently is affiliated with
the guy from Hell's Kitchen. Oh yeah, shut it down, Yeah,
Gordon ramsay, Yes, Um, they have a four hundred and
fifty dollar pizza called the C six. Pizza has lobster thermidor,
(42:24):
black Alaskan cod and caviare on it. It looks kind
of good. Yeah. You know, they do stuff like that
to get pressed and get people in there, and I
get it. What about the largest pizza ever built and eaten?
I like that they have that caveat Yeah, agreed, Havana, Florida.
Um from seven. I'm surprised no one has tried to
(42:47):
break it since then. Um thousand, four hundred and fifty
seven pounds of pizza, ninety over ninety four thousand slices. Yeah,
devoured by thirty thousand, at least thirty thousand people hanging out.
How do they bake that thing? I wonder? I don't know.
That's that's a great question. That's the one I want
(43:10):
listener mail on not your favorite pizza topic? No one
cares about that. How did they bake that thing? I guess.
I mean maybe it was sunbaked. I don't know, or
maybe those they're like, wow, this is really like they
make it and then like oh wait yeah because it
says eating. Or maybe there's another record tied to it
for the largest pizza oven and then the longest pizza delivery.
(43:32):
Two thousand four, a Domino's franchise owner named Lucy Clough
delivered a pizza ten thousand, five DT two miles undred
fifty KOs from London to Melbourne. It was a vegetarian
pizzas part of the Make a Wish Foundation. I was
about to disparage it. I know. That's why I got
all that out in one breath before you could break it. Yeah, okay,
(43:54):
I was saving you from yourself. Make a Wish then
I support it. Way to go, Chuck. That's pizza. Yeah,
(44:22):
you know what's awesome about pizza. And I guarantee you
there's dark corners to all this that we didn't even
hit that we're going to hear about that we want
to hear about. This will be one of those which
I love. Yeah, I love pizza. Uh if you love
pizza You can read more about it at how stuff
works dot com. Type the word P I z Z
eight into the search bar at our beloved how stuff
(44:43):
works dot com website um, which is now two words.
I think as far as eight P goes what website? Yeah,
I thought a long time. They know I was taught
when I was hired. Here it's capital W E B,
separate word, lower case S I T E. Right now
it's lower case. All one word. Oh, it's all one word. Now.
I thought you were saying it's two words, now, gotcha. Yeah, no,
(45:05):
it's one word. Okay, this is great. And if I
did say two words, I was wrong. Okay, we'll find out. Uh. Anyway,
I think I said search far in there. So it's
time for the listener mail Chuck. Yes, we should tell
everybody about something very special and dear to our hearts.
(45:26):
New York City. That's right. We are going to Comic
Con and we will be doing a live podcast on Friday,
October twelve at Comic Con at the jab At Center.
It's like our new thing. We did San Diego, now
we're doing New York. That's right next up Albuquerque. So
if you are going to Comic Con, you should come
by and see that. But after Comic Con, we have
one of our famous, its famous to us All Star
(45:50):
Tribua nights. Um, where is it going to be the
cutting room? It is at the grand reopening of the
Cutting Room in the flat Iron District, which is what's
the address? It is uh forty four East thirty second
Street in New York And it's in the flat Iron
you said. And doors open at seven thirty. Trivia goes
down at eight thirty. And what is first come, first serve? Right? Free, free, free,
(46:13):
first come, first serve. We will have a bar there
that you can buy drinks. Yeah, you can buy us drinks.
That's right. We're gonna basically be having a really good
time if you if you're not familiar with our trivia nights, like,
just come out and check it out. It'll be worth
your while, absolutely, and stay tuned for info on Facebook
and Twitter about the makeup of the All Star team.
We're filling that out as we speak. But we will
(46:34):
have some special guests that you will want to meet. Yeah,
and at the very least you can come take on
me and chuck right. Yeah, okay, it's just fun. So
what is that that's Friday, October twelfth, Right, yep. The
panels that win the panel is at I believe six, okay,
and then we're gonna be at the cutting room starting
at eight thirty. Trivia starts at eight thirty, doors at
seven thirty. Be there, be square. You're good at this.
(46:56):
Thank you all right? The time for listener mail. Yep.
I'm gonna call this accident. It's thanks to us. We
cause an accident, a good one now, like no one
got hurt. This from Annie and Annie was going off
to college, which was several states away, so her family
decided to road trip with her to uh To to
(47:16):
the college as a little mini vacation. That is very
sweet depending on how Anie feels about her family. Well,
you're about to find out. It may sound fun, but
it's not easy to agree on music when you're James
Blunt loving mom, Miley Virus loving younger sister she is
just heading off in college. Yeah, and weird eurometal loving
older brother. All crammed into a car together. After a
(47:37):
few hours of me wondering if I could get a
refund on my soundproof headphones, they agreed to let me
pick the music, and I picked the stuff. You should know.
It turns out everyone loves slash doesn't hate stuff. You
should know. We were all interested more importantly not yelling
or throwing CDs out the window. Plus it was fun
to go back through Uh my favorites. Jack the Ripper,
for instance, made my mom a little green. However, you
(47:59):
don't know what we heavily edited that one. Yeah, it
was worse. It was way worse. I think. Yeah, I
remember going through there and be like, dude, weekends. At
least it was factual, No, it was. It was so yeah. Um, However,
during a time when it was my goofy brothers turning
to drive parentheses, I really can't stress how weird he is.
At the end of the cast about Genius, you were
(48:20):
reading some other listening listener mail from a lady truck
driver and told her to honk her horn, which my
brother did really loud, like a truck would do. It
wouldn't have been a problem, but we were in one
of those curby two lane highways behind a senior citizen.
Uh and basically this this old lady thought that they
were honking at her. She slammed on her brakes and
(48:44):
caused the person riding behind her to butt into her
rear end. Oh no, uh no one was hurt, but
I was laughing because over the screech of tires, I
actually heard Chuck say, I hope we didn't just cause
an accident. Wow, this is um. Everyone is fine. There
was no damage to either car. But my mom made
my brother give them both info because my mother thought
that he was liable. Thanks Mom, Yeah exactly. She just
(49:07):
drove straight to jail. Then she says, I was the
one to awkwardly explain to the old lady what a
podcast was ps. I hope my dorm mate likes you guys.
That's from Annie. Thanks a lot, any that was really nice.
Glad everyone's safe. Me too, Man, that's that's crazy, chock.
It sounds a little made up, but oh yeah, we've
followed for it before. Man, remember the way the marriage,
(49:30):
the wedding proposal. Yeah, I still have to eck on
my face about that. That's all right, man, We all do,
we all do. If you have a great story about
how your family has been brought together by stuff, you
should know we want to hear it. We also want
to know how the citizens of Havana, Florida baked their
(49:52):
thousand sliced pizza. We really really want to know that, agreed, Um,
and how delicious it was. Yeah. Uh, you can tweet
to us all of this information to uh s y
s K podcast. Seriously. Our Twitter is killing it, is it? Yes,
that's great. There's it's one of the best Twitter feeds
on the internet. Wow, it's got it all man. It
(50:14):
has um wacky news, it has important news. Criticism of
Twitter when they suspend people's accounts, um it has. We
we talked to people back and forth. Sometimes we pester
Hodgman for no good reason. Yeah. Um, there's just all
sorts of great stuff on Twitter. Or we'll like, we'll
see a tweet from like the Jim Hinson company that
(50:36):
they like the Muppet podcast. Yeah yeah, so like pretty
cool stuff like that is going down. Yeah it is.
It's very cool. Um. So you can follow us on
Twitter at so it's the AT symbol and then s
y s K p O d c A s T
at s Y s K podcast. We're also killing it
on Facebook or Facebook page is awesome. Uh that's Facebook
(50:56):
dot com slash stuff you should know. Yeah, right, m H.
For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit
how stuff works dot com,
How do you Everybody? Happy Saturday? Chuck here to introduce
my pick for the stuff you should have select this
week about pizza. Boy, oh boy, do we have fun
on this one. October eleven, two thousand twelve shall live
in infamy because we talked all about pizza from its
from its origins to where it stands today, Where to
get the best pizza? Oh my goodness, it was so
(00:24):
much fun. It's gonna make you hungry too, so please enjoyed. Everyone.
Welcome to Stuff you should Know from house Stuff Works
dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark,
There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. I'm a little under the weather,
(00:46):
a little rundown, but I feel better than I sound.
I am over the weather. Yeah whatever that means. It
means you're in great spirits, good shape. Sure can put
your hand through that wall next to you. I probably
could actually on certain days, but not today. That's a
good Chuck. Yet you're doing okay? Yeah? Great, guld your
feeling better Even though you sound crappy, man, I really don't.
(01:08):
It's always reminiscent of the six month period that you're sick. Earlis. Yeah, now,
I'm healthy. I don't smoke, I exercise, I eat right
a juice. Isn't it remarkable how you don't get sick
as often when you live right? Yeah, when you treat
your body exactly? Um, well, chuck. It's an excellent segway because,
(01:28):
in my opinion, one of the best ways to treat
your body is to stuff it full of really good pizza. Yeah.
Have you had pizza before? Yeah? Dude, I love pizza.
I don't eat that much of it. Oh really No,
I mean I don't know how much. I mean, we
have stats on the average American and stuff. May I
spit one out? Sure? Every day Americans eat about a
(01:52):
hundred acres of pizza. I guess it would be Sicilian
because an acres it would be squared, although that have
to be square. No, you can have a round acre.
Uh yeah, I guess you could. Just forget what I said.
I've never seen a round acre before. I'm gonna imagine
an island. If it's round, Oh yeah, it would be
round acreage. There's not really any real round islands. There's
(02:15):
there's no such thing as a perfect circle of Gilligan's
Island was so round. It's just a circle. No, Yeah,
I love pizza. I don't know how much I eat
of it though compared to most people. Like i'd say
we order a pizza, like maybe once a month. What
we'll order a pizza? Are the only pizza you have?
Every every month? Yeah, we'll get like it. We'll order
(02:37):
a pizza delivery or and then probably will throw in
one visit to Antico which a month that you got
me beat there. I need to get out there more often. Yeah,
once every six weeks to two months for Antico. Yeah.
Here in Atlanta, Um, Chuck and I have a pizza place.
I guess everybody in Atlanta has it, but we're very
fortunate to have a place called Antico Pizza. It's really good.
And now I understand the name after researching this article.
(03:00):
Uh yeah, it's kind of close to the original pizzeria.
I think that's the point, is it, I would imagine.
I don't think they follow the traditional rules though. Okay,
we're spoiling all of me, well for my part. You
mean and I are crazy about pizza and we eat
it like all the time. Everything. We're frozen pizza to
Dominoes to um pizza out like by the slice. Yeah,
(03:22):
it's good. I have a lot more pizza when I
lived up in the New York area. Yeah, because I
would like get it after class. Just the single slice
would be huge slice and you fold it in half
and it's just great. Did you want pizza while you
were researching this? Did you? Oh? Yeah? Yeah? Alright? So
by the Antico though, it is really really good pizza,
the best pizza in Atlanta, most people agree on. And
(03:44):
judging by the line out the door every single day,
then uh, I would say, we're right. I've even gotten
into an argument with them on the phone, which I
don't do very often, about whether or not you can
order a cheese a pizza without cheese, and I'll still
go back there after hanging up on them in anger. Yeah,
they do it their way. They definitely do that. That's
the man. They also have the big the dressing station
(04:08):
which is like the basil plants. They don't even have it,
like it's not dried basil or even leaves. It's like
the plant. You pick the leaves off there and they
got the big chunks of garlic and it's just so good. Yeah,
you can hear your food. Go now, I want pizza, Okay,
good all right, that's what I was going for, Chuck.
You got it worked. Um so everybody. I'm sure it's
(04:29):
familiar with pizza. I don't think there's gonna be too
many huge surprises there. But there's a lot about pizza
that I would imagine you don't know. Yeah, we're gonna
tell you that kind of stuff. Like, for example, at
its core, pizza really is bread, cheese, and sauce. Yeah,
that's it, tomato sauce, right, unless you're getting funky. But
(04:51):
you can't get funky and still call it pizza customarily. Yeah,
it's one of those things where like it has to
be made a certain way or else it's not really pizza.
It's like a tomato a pie. I don't know though,
like I would call like a pesto pizza pizza. But
you were born American? Yeah sure, yeah. Well do you
think I was speaking as like a native Sicilian? Well no,
(05:12):
but I'm saying like maybe as a citizen of the world. Okay,
you know we're in the midst of globalization, Chuck, Let's
let's do this, all right, let's talk pizza history then,
huh uh. Yeah. I used to hear from uninformed people
like you know, pizza is really American. It didn't even
come from Italy, right, they're talking about chop suey. Just
not true at all. Pizza did come from Italy in
(05:34):
a way. We need to back up eiven even further,
probably to Greece, where some people attribute like the original
flatbreads that they would decorate with things, is like the
first pizza style thing. Right, you're talking like third century BC,
a long time ago, right, But I don't mean they
didn't call it pizza until what eighty one thousand in Naples? Yeah,
(05:56):
of course, Well Naples is like the cradle of pizza. Yeah,
I did didn't realized. I didn't notice that it went
back that far. That's pretty interesting. Well that's what was
first named pizza, meaning pie. Okay, so I also saw
a discrepancy here. I saw pizza also could mean um
to pinch or slice. That's that's what I got, pizza mint,
(06:16):
not necessarily pie. Well that's what this person says. Okay,
So we're at a D one thousand, right, Yes, this
is such a cool cold date. Um. And the the
reason pizza started to take off was because the peasantry
didn't have that much money, and this stuff was kind
of easy to come by. You made your bread, you
(06:37):
had some cheese, maybe some kazu marzou with the maggots,
uh and um, maybe some seasonings and some olive oil.
That's about it. It wasn't until you know, the one
of the biggest main ingredients. It wasn't until um, the
Colombian Exchange started to take place, that tomatoes were introduced
(06:58):
to Italy because those are a new world for Yeah,
I did a little tomato research because that's kind of
fascinating on its own. I think tomatoes come from Peru,
they believe originally. And uh, because the fruit of the
night shade, the deadly night shade, looks like a tomato,
a lot of people thought it was poisonous over the years,
(07:19):
many years ago. And uh, actual stems and leaves of
a tomato plant do contain a toxic tomatine. Huh. But um,
like what is it was a lot of it. But
what will happen to you? Well, I think there's been
one reported death from eating tomato stems and leaves supposedly.
(07:40):
I don't know if that's true though. They figured out, well,
the stems and leaves are kind of gross anyway. Let's
just see the tomato, so thank you spain um. And
also interestingly, even though it came from like South America,
you would think it made its way up through the
States via Central American Mexico, but it didn't. It like
took the circuit circuitous route via European immigrants, probably through
(08:05):
the Philippines too. If you're interested in that, dude, you
should really read four all about it's all about that stuff.
Is that gonna just keep writing books as they're going
to be There is a benevolent god. Yes. So anyway,
tomatoes all people discovered, Hey they're not poisonous, they're really delicious.
(08:27):
Let's start throwing them on the bread exactly. Then now
we have pizza, so we're talking like the seventeenth century
I think was when the term uh no, it wasn't okay,
so that kind of yeah, that goes against that research too.
I think I saw somewhere that the term was coined
in the eighteenth century, like seventeen thirty eight, they started
(08:48):
making pizzas as we know them today. You know, I
think there's some discrepancies just in pizza lore because that
long ago. I don't think they're necessarily keeping track of
all this stuff like we do today. Okay, so possibly
in a D one thousand or in seventeen thirty eight,
about seven hundred fifty years later, the word pizza was
used to describe this flatbread right, consisting of now tomato, sauce,
(09:12):
cheese bread right. Um. And but the one thing that
is not disagreed upon was that both of these took
place in Naples, that's right. And Naples was the center
of it. Like we said, the peasantry was really hip
to pizza because it was cheap and it was abundant. Yeah,
and so if you wanted to go find pizza, you
basically had to go into the peasant districts of Naples,
(09:36):
and uh there it was an abundance being sold from
street carts. Now, is that where the first pizzeria was, yes,
peasant Land, Yeah, okay, so Antiqua Pezzeria port Oliba. Yeah,
so Antiqua. I wonder if that's the same as Antiko.
Who won't know what the difference is. I don't know.
Someone will probably explain it to us, hopefully in Italian.
(09:59):
Is there an authority on at all? Right, So that's
eighteen thirty the first pizzeria, right, And also, um, I
didn't see it in here, but I came across it.
A Pizzaioli was a pizza maker. That was the name
of a pizza maker. Yeah, So the peasantry in Naples,
and probably it's starting to spread a little bit beyond that,
but the peasantry in Naples has been eating pizzas for
(10:20):
well over a century, almost two centuries by the time
Queen Margharita and King Umberto. Queen Margharita, Yeah, does that
name sound familiar in regards to pizza. Yeah, especially when
you see it spelled out right, you're like, oh, wait
a minute, that's where it came from. Exactly. Reportedly, so,
Queen Margharita was apparently like a pretty um hip queen.
(10:41):
She was down with the common person. And she and
Umberto went and toured the country in eighteen eighty nine,
and one of the places they went was Naples, and
one of the things they did was eat pizza. And
she was like, I love this, I want more of this.
Bring me Raphael Esposito, her personal chef. Yeah, I don't
(11:02):
know if it's a personal chef. It was a personal
pizza chef at least, And he said, Queen, the one
gonna make you some good a pizza, including one of
looks luck at the Italian flag. And that is the legend,
at least of how we got Margharita pizza because you
have the red tomato, the white mozzarel and the green basil,
and uh, there's your Italian flag. Yeah, it's a great story,
(11:23):
hopefully true. So supposedly he made her that one, the
Margharita pizza, which she liked the most and is named
after her. Um, another one with pork, fat, cheese and basil.
It sounds pretty awesome, uh, and then another one with
garlic oil, olive oil and tomatoes. All of them sound great,
but she chose the Margharita and that's the one that
was named after her. But the upshot of all this
(11:45):
is that the queen was suddenly eating peasant food. The
Queen's the most popular person in all of Italy all
of a sudden, and now, all of a sudden, places
other parts of Italy where pizza wasn't heard of or
eating or whatever, people are starting to make it. That's right,
And that's like uh eighteen nineties, yes, which is a
great time for pizza to be coming into its own
(12:08):
Because there was a little country called America coming into
its own and uh with the arrival of Italian immigrants
in the late nineteenth century in places like New York
and Chicago. In Philly, New York light, Uh, they would
eat pizza and it was again sort of like street food.
Um at the time, at least right UM so about
(12:30):
the time I guess when Margarita was extolling the virtues
of pizza, I guess her. Um, this wave of immigration
had such a tangible connection to the old world that
like almost immediately they were making pizzas in these cities.
Like you said, apparently New York was the first city
with an actual pizzeria. I believe that. Um, Lombardies, General
(12:54):
Lombardi apparently opened his shop in nineteen o five at
fifty third and a half Spring Street, New York. I
wonder what's there now? Lombardi was still there, I believe. Still. Wow,
that's pretty great. Yeah. And did we say that Antico
Pizzeria in Naples is still in the same spot, still
selling pizza since eighteen thirty. We did not, but that
is true. Yeah, and that is very cool. That makes
(13:16):
me want to go to Naples quite badly. Yeah, I mean,
you could get an original pizza from the original pizzeria. Yeah,
that's pretty cool. And we'll get to this in a
little bit. But you may be kind of surprised when
you eat a pizza, a Neapolitan pizza at the place
where it all started, compared if you're used to like
Papa John's. I had pizza and Italy once. Yeah, you know,
(13:38):
I was there and I figured why not. I guess
I'll do is the Italians do exactly? Okay, so that's
pretty much. Oh no, we didn't. We didn't finish the history. Yeah,
United States was coming into its own Italian immigrants coming
in bringing in pizza. Then after World War Two, of course,
with a lot of things. G I's came back with
these flavors for different UH countries, foods and drinks, and
(14:01):
they said, man, this pizza stuff is really great, so
let's start building chains and degrading the product. And we
did so with Shaky's in Ur was the first pizza
chain in the United States. California chain Pizza Hut was
founded in Kansas, of all places, and the reason, apparently,
(14:24):
as legend has it, that their named Pizza Hut is
because the place, the building kind of looked like a
hut and there was only room for nine spaces on
the sign. So pizza hut, that makes sense. Yeah, uh,
shaky Have you ever been the Shaky's? No, As a
matter of fact, um no. The only time I've ever
seen Shaky's was in the movie License to Drive with
the Two Corries. Yeah, they're all over l A and uh,
(14:47):
you know, sort of pizza huttie and feel like a
family joint pictures of beer. Not so great pizza. But
apparently Sherwood Shaky Johnson got in that name because of
some like affliction and he had that made him change. No, yeah, goodness,
but I guess he embraced it. Well, yeah, he name
this is very popular chain after it, and there's still
around huh oh. Yeah, I'm surprised it hasn't spread by now.
(15:10):
N there's pizza huts everywhere. Yeah, I mean I think
they have them outside of California, although I'm not positive.
I didn't get to look that up, but I know
they don't have them over here down south over here
in the Southeastern Bible Belt, all right, dough. Yeah, so
that's a piece of history. Yeah, we should probably get
(15:30):
to the basics. And there's nothing more basic than dough.
And there's an art to this. There's three ingredients that
are demanded, flour, water, and yeast. Everything else is just
icing on the cake. Yeah, but you probably are gonna
throw little salt in, little sugar, a little shortening to
make it do the things you wanted to do, perform
(15:50):
like you wanted to perform. Yeah, and you can go
to Mellow Mushroom Pizza and get a gluten free pizza.
I myself have not had one because I don't have Celiac, right,
and I'm not about to just no. Yeah, but um,
if you if you are into, if you are gluten free,
you are s o l in a lot of ways because, um,
the flower used in pizza crust, pizza dough, um is
(16:13):
high gluten, high gluten flour. That's why gluten free pizza
tastes like crap. I've not had it, so I can't say, yeah,
well that's just my opinion. Yeah you've had it. Yeah,
I've tried it. It's just not it's not the same.
I'm sorry everybody. They need gluten in the flower because
gluten makes a crust tough and uh, it won't crack
crack apart, makes it stand up to the water keeps
(16:36):
it ropey. Yeah, it keeps it nice and ropey. And um,
I guess we need to talk about water at some
point anytime, because waters, you know, the old saying about
New York pizzas is because the water. Oh yeah, that's
like the old saying. I don't know. So they change
the water. Now they have like water you can drink
right out of the tap. Did they change their water?
(16:57):
Oh yeah, man, they overhauled their serious system. There's bottled
water you can buy now. That's just New York City
tap water and stuff is so like clean and pure. Well,
it's because it comes from it comes from two aqua
aqua ducts, and the cats skills ship it into Manhattan.
We should do a podcast on how Manhattan gets water.
It's pretty amazing. Okay, now now can we wait until
(17:20):
we research it. Yeah, that's pretty amazing though. But um,
I read this Wired article that kind of broke down
the pizza water New York thing, and um they got
in touch with Mario Batali, very famous tian cheff and
asked him and he said, well, one of the reasons
before we get to water is that, um the oven,
(17:40):
he said, captures the gestalt or if you're German, the
gestalt of a beautifully cooked pizza. So basically over time
totally did say that over time, Well, it makes sense
to overtime, you're gonna get uh, particles like volatized particles
caking onto the walls and the roof of your oven,
and then the convection process will just like work that
(18:02):
into whatever you're cooking over the years. So, because they've
been making pizza for so long in New York, some
of these old ovens like have this gestalt, they can't
be matched anywhere else, he says, in Chicago as well. Um,
but then with the water, he says, Yeah, the biggest
problem with California pizza is the water. It's just not
the same. Although he doesn't he doesn't use New York,
(18:26):
New York water at his restaurant Del Posto. He actually
clones water from Italy. He doesn't, he does, yes, clones it,
That's what he said. It's uh, he's created his own
mineral water composite, working from a chemical analysis of Laua, Italiana,
and it said basically it's a clone of this Italian water.
(18:50):
It sounds kind of pretentious. We should go sell some
real estate or something. But that's why the I think
the Food Detective Show did a test, a blind test
on New York water and pizza crust, and everyone picked
the New York pizza in a blind test. So there
may be something to at the mineral composition. I'm sure
there is. Yeah. I mean, if you have even the
(19:11):
slightest belief in molecular gastronomy, it makes sense, which would
explain why New York bagels are the best too, because
bagels are boiled. Everyone knows or the right if you
make it the right way, it's boiled. Yeah, when you go, chuck,
that's my water sidebar chuck on water. Well, I've always
heard that you know New York pizzas because the water
is because the water from the Catskills. I had heard that.
(19:32):
I didn't know it was from the Catskills or had
anything to do with just stalt or anything like. Yeah,
all right, if you want to know, then you're in luck.
(19:57):
Just just The third vital ingredient is yeast, and yeast
basically creates the precursor to beer. Remember in the beer episode,
could you imagine if there was no yeast, we'd be
(20:17):
in big trouble. No pizza, no beer, what's the point?
No bread? This would be this world would be, it'd
be sad. Actually, there's yeast free bread, I think, but still,
you know, yeah, no, I know. So what what what's
to deal with you? Well, basically, the yeast goes in
and it eats the sugars found in the flower um
(20:37):
and then you may also add your own sugar to
increase the fermentation. Um. But it causes the dough to
rise because it expels gas as a byproduct, and that
gas gets trapped in the dough and it causes it
to rise. It makes it up more malleable, it makes
it um tastier, the texture of it is softer. It's
(21:00):
just basically yeast is It's the happy fun guy that
you add to the whole, the magic ingredient. Yeah. Uh,
if you add a little salt, it's gonna add some flavor. Obviously,
it's going to slow the fermentation. Shortening is gonna make
it more pliable by providing lube and shortening would be
like olive oil. You're not gonna use criscoe unless you're
some sort of heathen. No, you can just connote oil.
(21:21):
But olive oil is what I would go. But sure,
um yeah Crisco. Chrisco is great though for some things.
Oh yeah, for like sugar cookies, especially the kind that's
like just the just the the shortening, the thick solid Yeah,
shortening that stuff is crazy. That's what I thought if
that's the only way I thought you could cook growing up,
(21:42):
because of like my grandmother's. Yeah, I thought, well, when
you cook, you get out that big can and big
ice cream scoop and you cut it down with that
wadded up piece of like wax paper in there that
you used to scoop it out. Yeah, it's completely covered
in crisco now. Yeah. Uh, either that or the grandmother's
also used you know, they say aived all their greats,
so they would be cooking with grease that they've been
(22:03):
using for like the past year. It's really good. Um.
Sugar changes the fermentation rate. Yeah, you can accelerate it.
It can increase the amount of gas released. And it
also causes the crust of brown. Oh yeah, yeah, that's
the sugar. Ye. So what if you don't put sugar,
you get a glowing yellow crust, doesn't brown as much,
(22:24):
It doesn't brown. Okay, you want to bail it up,
use your your hands. Yeah, I think I think you
should say here, like you're teaching people how to make legitimate,
real pizza dough here, Yes, I mean gold in rough strokes. Okay,
Like I don't think anyone could like we're not providing measurements,
you know what I'm saying. No, no, but I'm saying,
once you've, once you've created this dough, now you're about
(22:44):
to tell them what to do with that, how to
make it. You want to bail it up with your hands. Um,
you don't want it all cracked. You want it tight,
and you want to put it on an oil cheap
pan and then proof it, which means you cover it
with wax paper and let it sit and let the
yeast do its thing until it like doubles in size
because the uses just sitting there eating sugars and pooping out. Yes. Uh,
(23:10):
then you need to retard it. Um. You need to
put it in the fridge for about twelve hours, and
then this slows the yeast down, but it's still doing
its thing. They're like this sugar, it's cold. Um. And
then if you do this, you've got pizza dough that
you can use for like three to five days. Yeah,
I would imagine most people who are really really into
(23:31):
pizza would be like, you can't save that for three
to five days? You think, I would think so fresh?
You think almost also do it like yeah, the same day. No,
I'm not saying that, but I'm saying like a pizza pierist, like,
can't use five day old dough for a decent pizza,
but I buy the dough sometimes like Trader Joe's, you know,
(23:51):
the Farmer's market, like the pre made dough balls, and
those are you know, not necessarily that day, and or
eat the oven. Well, you left out the sauce. Most
of the time it's tomato sauce. But if you're still
worried that tomatoes are poisonous and that the aristocracy is
trying to kill you by giving them to you, um,
you can eat garlic butter sauce, which will give you
(24:14):
a white pizza. You don't like white pizza. I don't
love white pizza. And if you go to Fellini's, We're
gonna name every single pizza place in town. If you
go to Fellini's in order a white pizza slice, you
know they use the pre made slice and they build
a white pizza on top of So you get a
little tomato sauce with your white pizza. That's really good,
but it's not white pizza then, right, No, not, you're
(24:37):
the one who calls like everything pizza you run around, Now,
that's a pizza. Look, there's a pizza over there. I
don't want to hear from you, all right, I'm not
a fan of white pizza, like some tomato sauce something. Yeah,
I'm with you if I like white pizza. Took um
and the cheese, you know, mozzarella traditionally, right, and the
way you build it is actually kind of important to Yeah,
(24:59):
depending on where you are. It's it's not just the ingredients,
it's the amount and the um, the distribution. Yes, where
they are in relation to one another vertically, well, let's
go ahead. Then New York is sauce, then cheese from
the dough, dough sauce, cheese, and then not that many toppings.
(25:21):
If you're a purist, again, cheese, a cheese slice is
what you're going for. I have not big on just cheese.
What are you? Pepperoni guy? No, not anymore, and that
since I was a kid. No, I'm just kind of
like pepperoni. So I like a good homemade Italian sausage.
Oh yeah, that's good. Yeah, that's really good. Um, I
like sliced tomatoes on it, not sun dried fresh. Yeah. Basil,
(25:44):
black olives, basil always am not into olives. I like sausage.
I don't like the green olives. I like black olives.
Do you like the Hawaiian pizzas. I've only in the
last couple of months gotten into pineapple, and I'm still
feeling my way around it. Pineapples and strawberries. I just
I used to strawberries when I was a kid, and
I've rediscovered him recently. I'm like, yeah, when we were
(26:04):
in the suite at the Marriott, when we were doing
interviews at Comic Con, ate like fifteen pounds of strawberries.
They were so good. The chocolate covered are regular, No,
they're regular. Yeah, I don't even need chocolate covered anymore.
It's like I'm free. Strawberries are delicious. Yeah, but Hawaiian
I'll tell you in a minute or two, I'll try.
Emily likes that she's big on mushroom, green pepper and
(26:25):
pineapple together. Yeah. She doesn't do the meats, you know,
at all. Just as a food as while we're talking
about wives and pizza preferences. Yeah, you may have this
place in DC she used to go to and she'd
get like a huge slice of pizza in this place
also sold Indian food, so she'd get chicken sog and
put the sog on the pizza and she said it
(26:45):
was really awesome. Wo yeah. Yeah, we have to do
the half and half and I get like sausage on
one half and she does veggie and then it's like,
your sausage juice got on my hat, Like, well, your
mushroom got on my half. You like a cheeseburger pizza.
I love cheese. I'm not too big on beef on
the pizza. I'll give you one more tip. Okay, get
yourself some complete seasoning some I can't remember what it
(27:09):
is in Spanish, but um complete seasoning. It's like a
Mexican blend, and put it on your pizza. It doesn't
matter what kind of pizza it is. It works on
popcorn too, but then your pizza. It's just it'll make
you smile. Well, my friend Eddie, who you know, would say,
get a bottle of ranch dressing in your all set.
Oh yeah, that's good alright. So man, that was a sidebar.
(27:31):
So you were saying, New York you build from the
dough up doe dough, sauce, cheese, and then maybe a
couple of topics. Chicago, it's the opposite. Yes, And this
is apparently a tomato pie the way it's built. Yeah,
because super deep dish right, baked in a pan, and
then you've got the cheese on the bread itself on
the dough, and then the toppings and then they put
(27:52):
this like ungodly thick, delicious sauce on top. Yeah. I've
not had it really, and I love pizza huts, pan pizza. Well,
the I mean you should definitely have like a true
Chicago style pizza. I mean it's it's great. You eat
it with a forking knife. I am a New York
pizza guy through and through. But you know, every once
in a while, if like when in Chicago, well this
(28:13):
is like um, when in Italy exactly. This is one
of those things where I don't think you have to
choose sides. No, let's just all eat all kinds of
pizza all the time. But people get really passionate about
their pizzas I know, but these are you know, It's like, man,
it's it's pizza. Enjoy all pizza. If there's one thing
we can all just settle down about. It's pizza, even
(28:34):
Mexican pizza coming. Yes, oh yeah, it's not pizza. What
are you crazy? You can't just run around saying that
what you eat is not pizza unless it's exactly what
the um Neapolitans are making. It's not pizza. It's not
a Neapolitan pizza. No, it's not pizza. Alright. So now
the ovens, I guess said this was an odd little
(28:58):
thing that they put in there. What about the different
kinds of ovens. Yeah, it just seemed intuitive to me. Well, sure,
well you use a peel. Not many people know that
that that big spanking paddle it's called a peel. I
didn't I have to say, okay, so you slide it
in there. They can be electric, they can be uh
cooked right on a conveyor belt, like if you're a
big pizza Chaine, which you know if you have a
(29:22):
belt even at home. That's true. But the king daddy
of all is the brick oven. Pizza cooked with wood
and like your crush should have little bits of black
char on it if you ask me for the best
for the best taste, which is actually soot it's been carbon. Yeah,
a little spoiler there for an upcoming show. And then
(29:43):
here in Atlanta, the Antico, I think they brought those
three ovens over from Naples, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah,
I can see that. So a lot of gestalt going
on there. There's tons of gestalt. Um. Neapolitan pizza. Yeah,
so Neapolitan pizza. Um is extremely thin crust, that's bubbly crust. Um.
(30:05):
You put on sauce and then maybe basil and mozzarella.
You don't cover the sauce. It looks like pretty much
equal parts. Just visibly looking down over the pizza, it
appears like equal splotches of basil, mozzarella and um sauce. Yeah,
kind of spare they don't overdo it and to be
a true Neapolitan pizza. As of December two thousand nine,
(30:27):
the European Union issued a protection that regional protection that
like champagne and what was the other thing we talked
about recently? Uh was it a cheese? I had to
have been probably yeah, um. And also I think neu
Chatel neuf Chatel has regional protection as well, but basically like,
(30:48):
it has to be produced in the area under these
certain guidelines to be considered that. Um, Neapolitan pizza enjoys
that economic protection now as well. And to beat Neopolitan
it has to be round. It can't be ostentatious no
more than thirteen and a half inches in diameter. Um,
it can only be a tenth of an inch tall,
(31:10):
which is thin at its center. Yeah. Yeah, Um. The
crust has to be no more than three quarters of
an inch thick. This is a really thin crust pizza, man. Yeah,
but not ultra thin. I got taken to task on
Facebook today because I said it was ultra thin. They
were like, not not ultra thin, ultra thins and tortilla.
I guess Mexican pizza. You have to kneed the dope
(31:32):
by hand, right, Yeah. And I got a couple of
more that weren't in the article. Supposedly, it has to
be in a wood fired oven above nine and five
degrees fahrenheit only San Marzano plum tomatoes, okay, which you
know to me, that's the only tomato we're gonna be
cooking Italian style? Is that right? I think so? Is
that can. Yeah, okay, then I know what you're talking about.
(31:53):
I mean, I'm sure you can get them fresh obviously,
but yeah, the the can San Marzano's are like what
I use in my spaghetti sauce. Have you been to that?
It tell you market by five seasons on the West Side.
I have not. It is like right like half a
block down and it is authentic. Really. Yeah, you should
check it out if you're into that. I am into that.
We'll check it out, all right. Um. And I think
(32:13):
that's all too to buy law. And of course no
one's they pointed out in the article I read that
no one's going out and like, you know, punishing anybody.
It's just a set of standards that they like to
hold deer. Uh. You know they're not gonna throw you
in jail for calling something in theopolitan, right yeah? Um,
although they should. So that's neopolitan. We talked about New
York and Chicago. Um, California pizza that is super thin crust,
(32:39):
usually made with um, what what vegetables are in season?
I like California Pizza Kitchen. It's okay, it's pretty good.
Like barbecue sauce on your pizza. H. No, they have
a tostada pizza that's really good too. You should check, man,
you gotta expland your horizones. It's not just New York.
In Chicago, there's a lot. There's a whole world of pizza.
(32:59):
I've been to CPK. It's fine. The black bean salad
there is delicious. They're they're guacamole is pretty good too, alright.
And then Greek. Yeah, that's also in a pan like Chicago.
It's just fetta. I'm not thinking feda fetta and spend
it sometimes olives, yeah, I like feta um. And then
uh Sicilian, and there's American Sicilian and Italian Sicilian. That's right.
(33:23):
And if you're an American, you're making a Sicilian pizza.
It's rectangular, square, thick crust. The reason it's thick is
in uh Sicily, they baked the ingredients into the crust. Yeah,
I'd like to try that. Actually, it's like, um, they
heard about stuff crust pizza and started mimicking it. Oh man,
pizza head drives me nuts. With all those things. It's
(33:43):
like the rope of cheese in the crust. Or then
they had the one crust. There was the one the
pizza eat backwards, like they just can come up with
all these things that are completely unnecessary. There was the
pizza that eats you the pizza. Yeah. Speaking of Soviet Russia, Um,
there's some pretty crazy toppings around the world. What do
(34:06):
they eat there? In Russia? They eat something called makba,
which is a blend of tuna, mackerel, sardines, onions, and salmon,
which I have to say, sounds kind of good. You
know what I thought good was good was the Japanese
the mayo yaga jaga yeah, man, mayonnaise, bacon and potato mixture.
They their their hot dogs in there too. Gosh, yeah,
(34:26):
it's really good. A lot to check that out. Uh.
In India, little pickled ginger and tofu maybe and little
minced mutton. Yeah, sounds good to me. You don't like
mutton had a pet goat? That's this is a lamb.
Totally different animals. They can't even mate, I don't think.
Oh I bet they could. Well, they can, but they
can't reproduce. Okay, Um, Brazil, you might get some green
(34:52):
peas on your pizza. Yeah. Costa Rica you might get
a little coconut equally wolf, Yeah, I think so. I'm
not big on coconut and antrovies are generally regarded as
the least favorite pizza topping. What's the number one pizza
topping in America? Pepperoni? Of course? Really it got toppled
this last this year. Chicken, as far as protein goes, chicken,
(35:15):
really yep? And is that how do they calculate that?
Is that like in restaurants or there's an actually surprising
amount of pizza industry UM marketing and lobby groups in
trade groups, And that's true of the pizza and association.
I ran across the blog post and I don't remember
I followed it to this press release from some pizza
(35:38):
association UM, and I don't remember which one it was,
but they said that, um, chicken topped pepperoni as far
as pepperoni toppings goes. So that means that Americans consume
more than two hundred and fifty million pounds of chicken
on their pizza. Yeah, which makes sense because chicken's heavier
than pepperoni, that's true, and a lot of pepperoni. Maybe
(36:01):
they're good by weight. Yeah, we've got some awesome stats here,
don't we go ahead and fire some of those out? Uh? So,
the number of pizza sold in the US each year,
three billion. I'm responsible for at least a million and
a half of those three slices sold every second. Yeah,
not bad. And uh, every year, the average American eats
(36:23):
forty six slices. That's child's play. Americans eat pizza at
least once a month. Yeah, that's a lot. That is
a lot. I mean that is that means like almost
every American eats pizza at least once a month. That's
pretty staggering. I can't imagine that there's any other food
like that except maybe a cheeseburger. I bet pizza tops
(36:43):
that even I would think. So it's just such an
easy because vegetarians can eat pizza, cheese, pizza. Yeah. And
if you if you go to like McDonald's or something
like that and you have a family of four, uh,
you're going to spend more than you would on a
pizza that will feed that family of four to and
you don't get the cold breakfast leftovers either. Uh, exactly
what McDonald's you do. But what else was there anything else?
(37:09):
I had? There was a guy in my elementary school actually,
you know remember the little rectangle elementary school pizzas. They
were so great. There was one dude, Brett Standish, that
did not eat pizza, and he was like the only
kid I ever knew that it didn't eat pizza. So
every time we had pizza, it was like there was
a battle royal to find out who would get Brett
Standish's pizza. And he would like up his you know,
(37:31):
his asking price each week when you know it was
like a valuable commodity. Smart kid, Yeah, what do you
what was the most he ever got for it? No?
I have no idea. Probably a bunch of pringles and
like a little time behind the school, you know what
I'm saying. Uh no, when my imagination is racing right now? Okay? Um?
Oh yeah. There was this little sidebar in this article
(37:53):
that said that more than thirty pizzaias in New York
are operating under the name Raise more than It's like
that sounds like a lot until you realize there's nine
thousand pizzerias in New York alone. New York City. Well,
I thought this is pretty interesting. Should we talk about Raise? Um?
If you've ever been to New York or Atlanta's got
four Raised pizzas? Is that right? Famous original race? Atlanta
(38:16):
has raised New York pizza UM. And you know how
I always says since whatever year, since nineteen in Atlanta,
that's not too bad. But yeah, they're by the count
I got. There are forty nine UM pizzerias in New
York that use some form of the name Ray. And
here's the story behind it, Um Ray. Uh. Ralph Cuomo
(38:40):
opened the first race on Prince Street nineteen fifty nine.
He's grandfather de Rivers and father of Mario. And his
nickname he claimed to be Ray because he said it
was Ralphie than Rayphie than Ray. I'm not quite so
sure about that. Um that he opened a second one
in the nineteen sixties, and then someone named Rosalino Mangano Majano.
(39:03):
But the second race changed the name to Famous Original Rays,
even though that wasn't true, So things started a little messy. Uh.
Then man John out now goes by Ray, which is
also bogus opened, Uh several more Famous Original Rays all
over the city. Sold that to new owner who begin
(39:24):
using other variations of the race. So it kind of
just spread. But ironically, three quote unquote Rays got together
to trademark the name. None of them our name Ray.
Yet they have all gotten together to try and trademark
the name Ray and to shut down at least in
name places like Atlanta's Nearer Pizza Raised Nearer Pizza in Atlanta,
(39:48):
who you just probably got in trouble. And I don't
think so they know about them, so you don't know that.
It sounds like a cartel. I think it is speaking
of Cartel's Chuck, the Big Three, Pizza Hut, Dominos, Papa John's. Um.
Of those three, the one that has the most urban
legends associated with it, as Dominoes. I had heard. I
(40:10):
think one of these. Well, the thirty minutes or less
went away because they killed some kid in a car
delivery person, ready made urban legends supposedly, Um, they there
were lawsuits from people being hit. At least one person
was hit, but they didn't say it had anything to
do with the thirty minutes or less. One person was killed. Yeah, well, yeah,
(40:34):
that's right, one person killed at least, so then at
least one person hit. We're both kind of right. But
they did do away with that. There was also a
rumor that the owner of Dominoes contributed a lot to
anti abortion groups um, which may or may not have
been true, but he didn't known Dominos probably at the
time because the guy who founded the company, um, Tom Monahan. Yeah,
(40:56):
he sold a billion, which is pretty tiny. But he
is a staunch Catholic and obviously a supporter of pro
life and is building his own little Catholic town outside
of Miami. Yeah, one of those. And I've heard of
these before. We basically like, I'm gonna build my little
my own little town, like filled with people that are
(41:19):
like me, exactly because I'm incredibly wealthy exactly. So I
don't know what the status is on that now, but um,
supposedly more than thirty thousand residents will occupy this town
and eventually they'll go to war with Celebration Florida. Uh.
And then there's all these goofy pizzas. I don't get
into all this stuff, like the the three thousand euro
(41:41):
pizza with Klagnac marinated lobster and edible gold. And okay,
so that holding suked caviare for the most expensive with gold.
There's actually two categories in Guinness as far as most
expensive pizza with edible gold and without. Apparently, if you
just want to like throw some edible gold on your pizza,
you can just you know tip the scales by wise,
(42:02):
but if you want the most expensive pizza in the
world without gold, that record was recently broken. Uh and
Stevenson Pizza Company in Vancouver, which apparently is affiliated with
the guy from Hell's Kitchen. Oh yeah, shut it down, Yeah,
Gordon ramsay, Yes, Um, they have a four hundred and
fifty dollar pizza called the C six. Pizza has lobster thermidor,
(42:24):
black Alaskan cod and caviare on it. It looks kind
of good. Yeah. You know, they do stuff like that
to get pressed and get people in there, and I
get it. What about the largest pizza ever built and eaten?
I like that they have that caveat Yeah, agreed, Havana, Florida.
Um from seven. I'm surprised no one has tried to
(42:47):
break it since then. Um thousand, four hundred and fifty
seven pounds of pizza, ninety over ninety four thousand slices. Yeah,
devoured by thirty thousand, at least thirty thousand people hanging out.
How do they bake that thing? I wonder? I don't know.
That's that's a great question. That's the one I want
(43:10):
listener mail on not your favorite pizza topic? No one
cares about that. How did they bake that thing? I guess.
I mean maybe it was sunbaked. I don't know, or
maybe those they're like, wow, this is really like they
make it and then like oh wait yeah because it
says eating. Or maybe there's another record tied to it
for the largest pizza oven and then the longest pizza delivery.
(43:32):
Two thousand four, a Domino's franchise owner named Lucy Clough
delivered a pizza ten thousand, five DT two miles undred
fifty KOs from London to Melbourne. It was a vegetarian
pizzas part of the Make a Wish Foundation. I was
about to disparage it. I know. That's why I got
all that out in one breath before you could break it. Yeah, okay,
(43:54):
I was saving you from yourself. Make a Wish then
I support it. Way to go, Chuck. That's pizza. Yeah,
(44:22):
you know what's awesome about pizza. And I guarantee you
there's dark corners to all this that we didn't even
hit that we're going to hear about that we want
to hear about. This will be one of those which
I love. Yeah, I love pizza. Uh if you love
pizza You can read more about it at how stuff
works dot com. Type the word P I z Z
eight into the search bar at our beloved how stuff
(44:43):
works dot com website um, which is now two words.
I think as far as eight P goes what website? Yeah,
I thought a long time. They know I was taught
when I was hired. Here it's capital W E B,
separate word, lower case S I T E. Right now
it's lower case. All one word. Oh, it's all one word. Now.
I thought you were saying it's two words, now, gotcha. Yeah, no,
(45:05):
it's one word. Okay, this is great. And if I
did say two words, I was wrong. Okay, we'll find out. Uh. Anyway,
I think I said search far in there. So it's
time for the listener mail Chuck. Yes, we should tell
everybody about something very special and dear to our hearts.
(45:26):
New York City. That's right. We are going to Comic
Con and we will be doing a live podcast on Friday,
October twelve at Comic Con at the jab At Center.
It's like our new thing. We did San Diego, now
we're doing New York. That's right next up Albuquerque. So
if you are going to Comic Con, you should come
by and see that. But after Comic Con, we have
one of our famous, its famous to us All Star
(45:50):
Tribua nights. Um, where is it going to be the
cutting room? It is at the grand reopening of the
Cutting Room in the flat Iron District, which is what's
the address? It is uh forty four East thirty second
Street in New York And it's in the flat Iron
you said. And doors open at seven thirty. Trivia goes
down at eight thirty. And what is first come, first serve? Right? Free, free, free,
(46:13):
first come, first serve. We will have a bar there
that you can buy drinks. Yeah, you can buy us drinks.
That's right. We're gonna basically be having a really good
time if you if you're not familiar with our trivia nights, like,
just come out and check it out. It'll be worth
your while, absolutely, and stay tuned for info on Facebook
and Twitter about the makeup of the All Star team.
We're filling that out as we speak. But we will
(46:34):
have some special guests that you will want to meet. Yeah,
and at the very least you can come take on
me and chuck right. Yeah, okay, it's just fun. So
what is that that's Friday, October twelfth, Right, yep. The
panels that win the panel is at I believe six, okay,
and then we're gonna be at the cutting room starting
at eight thirty. Trivia starts at eight thirty, doors at
seven thirty. Be there, be square. You're good at this.
(46:56):
Thank you all right? The time for listener mail. Yep.
I'm gonna call this accident. It's thanks to us. We
cause an accident, a good one now, like no one
got hurt. This from Annie and Annie was going off
to college, which was several states away, so her family
decided to road trip with her to uh To to
(47:16):
the college as a little mini vacation. That is very
sweet depending on how Anie feels about her family. Well,
you're about to find out. It may sound fun, but
it's not easy to agree on music when you're James
Blunt loving mom, Miley Virus loving younger sister she is
just heading off in college. Yeah, and weird eurometal loving
older brother. All crammed into a car together. After a
(47:37):
few hours of me wondering if I could get a
refund on my soundproof headphones, they agreed to let me
pick the music, and I picked the stuff. You should know.
It turns out everyone loves slash doesn't hate stuff. You
should know. We were all interested more importantly not yelling
or throwing CDs out the window. Plus it was fun
to go back through Uh my favorites. Jack the Ripper,
for instance, made my mom a little green. However, you
(47:59):
don't know what we heavily edited that one. Yeah, it
was worse. It was way worse. I think. Yeah, I
remember going through there and be like, dude, weekends. At
least it was factual, No, it was. It was so yeah. Um, However,
during a time when it was my goofy brothers turning
to drive parentheses, I really can't stress how weird he is.
At the end of the cast about Genius, you were
(48:20):
reading some other listening listener mail from a lady truck
driver and told her to honk her horn, which my
brother did really loud, like a truck would do. It
wouldn't have been a problem, but we were in one
of those curby two lane highways behind a senior citizen.
Uh and basically this this old lady thought that they
were honking at her. She slammed on her brakes and
(48:44):
caused the person riding behind her to butt into her
rear end. Oh no, uh no one was hurt, but
I was laughing because over the screech of tires, I
actually heard Chuck say, I hope we didn't just cause
an accident. Wow, this is um. Everyone is fine. There
was no damage to either car. But my mom made
my brother give them both info because my mother thought
that he was liable. Thanks Mom, Yeah exactly. She just
(49:07):
drove straight to jail. Then she says, I was the
one to awkwardly explain to the old lady what a
podcast was ps. I hope my dorm mate likes you guys.
That's from Annie. Thanks a lot, any that was really nice.
Glad everyone's safe. Me too, Man, that's that's crazy, chock.
It sounds a little made up, but oh yeah, we've
followed for it before. Man, remember the way the marriage,
(49:30):
the wedding proposal. Yeah, I still have to eck on
my face about that. That's all right, man, We all do,
we all do. If you have a great story about
how your family has been brought together by stuff, you
should know we want to hear it. We also want
to know how the citizens of Havana, Florida baked their
(49:52):
thousand sliced pizza. We really really want to know that, agreed, Um,
and how delicious it was. Yeah. Uh, you can tweet
to us all of this information to uh s y
s K podcast. Seriously. Our Twitter is killing it, is it? Yes,
that's great. There's it's one of the best Twitter feeds
on the internet. Wow, it's got it all man. It
(50:14):
has um wacky news, it has important news. Criticism of
Twitter when they suspend people's accounts, um it has. We
we talked to people back and forth. Sometimes we pester
Hodgman for no good reason. Yeah. Um, there's just all
sorts of great stuff on Twitter. Or we'll like, we'll
see a tweet from like the Jim Hinson company that
(50:36):
they like the Muppet podcast. Yeah yeah, so like pretty
cool stuff like that is going down. Yeah it is.
It's very cool. Um. So you can follow us on
Twitter at so it's the AT symbol and then s
y s K p O d c A s T
at s Y s K podcast. We're also killing it
on Facebook or Facebook page is awesome. Uh that's Facebook
(50:56):
dot com slash stuff you should know. Yeah, right, m H.
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