Sawsheezle does pizza: Part 6 - cost breakdown

These are typical ingredients I have been working with. I am quoting average prices I can find at the store. Here are the ingredients I am using:

Canned whole tomatoes: $0.60/lb
Wegman's Mozzarella cheese (bought in 5 lb bag): $2.73/lb
King Arthur Bread Flour: $3.99/5lbs
Big Pepporoni: $7.49/lb
Sausage: $3.50/lb
Onion: $0.99/lb
Yeast: $0.50/packet

Other ingredients used: water, olive oil, salt, fish sauce, some oregano and basil for flavoring.

So here is the breakdown for 1 pizza:

Tomato sauce:  9 ounces = 0.58lb @ 0.60/lb --> $0.35
Mozzarella cheese: 1.5 cups = 0.375lb @ $2.73/lb--> $1.02
Pepperoni: 0.5lb = 46 slices @ $7.49/lb  -->  6 sliced used = $0.49
Sausage: 1/6lb @ $3.50/lb --> $0.58
Onion: 3 ounces =  0.1875lb @ $0.99/lb --> $0.19
Yeast: 1/2 packet @ $0.50/packet --> $0.25
Flour: 3.5 cups = 1lb @  $0.798/lb --> $0.80


Total: $3.68

So how much do you guys spend on these ingredients? I can get some of this stuff cheaper at times, but I essentially have hit the price floor on cheese, tomatoes, and onions. Equipment/startup costs were not included, but between the stone, the dough docker, and the peel I have spent about $55.

And here is said pizza:

Question: why are we not opening a pizza restaurant? The margins on this thing could be ridiculous.

Frugal Pickles

So, I did this and the only reason I'm posting is because they tasted so damn good and it worked way better than I expected.

Last night I finished the last pickle from the pickle jar.  We also had about a half of a cucumber left over in the fridge.  Doesn't take a genius to slice the cucumber and toss it in the pickle jar.  And today, I ate the pickle and it tasted like a pickle.

Oh no, we're out of pickles!

Yay, more pickles!

So the moral of the story is, you can drop some cucumbers in your old jar of pickles and even though it sounds like an embarrassingly cheap overly frugal idea from a shitty yahoo! finance article about becoming a millionaire in ten easy steps, it actually worked quite well and is practical.  Just drop a sliced cucumber in your finished pickle jar for a low cost low effort way to get your pickle fix.

Sawsheezle does pizza: Part 5 - White Pizza and Docking Dough

I ran out of marinara sauce. It almost always lasts for exactly 4 pizzas, but this time I only got 3 out of it. I  decided to try my hand at a "white pizza". There are several kinds of "white" pizza with simpler recipes only calling for olive others...others call for cream and fancy cheeses. This is what I came up with.

Some ingredients:

*Not pictured: milk, flour, thyme, salt, pepper

Recipe:

2-4 Tbsp crushed garlic
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp thyme
1-2 Tbsp flour
1-2 Tbsp anchovy fish sauce
salt and pepper to taste

First get that butter melting.

Then get the garlic going in the butter. Make sure not to burn away the butter or to scorch the garlic.

Then add the thyme to get the aromatics, flavor, and beautification factor up there.

Now add the milk and stir around. This this is over medium to low heat the entire time.

Now add the cheese and flour. More flour will make a thicker sauce.

Then while that is cooking do something crazy and go back in time 6 hours to the grocery store and buy some fish sauce. Notice that is has a slightly sweet and salty yet complex flavor. Add to mixture and let simmer for five minutes while stirring and letting thicken up. You want to it be be lukewarm at most when you put it on the pizza.

Now get out your dough docker and let's dock. I bought this one: http://www.amazon.com/Winco-RD-5-Roller-Docker-Full-Size/dp/B001CDQ9GI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1413760556&sr=8-3&keywords=dough+docker

It seriously is like Thor's hammer man.

Here is some docked dough:

I prebaked the crust four 3.5 mins on the pizza stone in a 500 deg F oven. Notice that I cannot make a circular pizza anyway...skills fading...and the docking helped limit bubbles, but the crust was still thick. Thins crust needs more work...

Add that beautiful sauce. It was cheesy yet garlicy yet creamy yet with something else going on with that fish liquid. I was surprised it tasted so good. Now add cheese, I used cheddar and mozzarella for a nice color mixture, sausage, lots of onions thinly sliced (the thinner the better), and finish with fresh basil leaves.

Delicious. Seriously. It was amazing. Ate it while watching "Marry Me". Nice little combo. Went well with a robust IPA

Automatic Savings

I wanted to take a detour from the spending equation of our frugal obsession on this blog with my current post.  I finally (better late than never) set-up a recurring transaction to transfer cash from my checking account to my savings account that will transfer $50 on the 15th and the 30th or 31st (last day) of the month, which mimics my pay cycle.  

I would like to add that this fund transfer is to fund cash savings.  I am already contributing to a retirement account, but want to grow a cash savings account for any spending that may arise before I turn 59 and a half. 

I think this is common personal finance advice and something that I learned to be true for me when setting up my retirement savings account.  When you only get X dollars in your paycheck, you budget to that amount. This is true whether that's how much you get paid, or if you automatically get money withdrawn from that account through your retirement savings or, I hope, with this fund transfer.

I figure $50 is a good start and hope to be able to increase this transfer over time, as I continue to eliminate wasteful spending from my monthly expenditures.  I think that the key is getting started. 

So, how about you.  How do you save? Do you you have a recurring/automatic funds transfer that occurs with every paycheck?

Cottage Pie

Introducing a new series, where I attempt to share recipes under $3 per serving.

The first recipe in this series is Cottage Pie, and the ingredient listing with the per cost breakdown is as follows:

Directions:

Step One: Make mashed potatoes.  

Step 1A: Place potatoes and garlic cloves in a pot of water and bring to a boil. Boil potatoes for 30 minutes or so until soft and mashable. 

Note: Do not add garlic if you don't like garlic mashed potatoes.  

Step 2: Place a pot on your burner and turn the heat up to medium/medium-high. Then add your oil then your vegetables.  Saute until soft and season with salt  and pepper if desired.

Step 3: Add your ground beef and let it brown.

Brown that beef.

Step 4: Add the beef broth and the tomato paste and seasonings (salt, pepper, rosemary, and parsley). I have no idea what this does, but check out the recipe here: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Shepherds-Pie-240224

Note: This might be a good time to preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit

Step 1B: At this point, the potatoes were mashable. Add the milk, butter, salt and pepper to the potatoes and then, well mash the potatoes.

Step 5: After the broth and tomato paste have simmered for a couple minutes and all the ingredients are getting along, drop in the frozen peas.

Step 6; The peas only need to cook for a minute.  The next step is to scoop the filling into a square baking pan, then top the filling with your mashed potatoes.  Bake in the oven at 375 degrees for 35 minutes.  

This is what the final product looks like when all is said and done.  Tasty pie for approximately $2.30 per serving.  

Bonus Teaser:

Is someone dipping his toes in the bread making scene?  Stay tuned.

Sawsheezle does pizza: part 4 - monthly quota met aka Pizza Party!

It's time to make the pizza. The dough is risen and properly aged, the stone is hot, the peel is corn mealed, and I am hungry. Why delay the inevitable? Let's make pizza!

First get your peel and your corn meal. And one hour before that take out your dough and set it out to get up to room temperature. Also, cook any sausage you may want and get that marinara out and heating up on the stove.

The dough will be super tacky now after sitting in the fridge for three days. Recall, this was for optimal fermentation and flavor development. Dust your hands with flour, spread the dough out on the peel and then dust it with some more flour. Beautiful. Now prepare to dock that dough. Ominous pasta ladle!

Post docking attempt.

Now we said we were going to pre-bake this dough and let's do it! 3 minutes in the oven on the pizza stone at 500 deg F. Here are the results.

The crust is already a bit crispy which is exactly what we wanted. We demand crispy crust. You see it has risen some and the docking seems to not have worked at all. The goal was thin crust pizza, but wow what a failure. Still though, it looks good. Let's load this bad boy up.

First sauce.

Now cheese. Then sausage. I used the cheapest "hot" sausage I could find and then added fresh sage to it for an earthier groove. Why do sausage retailers not sell hot sage sausage? Why am I always sageing my own sausage? Why?! Now add pepperoni and onions. I like the "sandwich" pepperoni because it is thin and different. Like Nuprin.

Put this thing in the oven at 500 deg F for about 9.5-10 mins and in the meantime, clean up after yourself you pig and enjoy a cold one. Preferably not one brewed by evil corporate giants like AB-InBev or SabMiller. Just your trustworthy independent PA brewers. In this case Tröegs HopBack Amber Ale. Always drink beer in a chalice man.

After the 9.5-10 minute time window is up (time may vary by elevation and oven so YMMV), take it out and rejoice!

The top looks good, but how crispy is the bottom crust?

If this obscure photo doesn't immediately tell you that the crust is crispy then I do not think I will ever be able to convey that data to you. Anyway, take my word for it...it's good.

Review: The onions are a secret winner here, they provide a much needed sweetness to the whole thing. The sauce is good and after sitting in the fridge, the flavors melded together and a beautiful harmony was reached. The crust is crispy and delicious. I may pre-bake for 4 minutes next time for ultimate crispyness. Also, I need to get a real dough-dough docker. Anyway, this pizza is good and I must stop writing now to eat the rest. So who is going to try and make pizza next?

Sawsheezle does pizza: Part 3 - Equipment and other thoughts

On the seventh day God rested. Or was it the 6th day? If God obeyed the 40 hour work week then he would have rested on the 6th day...we're heading toward technological unemployment and I wouldn't be surprised if we went to a 4 day work week, but that is another story. Today, I want to share a few links with you about my thought processes.

I am now a pizza-stone convert, but it isn't all perfect. Here's my stone:

http://www.amazon.com/Pizzacraft-Square-Cordierite-Baking-Pizza/dp/B005IF3086/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412903075&sr=8-1&keywords=pizzacraft+pizza+stone

And it's pretty amazing. The idea is that the stone gets hot and serves as a surface to cook the bottom of the raw pizza. However, as hot as it can get (500 deg F), it doesn't have enough thermal mass to deliver enough energy to a raw pizza to really get the bottom of the pizza super crispy. Take a look at this analysis of pizza-stones vs pizza-steel (an advanced topic):

http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2012/09/the-pizza-lab-the-baking-steel-delivers.html

And this is why I am going to pre-bake my crust for a few minutes before I put the sauce on toppings on. This will be my 4th attempt at homemade pizza (and first time officially for the Fur) and I have never gotten the super crispy crust I want. More thoughts on pre-baking:

http://www.joy-of-pizza.com/pizza-dough/pizza-dough-should-i-prebake.htm

People also recommend dough docking, but what is that?



Dough docking is helpful when making thin crust 'za. I will dough dock using a pasta ladle...something like this

What about you greater Fur community? Do you have any questions for this ninja? Do you think I can pull off a decent pizza? Are my herb ratios too unstable? Perhaps you are just waiting to see the final product? If so, stay tuned!

Sawsheezle does pizza: Part 2 - Sauce

You've got to have sauce right? There are many ways to acquire pizza sauce, but Sawsheezle is trying to be as frugal as possible so here is his attempt at making his own. Ingredients roundup:

1 big can of peeled tomatoes
1 Tbsp of crushed garlic
1 Tbsp oregano
1 Tbsp basil
1 Tbsp thyme
0.5 Tbsp red pepper flakes
1 Tbsp sugar
salt, pepper to taste
1 onion halved

Get the garlic going in the bottom of a sauce pan with some olive oil. Preheat the oven to 325 deg F.

After a minute or so on the stove top, add in the tomatoes and the rest of the ingredients. Stir together. The onion is there to impart some flavor and sweetness. Now put in the oven for 2 hours or so.

I did look after this periodically, stirring occasionally, finishing with the lid on for the last 30 min or so. This is what the finished product looks like.

At this point, remove the onion and blend this all together until smooth. Voila! You have pizza sauce.

Notes:

This time I used canned whole tomatoes after being inspired by online recipes, but had previously used tomato puree. I must say that the tomato puree versions turned out better...I needed to tweak this one with a bit of salt and sugar...something is still a bit lacking here...sauce is still a WIP, but should be serviceable for pizza Friday!

Sawsheezle does pizza: Part 1 - dough

It's pizza time! Hooray! We want pizza. What kind do you have? Tombstone? Barf! Red Baron? Vomit? No! We are doing pizza Dieselfur style: homemade! This is the first part in a multi-part series. Stay tuned for the rest, but here's tonight's episode: dough.

First let's meet out ingredients:

 

3.5 cups bread flour
1.5 cups warm water ~110 deg F
1 Tbsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp olive oil
1 packet yeast

A simple set of ingredient for a simple dough. First get your warm water and stir in your sugar and yeast. Let sit for five minutes and when you see the yeast bubbling up you know it's good to go. In the meantime prepare your flour in a mixing of your choosing.

Nicely done! You are well on your way to making dough! And look, the yeast concoction is ready too!

Add yeast mixture, olive oil, and salt to flour in the mixing bowl.

Stir with a sturdy fork until you get a nightmare of immature dough like so.

Transfer dough to floured cutting board and begin to knead. Knead by folding the dough in and over itself many times. This is where we develop the gluten guys. And if you're wondering why we used bread flour to begin with, it's because of its higher protein (gluten) content. The extra kneading aligns the gluten and will make the dough stretchy...ideal for pizza dough! After kneading for a bit the dough will become sticky and at this point add a sprinkle of flour to the board and keep kneading. Repeat this process 2-3 more times until you have kneaded the dough for about 4-5 minutes or so. The more the better. And here's our finished product once formed into a ball.

Beautiful right? Now immediately cut it into two and drizzle a touch of olive oil on these new balls.

You'll want to spread the oil around over the surface of the balls and then put them into two lightly greased bowls for storage.

Now put these in the fridge and let them sit for three days. Wait...what? Aren't you supposed to get a towel and let the dough rise on the countertop you dumb liberal? Well, you can, but we are going to let our dough rise more slowly in the fridge. And we're going to let the dough age and allow the yeast to produce a more mature flavor. Still don't believe me? Check this site out:

http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/09/the-pizza-lab-how-long-should-i-let-my-dough-cold-ferment.html
quote from pizzalab.com

The Short Answer: Three to Five Days
If you've managed to get through all that dense, unleavened text, you've already got the answer to the titular question. For the rest of you who just skim (I know you're out there),

three to five days of cold fermentation is your best bet

three to five days of cold fermentation is your best bet for dramatically improving your dough's flavor, texture, and workability.

In my fridge, which keeps at around 38°F, loss of quality started to occur around day 6. It continued to get worse and worse. By day 10, the pizza crusts showed barely any rise at all, and had a very distinct and off-putting sour flavor. Depending on your fridge, your timing might be a little different than mine, so it pays to experiment a bit. It's easy—after you make the first batch of dough, all you have to do is shape and bake a pizza each day—and makes for an interesting week of pizza-eating.

Given all this, does it mean that I'm never going to make a one-day pizza dough again? Absolutely not. But it does mean that if I can get myself to think ahead at least a bit (unlikely), I know a surefire way to improve my crusts in the future.

Anyways we'll back back next time with another episode: pizza sauce!