🍕 Yes, that's a 100-meter record-setting Margherita Pizza. A pizza with a purpose. Read the rest

The University of North Florida is the latest customer of the Pizza ATM, an automated vending machine. The machine costs around $60,000. From the Florida Times-Union:

Brook Adams, senior executive chef for UNF’s Dining Services, said they make the pizza dough and shred the cheese from scratch daily in the campus kitchen.

“It’s all fresh toppings. Everything is absolutely fresh. There is no frozen pizza or anything going into the machine, Adams said.

After assembling the uncooked pizzas, they are placed into boxes with a bar code identifying the toppings and loaded into refrigerated storage shelves in the back of the vending machine.

Students use a touch-screen to select the pizza they want, pay for it and the machine then grabs the pizza from the refrigerated storage area and puts it into one of the machine’s two infrared ovens, Adams said.

“It cooks in about 3 minutes 45 seconds and dispenses it out to the student,” said Adams, noting the pizzas cost about $8.50 to $9 each, depending on the toppings.

I've been a fan of Blindboy Boatclub since I first discovered "Horse Outside," his hit(?) song with the Rubberbandits (and later, by complete happenstance, ended up staying at the same hotel that's featured in the video). His podcast consistently delivers a random, rambling ménage à trois of weird knowledge, cultural connections, empathy, and utter hilarity, and his delightful short story collections take the traditions of Samuel Beckett and Flann O'Brien and thrust them erotically into the social media sphere.

Or, if you want a perfect microcosmic metaphor for his career, there's this Twitter thread, where Blindboy talks about his  misconceptions of pizza while growing up in Limerick, which goes from silly childhood observation to profoundly resonant insight about cross-cultural communications in a post-colonial edge. And Ninja Turtles.

I finally had a pizza, It was on one of my childhood birthdays, a small frozen one from dunnes, my ma refused to put the oven on for it due to the extravagance of putting an oven on for one item. So she fried it in a pan instead.

— Rubber Bandits (@Rubberbandits) January 1, 2020

Blindboy was not alone in this strange experience, as the replies swiftly reveal:

I have a memory of my late grandfather taking us to get pizza at the Parkway Dunnes in Limerick in the early 90s. You assembled the toppings yourself, and he insisted on piling on a mound of ham cheese &sweetcorn to make a proper feed of it.

— Eoin Daly (@eoinmauricedaly) January 1, 2020

Because of TMNT I thought marshmallow and pepperoni was a proper pizza topping.

Many pizza places offer special "deals" if you order two medium pies. You might think that two mediums deliver more cheesy goodness than one large pie, but usually you'd be mistaken. From Primer, a mathematical comparison of two 12" pizzas and one 18" pizza:

Area of two 12” pizzas:

12/2 = 6 6×6=36 36xπ = 113.1 in² x 2 = 226.2 in²

Area of one 18” pizza:

18/2=9 9×9=81 81xπ = 254.5 in²

And as we know, more pizza is always better.

image: igorovsyannykov (CC0)

(via Cliff Pickover) Read the rest

Last night I made honey whole wheat sourdough pizza crust. It was quite good.

As a kid, there was a pizza place in my hometown that made a deep-dish pizza with a whole wheat crust. It was great, I tried and I couldn't replicate it. Then I substituted honey instead of sugar.

This simple crust is good.

Honey Whole Wheat Sourdough Pizza Dough

1 cup bread flour 1 cup whole wheat flour ½ cup sourdough starter 1 ½ tsp salt 3 tbs honey 1 ½ tbs olive oil ½ cup water

First: Mix ½ cup water, ½ cup starter, oil and the honey. Let sit while you measure out the dry goods and combine them all. Depending on your flour, and your starter, you may need to add a little flour to the mix to get a good consistency. Stop when it feels like the dough that you want to roll out.

Second: Leave it alone, probably covered, for 45-60 minutes. Refrigerate to store or use right away.

Bake at 475F or higher for 20 min, deep-dish. Probably the same for thin crust.

I have been using this dough for the crust of my deep-dish pizza, but you can easily roll it out for super-thin, Neapolitan stuff too.

Unless you do roll it super thin, I doubt this crust is going to get super cracker crisp, as it is sourdough and will retain more chew the longer you let it rise. Read the rest

A pizzeria that specializes in square pies shared a photo of a 9/11 tribute pie on 9/11. People lost their damn minds. Read the rest

I gave my mother my treasured 5-quart Lodge deep skillet and lid when I found a lovely antique to restore. I've been using it while visiting with them.

It was no easy thing when I gave my Mom my Lodge chicken pan. I had been using it for ages as my primary skillet and perfected fried chicken in it, as many of my colleagues here at Boing Boing will attest.

I have been instructed that his style skillet be called a chicken ROASTING pan and the lid's stalactite-like points are what makes it a 'self-basting' lid. Evidently 1 roaster size chicken (3-5lbs iirc) will fit in it, and with the lid on the bird will roast up nice and juicy.

I have never done this. I bought it to fry chicken. I learned it was awesome for frying eggs, bacon, pancake and sauteeing things. It became the most used item in my kitchen. Then I started baking in it like a Dutch Oven.

The Lodge ended its daily use, however, when I found a larger Wagner pan at the Goodwill and restored it. I started baking in my dutch oven. It is a bit easier to maneuver. When cast iron sits and isn't used, it needs to be used and this pan was truly special. I tried alternating between it and my Wagner, but the extra space and smoother finish of the Wagner kept it on my stove. It was a little easier to fry bacon and sear steaks and fish in the #9 vs the #8 pan. Read the rest

In 1994, Pizza Hut aired this TV commercial in the UK that was reportedly the first completely non-English advertisement on British television. The entire thing is in Klingon.

(via r/ObscureMedia) Read the rest

Sourdough pizza crust is as stress-free as it is delicious.

If my sourdough starter is on the counter when I want pizza, I will make sourdough pizza dough. I simply take my regular Neapolitan crust recipe and substitute 1/4 cup of starter for the 2 tsp of active dry yeast. I will reduce the amount of water I mix the starter into by 2-3 Tbs and add it back as I work the dough if needed. Generally, I do not need to add much back.

I let the dough rise and work it exactly like any other pizza.

Pineapple and pepperoni is my daughter's go-to pizza. I like chevre and prosciutto, but I am happy to help her finish the pineapple and pepp. Read the rest

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A post shared by Jason Weisberger (@jlw) on Nov 18, 2018 at 1:39pm PST

Peanut butter and jelly on a warm pizza crust is pretty darn incredible. Read the rest

Former prison inmate Josh of Lockdown 23and1 teaches the proper way to make prison pizza using only ingredients that an inmate might easily be able to acquire: saltines, Ritz crackers, ramen, tomato sauce, cheese, pepperoni, Slim Jims, and pickles.

(via Laughing Squid)

Read the rest

In select locations, Canadian restaurant chain Boston Pizza has started adding 3D-printed chairs to surround that little plastic pizza-saver, aka the pizza table. They call it the Pizza Patio Set.

Adweek:

“Patio season is a big deal for Canadians,” says client senior director of marketing Adrian Fuoco. “This was all about creating something fun that was part of our larger patio season initiative. Ultimately, we found a way to bring together the two things we’re passionate about — patios and pizza.”

If you are not in their delivery zone but do have access to a 3D printer, you can create your own tiny pizza chairs.

(Foodiggity) Read the rest

The folks at FliteTest like to see of they can make all sorts of things airworthy, and they succeed in turning a Little Caesar's box into a working airplane. Read the rest

We've seen donut bouquets before but now an East Coast-based pizza chain has taken this trend to the next logistical step with their Pizza Bouquet and Boutonniere.

This cheesy set isn't for sale though. If you're tying the knot and want to have the pizza-themed wedding of the century, you'll have to head over to Villa Italian Kitchen to enter to win the set.

Perfect for any couple looking to add some fun and flavor to their big day, the Pizza Bouquet and Boutonniere feature beautiful and delicate floral details hand-crafted by New York City food-stylist, Jessie Bearden. Made from freshly prepared pizza dough, 100% whole milk mozzarella, fresh California tomatoes and zesty pepperoni, the Pizza Bouquet and Boutonniere will be gifted, free-of-charge, to select couples set to celebrate their nuptials this summer!

"This was my fiancée's idea."

(Foodiggity) Read the rest

The $77 Pizzacraft PC0601 Pizzeria Pronto Stovetop Pizza Oven is a clever design: it's a stovetop oven that has a large thermal mass (thanks to a cordierite pizza stone) and other good thermal properties, allowing it to hit 600F in 10 minutes of pre-heating on your gas burner; it gets top marks in Wired's pizza gadget guide, too. Read the rest

If only we could all retire on a high note like John Schnatter! The founder and CEO of Papa John's Pizza has announced his departure only weeks after the brand was cast as the "official pizza" of the so-called alt-right, America's resurgent movement of fascists, neo-nazis, "cultural libertarians" and the like.

Schnatter had blamed slowing sales growth on the outcry surrounding NFL players kneeling during the national anthem. ...

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Ritchie is reported saying that he wouldn't comment specifically on whether the NFL protests or the controversy surrounding the University of Louisville athletics department, of which Papa John's has been a large donor in the past, played a role in the timing of the transition.

In that same interview, Ritchie is quoted as saying, “I want to put the focus back on our people and pizza.” He added that he was tapped to eventually succeed Schnatter in 2015, when he was named company president.

Read the rest