State-by-State Redux: X of X - A Julia Child recipe that does not feature butter, and an Ina Garten recipe that makes up for it

Here it is, the last State-by-State post after more than two years of this project chugging along.  And for this final State-by-State post, I am visiting some American classics that I haven't done for this series, and surprisingly even much in the history of this blog, which you know by now is also ending soon.  I thought it was imperative to visit some of these classics by using recipes from the Queen herself, Julia Child.  Oh, and also Ina Garten.

Snacking State-by-State Redux X of X: The United States

Official Name: United States of America
Nickname: none
Founded: July 4, 1776
Capital: Washington, DC
Other Important Cities: There are a lot of 'em.  Can we just leave it at that? 
Region: North America
RAFT Nations: All of them, except Moose (upper Canada)
Bordered by: Canada (north), Arctic Ocean, Bering Strait & Russia (northwest), Pacific Ocean (west), Mexico (south), Gulf of Mexico & Caribbean Sea (southeast), Atlantic Ocean (east)
Official US Foods and Edible Things: none
Some Famous & Typical Foods: see the previous two years worth of posts for this.  Also: apple pie, barbecue, hot dogs, hamburgers, fast food, and so on

Of all the famous chefs in American history, it's pretty safe to say that none rivals the importance of Julia Child.  I mean, did the Smithsonian Institution put James A. Beard's kitchen on display in the American History Museum in Washington?  I've been a few times, and I just don't get tired of it.

Child was, among all chefs, a pathbreaker in that she introduced the American public to the pleasures of an intimidating cuisine (French, not American) in as accessible a way as possible.  From her Mastering the Art of French Cooking to her long-standing partnership with PBS, her many books and television shows, and her co-founding of the American Institute of Wine and Food, Child left an important and lasting impression on American food [Smithsonian National Museum of American History (Behring Center), no date]

For my final State-by-State post, I am showcasing one of Child's more American recipes: the ever-popular meatloaf.  Yes, she had a recipe for meatloaf, which she considered it a cousin to the French pâté: "Since they are so closely related, I consider the one a variation of the other" [Child 2000: 53].  I had never thought of meatloaf that way, but I guess it is.  But I also did change this one up, not so much fiddling with the master so much as using a version that was "pre-fiddled with".  You see, I realized when planning this final post that I had used so many different meats over the past two years for this series: beef, chicken, pork, lamb, fish, shellfish, even buffalo, but not the one all-American bird that deserves extra attention in such a series: the turkey.  I left out any turkey recipes!  Yes, that idiotic bird that Benjamin Franklin would have made into our national symbol had the bald eagle not swayed other people instead.

Fortunately, I found a recipe that swaps out the pork in Child's recipe for turkey plus precooked rice.  I'm not sure of the actual provenance of this recipe.  Various sources attribute a turkey meatloaf to Mark Ladner of Del Posto restaurant, though I don't think this is the version in question.  I did find Child's meatloaf with the turkey and rice swapped in for the pork on, of all places, the CD Kitchen website.  Poster "AmandasMom971" [2012] provides the measurements for what is, otherwise, Julia Child's recipe.  To her credit, she does call it "Julia Child's Meatloaf" and doesn't pass it off has her own.

To further complicate things, I swap out the beef in her meatloaf for that tried and true "meatloaf mix" of beef, pork and veal.  Mixing all of those together still gave me some quite pleasant results.

To go along with this turkified version of Child's meatloaf, I thought I would add two important sides: mashed potatoes - for what is meatloaf without mashed potatoes - also from Child's Julia's Kitchen Wisdon: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking [2000], and a recipe for one more recipe that I have never made for this series or this blog, but has become an important part of the American food landscape: macaroni and cheese.  This time, however, I go with Ina Garten and her "adult mac & cheese" featuring tomato slices, Gruyère and cheddar.  A hearty and wonderful macaroni and cheese on page 202 of Garten's Barefoot Contessa Family-Style cookbook [Garten 2002]

The Recipes: Julia Child's Meatloaf (with Turkey) and Mashed Potatoes, with Ina Garten's Grown-Up Macaroni and Cheese

First, Julia Child's meatloaf that you will certainly not hate.

The Recipe: Julia Child's Meatloaf (with Turkey)

Assemble the following:

* ground beef (or in this case, "meatloaf mix", about $7 per lb at Whole Foods.  Child calls for two pounds of beef, but I settled for 1 1/2, which worked for me)
* turkey (about a pound, about $5 at Whole Foods, mixed with...
* white rice (I just got this in the hot food bar at Whole Foods while I was shopping for the other things)
* toasted bread crumbs (nothing faincy here, just a few toasted slices of plain old white bread pulsed in the food processor)
* onions (three that I got the day before at Waverly - I got about six in all for $2
* beef broth (I swapped that out for chicken broth á la Better Than Bouillon.  Yet another animal added to the mix
* eggs (in case you decide not to swap beef for chicken broth, this will help add chicken to your meatloaf anyway)
* Cheddar cheese ($5 for a block of the XXX Sharp Cheddar from Yancey's Fancy.  I got this at Wegman's.  This surprised me, since I've never heard of cheese in a meatloaf.  But Julia Child put it in there and I'm sure she knew what she was doing.  Don't forget to grate it)
* garlic (had it - again, I used the garlic paste from Trader Joe's that I had in the fridge, but stuck the head of garlic in the photo)
* salt & pepper
* various spices: oregano, thyme, paprika, allspice and bay leaves (had them all)

You will also need oil to sauté the onions, and a tomato sauce to pour over the meatloaf.  Look for more on that below.

First chop the onions and sauté them in a skillet.

Mix your bread crumbs with the onions.

Add the meatloaf mix...

...the turkey and rice (yes, that is rice)...

...the grated Cheddar and the eggs...

...and your chicken broth, salt, pepper and herbs and spices, holding off on the bay leaves which go on top of the whole thing.

Child suggests cooking a little bit of it in the skillet and tasting it to make sure it's right.  It's stuff like this, folks, that explains why her kitchen is in the Smithsonian.

Push it into a meatloaf pan (I used one with holes in the bottom and another pan underneath to catch all the juices) - Child suggests greasing it with butter (natch), though I used baking spray instead - and top it with the bay leaves.  Bake in a pre-heated oven for 90 minutes (until the juices run clear) at 350°F.

While that is in the oven, make the tomato sauce for the meatloaf.  Child suggests the sauce on page 30 of her book, which uses fresh ones.  I used canned San Marzanos instead ($4 per 28 ounce can), with chopped onion and basil, and reduced until thick.

Ninety mintes later, the meatloaf should be springy...

...and the sauce should be reduced and very intense.

Child's mashed potatoes go wonderfully with this: just boil some potatoes, add cream and/or milk alternating with butter.  I just used a hand masher.

The Recipe: Ina Garten's Grown-Up Macaroni and Cheese

As for Garten's luxurious macaroni and cheese (which, unlike the meatloaf, I halved), you should gather the following ingredients:

* macaroni (I got the Barilla variety for about a buck and a half)
* Cheddar (here I thought I'd run out of Cheddar.  I still have a ridiculous amount left over)
* Gruyère (I got the cheaper, mild kind at Whole Foods, about half a pound for $7)
* milk (fresh from the South Mountain Creamery stall at the farmers' market at Waverly)
* flour (had it)
* tomatoes (a few Romas from the supermarket)
* butter (had it)
* nutmeg, salt and pepper (had them all)
* bread crumbs (more than enough left over from the meatloaf)

Start by grating your cheeses.

Boil your macaroni in a large pot.

Melt that butter!

Once melted, whisk in your flour (exact measurements in Garten's recipe on page 202 of the Family Style cookbook)

Add the milk and whisk some more, then remove from heat.

Next, whisk in your shredded cheeses...

...and your nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Drain your macaroni and add this to the mixture, coating thoroughly.

Pat it all down into an oven-safe dish.

Then mix the bread crumbs with a little more melted butter.

Slice the tomatoes and place on top of the macaroni and cheese.

And then spread the bread crumbs over everything.  Yes, all over everything.

Bake in a preheated 375°F oven for about 35 minutes.

Though the meats were not exactly the ones she recommended, Julia Child's meatloaf still turned out to be lovely.  It's done for me what homemade sauce did for me for spaghetti: it made it taste good again.  As for the mac & cheese: it was good, though distinctly second fiddle to the meatloaf.  But a hot bowl of the mac & cheese alone (and it must be hot - lukewarm really doesn't bring out the flavors all too well) is still a nice thing on a cold day.

- - - - -

And that's it!  Fifty states, one territory, one federal district, plus several regions and an all-encompassing "America" post, and my Snacking State-by-State series is now - pardon the wording - history.  I have enjoyed learning about all the different ways of eating all over this country over the past two years and a handful of months.

• I've either learned or re-learned how to pick apart a lobster (Maine), a crawfish (Louisiana), a King crab (Alaska) and a shrimp (Florida).   I sought out easier ways to shuck oysters (Delaware, Mississippi and Virginia) and clams (Rhode Island).  Mind you, I already knew how to pick blue crabs (Maryland), duh, and Dungeness (Washington) was something I remembered from back in California.  
• I learned that Youtube is a great repository for how-to videos, on everything from frying bison testicles (Wyoming) to making Mr. Beer home brew as interesting as possible (Wisconsin), to making sushi rice (California), to mixing up your own Korean potato salad (District of Columbia) and so on.
• As far as my own state's food goes, I've learned just how much more Southern we are in our culinary history (note: panfried chicken, Smith Island cake) than we are Northern, though we still have that.
• I was also reminded that Lady Baltimore cake (South Carolina) has nothing to do with Maryland, no matter how hard John Shields or myself want it to be.
• I've learned a few new-to-me culinary terms: 
• bizcochito (New Mexico)
• buckeyes (Ohio)
• chislic (South Dakota)
• curtido (District of Columbia)
• funeral potatoes (Utah)
• halušky (Pennsylvania)
• hot chicken (Tennessee)
• johnny cakes (Rhode Island)
• knoepfla (North Dakota)
• mofongo (Puerto Rico)
• musubi (Hawaii)
• pemmican (Montana)
• pork roll (New Jersey)
• purloo (South Carolina)
• sofrito (Puerto Rico)
• St. Paul sandwich (Missouri)
• tapioca maltodextrin (Illinois)
• tourtière (New Hampshire)
• wojapi (Nebraska - this one and pemmican are both Native American dishes)
• I now know how to smoke pork butt  (North Carolina) in the slow cooker, as well as beef brisket (Texas), and how to smoke pork ribs (Missouri & Tennessee) in the oven.
• I learned how expedient and how expensive mail-ordering foods can be when you just cannot buy them locally - ahem, huckleberries, anyone? (Idaho)
• I learned that Miss Paula may claim that gooey butter cake for Savannah, Georgia, but they were making it in Missouri long before she caught wind of the idea.
• I still never got to make steamed crabs from Maryland or Virginia, Jamaican jerk chicken from New York, or apple pie from all over the country, but I do think I covered most of the bases.

And that closes the textbook on this culinary exploration of America.  It has been enriching, exhausting, expensive and fattening all at the same time.  And with that, I can now go to the supermarket secure in the knowledge that I don't have to root out any specific ingredient for any blog-related reason, anymore.  And to quote the master herself one final time, Bon Appétit!

Sources:

"AmandasMom971" (poster).  "Julia Child's Meatloaf".  CD Kitchen, posted 2012.  Copyright CDKitchen 2005-2013, all rights reserved.

Child, Julia.  Julia's Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking.  David Nussbaum, collaborator.  Knopf: New York, 2000.  Reprinted 2009.

Garten, Ina.  Barefoot Contessa Family Style: Easy Ideas and Recipes That Make Everyone Feel Like Family.  Clarkson Potter: New York, 2002.

Smithsonian National Museum of American History (Behring Center).  Bon Appétit! Julia Child's Kitchen at the Smithsonian.  Rayna Green and Paula Johnson, content and curatorial for website, Nancy Growald Brooks, editor (full list of website and exhibition credits can be found here).  Copyright 2002 - present, Smithsonian Institution, all rights reserved.

Some information also obtained from the United States Wikipedia page and from the Food Timeline State Foods webpage.

State-by-State Redux: IX of X - Americanized Chinese Cuisine Revisited - Tso many dishes, Tso little time...

Chinese food in the United States is typically, at best, "Chinese" food.  This is changing, of course, as more Chinese immigrants are opening more restaurants with authentic Chinese cuisine (or maybe they've been here all along, but everyone else is now patronizing them more often).  But "Chinese" food has evolved into something uniquely American, shaped by the first immigrants to the West Coast in the 19th century, and to points all over America today (mostly from Fujian province).  And different communities from the Chinese diaspora master different food feats in different parts of the world - shredded beef in the UK, for example, or ma po tofu in Japan [Lee 2008].  In the US of A, that Chinese dish that's gripped the nation is named after General Tso.

Snacking State-by-State Redux IX of X: Americanized Chinese Cuisine

What is it? Traditionally, a unique mix of Chinese cooking techniques and American ingredients, here since the 1840's.  Since then it has evolved into something not terribly recognizable in China, but instead is peculiarly American.  More recently, actual "Chinese" Chinese food has crossed the Pacific in the form of dim sum and other dishes that a Chinese tourist would actually recognize.
Where did it come from? See above


General Tso's chicken is not a real thing in China, but that doesn't stop Jennifer 8. Lee from seeking it out.  In her book The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food [2008], Lee analyzes the origins and state of Chinese food in America, from fortune cookies (actually based on a Japanese cookie) to chop suey to the ubiquitous General Tso's chicken.  Lee's quest to find this last dish took her all the way to a remote village in Hunan Province to find the origins of this dish, one which few Chinese chefs - scratch that, no Chinese chefs - had actually heard of.  As Lee notes:

The refrain was consistent: "We don't have General Tso's chicken here" or "We've never heard of it."  Even after I showed them pictures of the dish on my digital camera, they would frown and look at me blankly, then helpfully suggest another chicken dish, often  the local specialty, mala or kung pao.  One waitress at a three-hundred-year-old restaurant pressed me to try another dish associated with a famous Hunan personage: "This is what Mao Zedong and his circle ate when they used to come here."

But nothing they offered ever resembled our crispy General Tso's, nor his American cousins: sesame chicken, lemon chicken, sweet-and-sour chicken.  In fact, any batter-dipped, stir-fried chicken dish was hard to come by in this urban corner of Hunan. [Lee 2008: 68-69]

The closest Lee ever got was the home village of Zuo Zongtang, the 19th century local leader and statesman for whom this dish - the same one that has nothing to do with him whatsoever - is related.  There a distant modern relative to Zuo was befuddled by the photos Lee had of General Tso's - Zuo's - chicken on her phone.  Her informant did offer to cook dog, however - the kind "raised for eating" and not for pets.  Lee was, of course, taken aback: "I pictured how Americans would react to General Tso's puppy on their take-out menus" [2008: 73].

Lee never finds what we call General Tso's chicken, but that hasn't stopped Chinese-American chefs from trying to recreate this uniquely American dish.  How "American" is it?  Lee's schoolmate from Beijing University, Wang Wei, tells her why it's so American:

"It has broccoli.  Americans looove broccoli.  They add broccoli with everything."  She continued: "Americans like chicken.  You can go to a supermarket and you buy chicken breast, chicken legs, chicken drumsticks, chicken wings, boneless chicken.  All different types of chicken," she said, gesturing to various parts of her body..."It's very American.  It's all-American: very big pieces of chicken, fried and sweet." [Lee 2008: 74]

Since Lee can find no recipe for General Tso's chicken, I had to look elsewhere.  After finding many much healthier and more typically Chinese-style General Tso's chicken (Ching-He Huang's recipe being the most notable), I wanted something more typical of the Chinese fast food takeouts that Jennifer 8. Lee and myself are more familiar with.  I found that in Diana Kuan's Appetite for China blog (which she just turned into a cookbook).  Kuan is also familiar with Lee's aforementioned book, and tried to find out more about it herself.  Kuan tries out various versions of the dish before perfecting one that is as authentic as she can get it, deep-frying those chicken pieces with a whole lot of cornstarch.

It is Kuan's version of the General's chicken that I interpret below.  Unlike most recipes I have done, this time I am pretty much following this one to the letter, save for the addition of broccoli, which she doesn't specifically mention in her recipe.

The Recipe: General Tso's Chicken

To make Kuan's version of Zuo's chicken, assemble the following:

* chicken (Kuan calls for a pound of chicken thighs, boneless; I went for 1.5 lbs of chicken thighs, bone-in, and went from there.  I don't buy a lot of chicken, so I justified the expense of the less expensive thighs at the Whole Foods.  Actually I don't think they had boneless)
* cornstarch (I bought a new canister, about $1.50, because I needed a lot of it - about  a cup and a half, instead of the usual one or two teaspoons)
* sugar, salt & pepper (had them all)
* dried chiles (had this too)
* garlic (this too)
* sesame seeds (yup)
* green onions (getting pricier these days, about $1.50 a bunch)
* oil for frying (I had some of that high heat point rice bran oil from H-Mart)
* Though not pictured, I also added broccoli, as Jennifer 8. Lee's friend mentioned.  Because Americans LOVE broccoli!  Okay we don't all love it, but I am used to broccoli in my General Tso's chicken, so in it goes.

You will also need to marinade the chicken.  For that, assemble:
* sesame oil (had it in the fridge)
* soy sauce (I had this too)
* egg whites (discard those yolks, folks)

And for that famous sauce, assemble:
* chicken stock (I used that Better Than Boullion in the fridge)
* soy sauce
* hoisin sauce (got a new jar for about $2)
* rice vinegar (same)
* chile paste (I used the garlic chile paste from that Washington Dungeness crab recipe)
* more sugar, more soy sauce, and more cornstarch

It takes about six chicken thighs to yield one pound of meat.  Remember that when shopping.

Mix the marinade ingredients - the sesame oil, the egg whites and the soy sauce.

Marinade the meat for at least ten minutes.

Next, assemble the sauce ingredients.

Mix together in a bowl and set aside.

And mix salt and pepper into the massive amount of cornstarch.  You will coat the chicken in this.,

Heat your oil in a wok until at deep frying temperature

To prepare your marinated chicken for frying, plop each piece in the cornstarch mixture...

...and shake off the excess.

Fry several at a time for about five minutes, turning once.

Drain on a paper towel.

When done frying, reserve the oil (okay, dump it somewhere to cool down until you can just dispose of it), wipe out the wok and quickly fry your chiles and garlic in oil.

Add your sauce for a minute or so...

...and then your chicken to coat.

I added the broccoli bits until no longer frozen (I did also nuke it in the microwave to expedite the process).  Serve with scallions and rice.

Granted, the next time I may just be lazy and buy it ready-made.  Still, now I can make General Tso's tasty chicken at home.  It wasn't as sweet as I'm used to, but I've actually found orange chicken to be the really sweet one.  When I order Chinese I usually go back and forth between orange and General Tso's chicken.  What's good about this one is that it isn't stringy and all "mystery meat"-ish like the kind you sometimes buy at a Chinese take-out place.  It's tender, somewhat crispy (less so when you reheat it - pop it in the oven and not the microwave if you are concerned about that), and just sweet enough.  Plus, it's satisfying to know that you made it yourself without opening a packet of seasoning or a big-ass can labeled "Chun King".

- - - - -

Well, this feels pretty strange, y'all, but the next State-by-State post is it - THE LAST one!  I thought for a while about how to sum this up.  Unlike my Beltway Snacking series a few years ago, where I wrote a long summary, for this I'm just making an all-American meal instead.  Next week you will find out what it is, but more importantly who wrote the recipe: the most quintessentially American of chefs herself.

Also: as noted yesterday, look at the blog on Tuesday morning (February 26).  I have a big announcement to make about what I'm up to next, now that this State-by-State series is fast approaching its end.

Sources:

Kuan, Diana.  "General Tso's Chicken".  Appetite for China, posted August 30, 2011.

Lee, Jennifer 8.  The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food.  Twelve Books: New York, 2008.

Some information also obtained from the Food Timeline State Foods webpage.

State-by-State Redux: VIII of X - The New England and Northeastern States Revisited - Youse call this pizza!?

As I cross the Mason-Dixon for the final regional post for this series, I think I finally have a handle on just what constitutes "Northeastern food".  A lot of it is tied to New England, but even when it isn't (New York, New Jersey and so on), immigrant foods come quickly to mind, for example: Irish, Puerto Rican, Jamaican, Portuguese, Polish, German, Jewish, Chinese, among many others.  And of course, Italian.

Snacking State-by-State Redux VIII of X: The New England and Northeastern States

What are the Northeastern States?: always includes the New England states (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut) and upper Mid-Atlantic states (New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania); sometimes includes Maryland, Delaware, the District of Columbia, West Virginia and northern Virginia
Important Cities: Arlington, Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Charleston, Dover, Harrisburg, Hartford, Manchester, Montpelier, New York City, Newark, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, Providence, Springfield, Trenton, Washington, Wilmington
Regions and Subregions: Appalachia, Mid-Atlantic, New England
RAFT Nations: Chestnut (southern West Virginia, northern Virginia, District of Columbia, central Maryland, southeastern Pennsylvania), Crabcake (Chesapeake Bay coastline, Susquehanna River), Clambake (Delaware & eastern half of Delmarva penninsula, Philadelphia area, New Jersey, New York City, southern and coastal New England, coastal New Brunswick and the Canadian Maritime provinces), Maple Syrup (northern West Virginia and western Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, northern New England, southern Québec, New Brunswick); Wild Rice (Great Lakes coast of Pennsylvania & New York, southern Ontario)
Foods the Region is Best Known For: Ethnic European immigrant foods throughout the major cities and coastal areas (especially Italian, Irish, Polish, German, Russian, Jewish, Portuguese in New England); Canadian / French Canadian and WASP / "Yankee" foods in parts of New England (including clam and lobster chowders, sweet cornbreads, pies, baked beans, Whoopie pies); maple syrup, fiddlehead ferns, pizza; Appalachian foods in western Pennsylvania, western Maryland, West Virginia; foods of the Upper South in states below the Mason-Dixon Line (especially spoonbreads, less sweet cornbreads, fried chicken, etc); oysters, blue crabs; multicultural offerings in the largest cities (metro areas of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore & Washington / Northern Virginia)

New Yorkers are rabid over their pizzas, or as they call them, "pies".  And they are quick to let you know that they do not approve of  your pies.  (Now let's see y'all try to make a crab cake, but I digress).  Apparently there's something in the water in the Big Apple - not my words, folks - that makes the pie crust up there so tasty!  So I set out to make an actual New York-style pie crust.

As you'll see, I am no good at getting them flat, so I wind up with something super puffy instead.  Perhaps this might be due to my dividing the dough and making two smaller pizzas.  You see, the other pizza was not a New York-style pizza, but a New Haven (as in Connecticut)-style clam pizza.  Yes, I'm trying to cover all the bases in the Northeast, and these two pies seemed like a reasonable set of bases to steal.

Note that you can find the typical tomato and mozzarella pies in New Haven, but the clam pizza is what they are best known for.  Not sure how the two are different?  Here's a comparison.

Classic New York style pizza pie (I got this information from J. Kenji López-Alt [2010], who laid out in gory detail the basics in making a classic New York-style pizza pie):

• A slow-simmered tomato sauce.  It's easiest just to make this one yourself.
• Grated block of mozzarella cheese - never the soft, fancy kind.  Plus, exactly as he put it [2010], "you must grate it yourself". Never ever buy the pre-shredded kind.  Why? Because pre-shredded mozzarella is typically covered in potato starch or cornstarch to help avoid clumping (yum, corn in my cheese.  It really is in everything).  Freeze the cheese for a few minutes after grating and apply just before baking for best melting.
• Pizza crust contains sugar.  Just a little for sweetness.
• Once baked, the crust should be crispy on the bottom and chewy just above that.  The outer rim of crust should be a little higher than the middle.

While most pizza chefs do not do this, López-Alt found a lot of success in getting the tastiest dough not by using the ever-versatile Kitchen Aid, which can be used for absolutely anything short of finding life on Mars (scratch that: they probably have an attachment for that, too), but instead his food processor.  Zuh? López-Alt explains why, according to Peter Reinhart's American Pie:

[Reinhart's] method is to mix together the flour, yeast, salt, sugar, olive oil, and warm water in the bowl of a stand mixer, knead it slowly for a couple minutes, then allow it to rest for a few minutes in a step called an autolyse. Autolysis allows time for flour to absorb water, and for the gluten-forming proteins to shorten themselves through enzymatic action, allowing them to be more easily aligned and stretched with subsequent mixing.  

The dough is then kneaded again until enough gluten is developed to pass the window-pane test [taking a small ball of dough and stretching it between your fingers until you get an almost translucent "window-pane" through which you can see your fingers if you tap them right behind it], allowed to rise overnight in the refrigerator, then shaped, proofed, rolled, and baked. [López-Alt 2010]

When you make pizza dough in the stand mixer, however, the flavor is kind of off - not bad, but not "New York-flavored pizza".  López-Alt reasons that the culprit is something that you simply can't control for with the Kitchen Aid: a dough ball of minimal size with maximum exposure to air.  Instead, as he and his sources suggest, the food processor pulses everything together much faster with far less exposure to the air.  His results when he tried the food processor method?  The dough not only passed that window-pane test but tasted much more like a typical New York pizza pie.

Classic New Haven style clam a-pizz (what a Nutmegger typically calls "pizza") is a bit different, in a few key ways, as Roadfood's Michael Stern [2010] spells out in his typically rapturous description of a-pizz from Pepe's Pizzeria Napoletana in New Haven:

• The crust is Napoletana-style, as Stern puts it (I love how he puts this, by the way): "thin but not brittle, with a real bready flavor. Cooked at high temperature on the brick floor of the ancient oven, it is dark around its burnished gold edge, and there is a good chew to every bite" [2010]
• No mozzarella.  Though they do eat mozzarella on many different types of pizza, these New Havenites will just shake their heads if you try to put any of that on a clam pizza.  A little grated Romano isn't so bad though [Gourmet 1995]
• Use clams that are fresh as possible.  I didn't shuck my own, but instead of the "Chicken of the Sea in a can" I wanted at least some good clams from New England, so I got a tub of some frozen ones caught in Massachusetts.
• Also spread some cornmeal on your pizza peel (the big wooden paddle you will use to slide your pizza onto your pizza stone)  This will help it slide off the peel easily, so you won't actually have to peel it off [Gourmet 1995]

I did have one problem in making these pizzas, as you will see below: I have never been able to get nice, thin crust.  It always puffs up like an elephant ear for me.  This will likely have to do with dividing half a recipe of pizza dough into two smaller pieces of dough, and stretching them out as much as possible, then not poking any holes in the bottom.  Still, my end result was satisfying.

This recipe from Gourmet magazine [1995] ended up as the basis for my New Haven style clam pizza.  I followed López-Alt's [2010] to make the New York style one, as well as his pizza dough recipe.

There are two final things you will definitely need if you want as close a New York or New Haven style pizza as possible (I have alluded to these above): the pizza peel and the pizza stone.  The peel (about $10 to $20 typically - don't spend more) when covered with cornmeal will make the uncooked pizza slide easily onto the other thing you need.  This is a pizza stone (anywhere from $15 to $30 - I borrowed my mother's cheap one from Aldi's which still worked fine).  This can be the round kind you buy in many supermarkets today or even unglazed quarry tile from the Home Depot (check out Marye Audet's Green Living Tips column at the TLC website for how to get great pizza stone tiles at Home Depot for all of five bucks [2012]). You will want this because it distributes the heat evenly and ensures a crisp crust.  You don't want to use a pizza pan for this, but bake directly on the stone.  And you must make sure to put the pizza stone into the oven before you turn on the heat!  Let the stone heat with the oven.  If you try to put it into a hot oven, it will shatter.

The Recipes: Traditional New York Pizza and New Haven Clam Pizza

First, we start with the dough.

The Recipe: New York Style Pizza Dough

For this good all-around pizza dough I assembled the following, all of which I had on hand.  Exact measurements are in López-Alt's recipe, which I halved:

* hard flour (bread flour works best - do not use a soft, cake flour.  You're not making cupcakes here)
* dry active yeast (I had a packet on hand.  For his full recipe, you'll probably use a whole packet)
* olive oil
* sugar (just a little - again, not making cupcakes)
* kosher salt
* water

You should also have a gallon ziplocked bag in which to store the dough, and extra flour (this time it can be soft) to flour the surface.  A rolling pin isn't a bad idea (though it is technically cheating), and something to poke holes into the crust (which I did not use, but really should have) - that would keep it from rising as much as it did on me, though getting it thinner would've helped too.  And that one's totally on me.

I went ahead and tried the food processor method for making the dough - something my sister may not forgive since she often makes the dough in her Kitchen Aid.  First you add together the flour, sugar and salt.

Then add the yeast.

Pulse it together until mixed.

Next add the olive oil...

...and the water.

And combine until the dough starts to ball up.

I had to add a little extra water in the end.

Punch it and roll it into a ball.  Mark it with a B.  Oh, sorry, childhood flashback.  Scratch that last part.

Put it in a ziplocked bag to let rise overnight in the fridge.

This is what I had when I put it in the refrigerator.

And this is what I got a day later. When I was ready to assemble the pizzas, I put the dough in the oven while it was off to rise just a little bit more.  I got some nice bulk there.

As you can see, my pizza dough doesn't exactly pass the "window pane test".  This will have ramifications in getting my dough thinner.  Perhaps it needs to rise more?  Or maybe I just need to knead it better?  Anyway, I was working on a schedule here, so I would have to live with this effort.

I divided the dough to make my two mini-pizzas, and got ready to assemble.

That was actually the difficult part.  The easy part comes in assembling your pizza pies.  First, the New York style.

The Recipe: New York Style Pizza

First, the sauce - again, López-Alt's recipe, which I did not cut in half this time.  I figured I'd save the rest, or use it as spaghetti sauce.  It makes a very nice spaghetti sauce.

* tomatoes (canned San Marzanos will work nicely here.  I wanted the whole ones - about $4 for a 28 ounce can)
* butter (had Kerrygold.  Don't twist my arm by making me eat the good Irish butter)
* olive oil (had it)
* sugar (same)
* dried oregano (had it too)
* garlic (and this)
* onion (very cheap from the store)
* chili flakes
* basil (I bought a little plant grown locally - okay, the Shenandoah Valley, so relatively locally - that is on my windowsill right now, for about $4

Crush your tomatoes, or blend them in the blender or with a hand blender (finally busting out the one I bought reduced at Super Fresh when they were closing down)

Grate your garlic on a grater, or else very finely mince it.

Next, melt your butter together with your olive oil in a saucepan.

Once melted, add the garlic and brown but don't let burn.

Add the maters and all other ingredients (I only added most of the basil here, and held off until the last few minutes to add the rest, to make it even more "basil-y").  Note: when adding your onion, you will not mince or chop it, but cut it in half and just throw it in.

Let simmer for at least an hour, or until reduced by half.

Again, I added the last bit of basil at the end.

Spoon out the onion when ready to use.

When ready to begin assembling the pizza, put your pizza stone into a cold oven.  Then turn it to about 500°.

For the New York style pizza itself, you need

* the sauce you just made, plus
* the dough you just made, and
* pre-packaged mozzarella cheese - neither the shredded kind nor the fresh kind.  I used Polly-O, which set me back about $4 to $5

Grate your block of mozzarella into a bowl.

Pop it in the freezer for at least 15 minutes.  This will help it to melt at just the right time in the oven.

Now for the dough.  Flatten it on a floured surface...

...and stretch it out as best you can.  Mine kept on tearing here and there (again, looks like something got lost in the translation, but happens to me even with pre-bought pizza dough).  I may be impatient, and perhaps I just didn't have enough dough (or the dough wasn't elastic enough) but with hand-stretching this is as stretchy as it got for me.

So I broke out the rolling pin.  I still could only get it to about 8 - 10".  So I wasn't exactly going for mini-pizzas, but I got mini-pizzas.

Spread cornmeal all over your pizza peel.

Plop the dough on top of it, and spread tomato sauce over the dough, leaving about an inch margin around the sides.

Cover that with the mozzarella.

Slide the pizza off the peel and onto your pizza stone (here is where the cornmeal really helps).

And bake for about 12 to 15 minutes.

You will probably get a pizza that isn't nearly as puffy as this one.

From the side, the cheese and sauce melted together nicely.  And while the flavor and texture of the dough were to my liking, again the thickness was a notable setback.

The New Haven style pizza - again from Gourmet magazine [1995] - is a bit different, but even easier to assemble.  I used the

 The Recipe: New Haven Style Clam Pizza

* pizza dough (the other half of the dough I made earlier.  Of course, already stretch this out and put on a cornmeal-covered pizza peel).  

* Oh yes, you need a little more cornmeal.

* garlic (chopped - actually, I ended up using the garlic paste from Trader Joe's)

* olive oil

* dried oregano

* Romano cheese (not mozzarella.  You will grate this yourself.  This wedge was about $7 per pound, and cost me about $4)

* chopped fresh clams (about $6 for the frozen New England kind.  Try to avoid the stuff in a can.)

Mix together the olive oil and garlic, and then chill.  Awww yeah.

Spread the garlic oil on your flattened, stretched out pizza dough.

Top all over with clams and some of the clam liquor.

Sprinkle on top the oregano...

...and the grated Romano cheese.

Bake, again, at 500° for about 15 minutes.

And again, it came out not exactly round or flat.

However, I was again pleased with the texture and flavor of the dough.  The topping was just as satisfying.

So my first attempt at making both New York pizza and New Haven clam pizza wasn't completely a bust.  The New York style's tomato and cheese really were as I have remembered many a pizzeria-bought pizza pie: deliciously chewy cheese on top of a tangy, intense tomato sauce.  The New Haven clam pizza was something new for me: the garlic and clams meld together wonderfully on top of a soft bed of dough.  And speaking of which: the only thing that went against me was the dough.  I should have worked harder at making it thinner.  But it tasted and felt delicious (I guess the food processor method works).  However, if thickness is my only problem then I'll take it.

- - - - -

That's the last regional post for this series. We have two more to go in this series.  The last one will deal with an All-American Classic (or two).  But first, a side trip to the local Chinese take-out for, believe it or not, another All-American Classic.  At least it should be, since like most Chinese takeout dishes, next week's dish cannot be found anywhere in actual China.

Sources:

Audet, Marye.  "DIY: Make a Homemade Pizza Stone for $5 Dollars".  "Planet Green" column, TLC, 2012.  Copyright 2013 Discovery Communications, LLC, all rights reserved.

Gourmet.  "New Haven-Style Clam Pizza".  March 1995.  Posted on the Epicurious website.  Copyright 2012 Condé Nast, all rights reserved.

López-Alt, J. Kenji.  "The Pizza Lab: New York Style Pizza at Home (Or How I Became a Food Processor Convert)".  "The Pizza Lab" column, Serious Eats.  Posted October 29, 2010.

López-Alt, J. Kenji.  "New York Style Pizza".  "The Food Lab" column, Serious Eats.  Posted October 29, 2010.

López-Alt, J. Kenji. "New York Style Pizza Sauce".  "The Pizza Lab" column, Serious Eats.  Posted October 7, 2010.

Stern, Michael.  "Pepe's Pizzeria Napoletana".  Roadfood.  Posted June 29, 2010.

Some information also obtained from Wikipedia and from the Food Timeline State Foods webpage.