Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Great addition to the SE family. Welcome aboard, Leela. Let me add one item to Liz's list: mee grob!

@kenji Photos are forthcoming. I considered putting 'steam' in quotes, though no pun was intended originally. I ran out of dough/time/energy, but I still have two days to rock them, so you never know. As for steam, the char siu, cumin beef, and red bean ones are in the freezer, awaiting revival.

Hey, Will, congrats, couldn't have happened to a better guy. And best of luck surviving the wedding planning, I've been there. There's perhaps no better reason to be happy on your wedding day than knowing that it's all finally behind you.

Angelo's has long been my fave slice in town. If not for the school's-in-session only hours, I'd slice it up there more often myself. I'm pretty sure they even take summers off.

I have a bike too! I want in on any Boston area crawls, please!

Hey all, been away for awhile, just catching up with comments now. I wrote this piece as much to get feedback from other WFO users and enthusiasts on how well this design might or might not work for pizza, so keep your questions and comments coming.

The way I see it is that a barrel oven is functionally equivalent to a home oven, except without a temperature limit. It can get as hot as you want it to, as long as there's wood to burn. Max at Firespeaking said that people haven't used them at high temps with regularity enough yet, but that doing so might corrode the barrel more quickly. That said, he's said that he's yet to see an oven corrode in the 10+ years he's been working around or with them. (It would be relatively easy to replace if and when it did, since it just slides in.)

As for even heating, I don't see why it would be any more uneven than other designs, especially once the masonry starts to soak up heat. I did imagine adding stones or tiles to the trays (Max said that was reasonable), since both bread and pizza benefit from direct conducted heat. Of course these would need more than 15m to heat up, but because they'd be relatively thin, much less time than a thick deck would.

As for the potential loss of "smoke" flavor in pizzas when cooked in a barrel oven, there is little consensus as to whether smoke flavor gets picked up in pies when cooked in the presence of a live fire (ash flavor is another story.) Personally, I don't consider it essential to a good pie; plenty of wonderful pizzas that come out of electric or gas ovens. The key (for me) is high temps, not smoke or fire.

@gaffer: rust is a potential problem, I suppose, but the clay exterior will wash away sooner than the barrel will rust, so most ovens are kept out of the rain with roofs or tarps when not in use.

@damian:

Thanks for having my back. Perhaps @mimolette is correct, though, in that the photos convey more than my words actually did. I should have added that it is a crazy, raucous scene, obviously loads of fun for everyone there. I'm not gay (not that there's anything wrong with that), but I know a good party when I see one.

@mimolette:

Maybe the caliber of restos in Ptown is better than in most other seaside resorts, but that doesn't mean they are inherently great. I stand by my assertion that most are mediocre, and that given the concentration of places, there should be more great ones than there are.

Hear, hear! Thanks, Ed, for (yet another) great post. There are only two kinds of crust in my book: good and bad. Thick, thin, doesn't matter, so long as it's well executed.

Except cracker-style pizza, that's no good. But then it's not bread we're talking about, it's crackers.

I'm always up for an old-fashioned gluten fight, friend. Bring it on.

Dead on review, Meredith. The place deserves respect as an old-school institution, surliness and all, the grilled meats are great, and the pizza is pretty good, though the crust can definitely be heavy and tough. One thing Santarpio's is not good for: takeout. That crust isn't half bad when its blazing hot from the oven, but once it cools down it is downright leathery.

The ice thing is a sick idea. I too wish I'd thought of it.

Yep. This place rocks hard, it's my go-to Chinatown spot, since Slice Lady turned me on to it. I've had plenty of NYC XLB, and DC beats all of them hands down. (The hand pulled noodles are excellent as well.) I just hope they get a liquor license soon.