
A History of Pizza - appwiz
https://www.historytoday.com/archive/historians-cookbook/history-pizza
======
mikekchar
Quick note: caciocavello is not horse milk cheese. It's a pasta filata cheese
(stretched curd cheese) that is aged. It's formed into jug shaped cheeses with
a string tied to the top to age it. Normally there are 2 cheeses tied to
either end of the string and you hang them. It's called "cavello" (horse)
because you could put it on horse back with one cheese on either side of the
horse.

It's essentially a drier version of mozzarella, though (very similar to
Italian provalone).

Edit: non-sensical sentence

~~~
cloudify
It's actually: \- "cavallo" (horse) \- "caciocavallo" (cheese) \- "provolone"
(cheese)

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SideburnsOfDoom
By co-incidence I saw this on twitter today:

> A beautifully preserved thermopolium (cook shop), one of the places in
> #Pompeii where one could purchase hot and ready-to-eat food. Most Romans
> resided in insulae and did not have facilities to cook at home and relied on
> thermopolia to buy their hot meals. (photo)

[https://twitter.com/carolemadge/status/1184381800656920577](https://twitter.com/carolemadge/status/1184381800656920577)

The baking ovens in Pompei are - of course - wood-fired brick structures with
domed tops on the inside. Like a pizza oven.

[http://www.pompeiin.com/en/Bakeries_in_Pompeii.html](http://www.pompeiin.com/en/Bakeries_in_Pompeii.html)

I would be completely unsurprised if there is an unbroken lineage from these
shops (in other towns that were not obliterated by Vesuvius) through to
Pizzerias in present-day Napoli.

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fmajid
In Lee Iacocca's memoirs, he recalls how kids in school bullied him and
taunted him for eating pizza, calling it "Dago food". Now it's America's #1
food, but the change was within living memory.

~~~
dfxm12
Were they taunting him because he was eating pizza or because he was part of
the "other" group with a funny name?

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potatofarmer45
"Some even had tomatoes on top. Only recently introduced from the Americas,
these were still a curiosity, looked down upon by contemporary gourmets".

Well that settles it. Next time a pizza traditionalist blasts me for having
pineapple on my pizza, I'll counter that he shouldn't have tomatoes on theirs.

~~~
NCG_Mike
There's a kind of pizza that I've had at a Turkish restaurant that comes
without tomatoes. Really nice.

I'd assume a common origin with the Italian variety via the Romans (ancient).

~~~
SideburnsOfDoom
Many varieties of Italian pizza are "white pizza" / "pizza blanca" and have no
tomatoes.

~~~
manojlds
Like pesto ones too right.

~~~
zeitg3ist
As an Italian (not from Genoa though), pesto to me has always been just a
pasta sauce, so I was very surprised to see it used on salads and pizzas
abroad. But recently (in the last 2-3 years) I’ve seen quite a few Italian
pizzerias (not the most traditional, of course) starting to use it as an
alternative choice to the tomato sauce, or, sometimes, in place of the olive
oil on top. Not sure if it’s a regional variation gone national or an
influence from abroad... but if it’s the latter, no Italian would ever admit
that :)

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wirrbel
There is a lot of mysticism over the origin of Pizza. In fact, it's probably a
very straightforward kind of dish that probably has been invented multiple
times, of course with varying toppings and maybe a few other differing ideals.

Basically if you have a wooden oven to bake bread, baking is risky. If the
oven is too hot, the bread will become burnt before being thoroughly baked
within, if you put it in too late, the heat will not be enough. So how do you,
as a baker (or farmer baking for your own supply) test whether the oven has
the right temperature? You trial-run with very thin patches of dough, that you
can pull out easily and are always done inside, when the outside is nicely
burnt: a kind of flat bread.

Putting stuff on top of the flat bread and making it your snack on baking day
is just a logical conclusion.

In fact, around here, there are several regional dishes similar to a pizza
serving this purpose. Flammkuchen from Alsace, and Denede from Swabia. The
village where I work still has preserved (and renovated recently) a
"Backhaus", a common oven of the village that would be fired regularly and
then used by all villagers to bake their own bread. Did they triage the heat
of the fired oven by putting in a small piece of dough? probably. Did they put
stuff on top of that piece? I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised.

~~~
lqet
This. My great-grandmothers all used to bake bread in the village Backhaus
once a week, and the oven temperature was always checked by baking something
pizza-like, for example a crude Salzkuchen [0], which is basically a very thin
Quiche, or just a flat portion of dough which was eaten without or with a cold
topping. I guess that basically every culture which developed baking skills
has one or multiple dishes which resemble a Pizza.

[0] [http://www.ebbi-world.de/brot/salz-kuchen-stueck.jpg](http://www.ebbi-
world.de/brot/salz-kuchen-stueck.jpg)

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dr_dshiv
Boo, no mention of New Haven's early contribution. Not that I'm biased (I am,
they have the best pizza in the world, objectively speaking, of course)

[http://www.ctvisit.com/articles/new-haven-apizza-
history](http://www.ctvisit.com/articles/new-haven-apizza-history)

~~~
izietto
Maybe the best pizza _in the United States_. I'm Italian, the classic United
States pizza could hardly be called "pizza" here, since it's not risen enough
for being a pizza.

~~~
mackey
Pizza quality varies wildly in America. There are a lot of places where the
only "fresh pizza" you will find is something from one of the big chains. And
there are a lot of places that serve pizza that just serve terrible quick food
in general, so not surprising the pizza will be bad too.

Having said that, there is a lot of good Pizza in the US, especially in areas
with heavy Italian immigrations like the north east. Obviously its a different
style than most Italian Pizza, but its still really good.

I have only been to Italy once for three weeks to visit my cousins, but I read
a lot about pizza. From what I have read/watched from Italian sources, even
Pizza in Italy was in somewhat of a rut ~20+ years ago.

~~~
auiya
> Having said that, there is a lot of good Pizza in the US

Northeast region pizzerias are a given. Varasano's down south in Atlanta is
pretty fantastic however.

~~~
mackey
Looks like a neapolitan style, which is maybe the third wave of pizza in the
US. Lots of neapolitan style places have opened in in the last 15 years. I
like that style, but I wouldn't say its my favorite.

I would probably put a well done Regina's pizza (Boston) or a Prince Street
(NYC) spicy pepperoni square slice ahead of any neapolitan pizza, and I say
that as someone who owns a pizza oven and makes a lot of neapolitan style
pizza.

~~~
auiya
> Lots of neapolitan style places have opened in in the last 15 years.

Yep! But not in the American south.

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lordnacho
The abomination created by putting pineapple on pizza is either Canadian or
German:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_pizza](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_pizza)

Dig a bit more and it seems the German claim is a bit stronger. The postwar
years were difficult in Europe.

~~~
lqet
Afaik this goes back to the Toast Hawaii, which was invented by Clemens
Wilmenrod, a TV cook in 1950ies Germany, and quite an interesting figure. He
had no training as a cook at all, but presented his strange creations as an
exotic culinary experience. Basically, when you put cooked ham, pineapple,
cheap cheese and a cherry on toast in the 50ies and 60ies in Germany, you
presented yourself as a cosmopolitan. He welcomed the audience at the
beginning of each show as his "dear friends in Lucullus" and gave simple
dishes grandiose names (according to Wikipedia, a trivial recipe for a simple
Schnitzel was called "Venetian Christmas Feast").

Oh, and when someone claimed that Wilmenrod stole the "recipe" of putting an
almond into a strawberry, he threatened to kill himself on live TV [0]. (He
actually killed himself a few years later, though it is speculated that he was
diagnosed as having stomach cancer shortly before).

[0] [https://youtu.be/IAQhpI9euwg?t=130](https://youtu.be/IAQhpI9euwg?t=130)

~~~
SideburnsOfDoom
> Toast Hawaii

That's interesting to know.

I recently saw this dish on a TV show set in 1950s Germany, and I had
questions about it. Starting with "wat?" and "But why?" and "was that really a
treat?"

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toast_Hawaii](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toast_Hawaii)

~~~
lqet
> "But why?"

Perfectly valid question. One thing that is true is that it is extremely easy
to prepare for many people. When I was a child in the 90ies, we often ate
Toast Hawaii at my grandparents at birthday parties. Just open a pack of
toast, a can of pineapple, a pack of ham and a pack of cheese, place it on top
of each other, put it in the oven, done.

> "was that really a treat?"

As a child, I never liked it, and even the generation of my parents did not
really enjoy it and preferred a more sane toast topping. But the postwar
generation swore on it. Keep in mind that the country was basically in ruins
after WW2. That you were able to afford (or even get) canned pineapples in the
50ies again was kind of a sensation, so I guess they still ate it in the 90ies
out of nostalgia.

~~~
wirrbel
In my childhood in the 90ies, we had a toast-hawaii night at home like once a
month. My parents and my sister ate it, I stuck to toast with grilled cheese
and ham as I didn't like pineapple (and still today I am not a fan)

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leksak
Has "vulkanpizza" (volcano-pizza) spread to other countries outside of Sweden
yet? [https://imgs.aftonbladet-
cdn.se/v2/images/ce5c799d-dfe7-46e7...](https://imgs.aftonbladet-
cdn.se/v2/images/ce5c799d-dfe7-46e7-b5a6-3b82d521ec1a?fit=crop&h=713&q=50&w=960&s=c76b10318295fa28685c569fd3d17ccb70c7584d)

~~~
barry-cotter
That looks delicious but it’s not pizza.

~~~
leksak
We also have the calskrove (Calzone + skrovmål) which is a hamburger baked
into a Calzone:
[https://www.thelocal.se/userdata/images/article/c963e09e3d27...](https://www.thelocal.se/userdata/images/article/c963e09e3d272eb8786f4285edc5ec39180b725e2d2051691fcabf2548a55499.jpg)

~~~
tigershark
Why on earth???

~~~
barry-cotter
Same reason Scots deep fry Snickers bars, because it seemed like a great idea
to some drunk and then they woke up and remembered it was delicious.

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rmason
When I was a kid in the summer my dad would take me with him for the day on
his sales route. One of my favorite places for us to stop for lunch was
Detroit's first pizzeria.

When it opened in the late thirties pizza was totally unknown in Detroit. The
founder was an immigrant from Naples. An Italian friend of my father's
introduced him to the place and he took my Mother there on one of their first
dates.

The owner and his wife were by then good friends of my Dad and it was almost
like being in someone's kitchen, if things were slow they'd sit at the table
with us.

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m-i-l
Don't know how true it is, or whether it is a modern invention, but the story
goes that the pizza created for Margherita of Savoy had basil, mozzarella and
tomatoes to represent the 3 colours on the national flag of Italy (green,
white and red).

~~~
L_226
When I was in Naples a few weeks ago I was told that the Margherita variant
was created by the wife of the chef who added a single basil leaf onto the
completed pizza. This pizza was served to the royal couple, where the queen
(Margherita) was so taken by the creation that the chef decided to name it in
her honour.

Also, the flag of Italy was only adopted in the mid 1940's, and Queen
Margherita was around about 100 years earlier.

~~~
m-i-l
According to the original article, the Margherita pizza was invented after
Italian Reunification: "All that changed after Italian unification. While on a
visit to Naples in 1889..." I'm not a vexillologist (expert on flags) but
looking at the historical flags at
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Italian_flags#Unificat...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Italian_flags#Unification_and_Kingdom_of_Italy)
there are many from 1889 that have the green, white and red, e.g. the state
flag of the Kingdom of Italy from 1861. So I think the story is plausible,
although that doesn't necessarily mean it is true or didn't come after the
event.

~~~
L_226
Fair enough, I stand corrected.

~~~
m-i-l
Actually the link SamBam has provided, i.e. to
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_colours_of_Italy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_colours_of_Italy)
, explains the tricolour better. It also says "An apocryphal story about the
history of pizza holds that on 11 June 1889, Neapolitan pizzamaker Raffaele
Esposito created a pizza to honour Margherita of Savoy, who was visiting the
city. It was garnished with tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil to represent the
national colours of Italy, and was named 'Pizza Margherita'".

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goatinaboat
Here in Wales pizza was originally known as “Italian rarebit” and some still
call it that.

The best pizza I’ve ever had was from a van in a lay-by off the A470, the
“Route 66” of Wales.

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momentmaker
This documentary is very interesting about a man's obsession with pizza:

Scott's Pizza Tours

[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5252674/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5252674/)

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ravenwren
Pizza is the only thing all of my family can ever agree on to eat! To now know
the history of pizza will be a good conversation starter next dinner together.

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seapunk
Happy to see a reference about the pineapple pizza invention.

