Keep waking up to 2 things. Pigeons fucking on the windows on our rooftop apartment and my roomie destroying the living room by trying to toss a towel around his hands and hitting everything in sight. Is there any actual use for it other than marginally making the dough thinner?
by Throfari
30 Comments
It’s helps remove excess flour, but you don’t need to be this excessive. I did it for the kids that came in and they loved it. Short answer: no
Physics answer: centripetal force.
Baker answer: removes excess flour.
Gen Z answer: aura farming.
It’s for show. While it does help remove excess flour, this can be done in other ways.
Thanks for the answers. Gives me some peace knowing he is wasting his time and unlike him the pigeons are getting laid.
You won’t see this show-off behaviour in Naples, birthplace of the pizza. In Naples most pizzaioli stretch the dough by hand on the counter, not in the air. Tossing is more common in American-style pizzerias where the dough is drier and thicker. Neapolitan dough is too soft and hydrated to toss.
As much real reason as there is to throw shakers around whilst bartending.
It’s just showy nonsense.
It’s fun
Works better for me, less likely to push through and stretch too much in other spots over others
It’s actually a very good method when stretching large pizzas. I think people mentioning Italy miss the point that American pizzas can be much larger than Neapolitans.
If you’ve practiced a bit, it is much, *much* faster than other ways of stretching dough. Doesn’t matter to a home cook but it’s absolutely crucial if you’re gonna feed hundreds of tickets in a night and still keep up that 15m carry-out time!
Besides faster, centrifugal* force can make a perfect circle better than we can. Plus it shakes the excess flour off, plus it’s really really fun.
I stretch on the counter to about 80-90% size and then give it a toss or two to get any excess flour off
Higher you throw, the higher you clean.
Wish I could figure out how to slap on the counter. Until then, my go to
We used to toss it to each other like a frisbee in this one shop I worked in lol
I do it for a few reasons, it makes it much faster when I’m busy, it removes excess flour and it’s fun to watch as it is to do
The more pizzas I have made over the years, the more I find myself tossing dough unintentionally. It’s fast and it works when the dough is relaxed.
I do it to stretch the dough more evenly, and I can look for thin spots while it’s spinning.
Yes, centrifugal force will stretch it far and perfectly round.
Creates gluten allergies.
Idk but I used to do it exclusively for children who watched me stretch the dough when I did a bid at Bertucci’s.
In a restaurant, if you have the space, it’s a quick and easy way to get an even stretch and shake off excess flour, especially in NY style pizzerias where you’re usually working with lower hydration dough that can easily stand up to the forces of a fast spin. In your home kitchen it’s a quick and easy way to spray a fine mist of flour all over the entire room for you to mop up with your socks. I only do it when kids want to see it because it’s fun.
I’ve been cooking pizza since Covid and never once thrown it into the air
There’s one pizza place in my tiny little town, and during the weekends when the tourists come to visit, some of the guys will toss the dough if they feel the need to wow some people.
A dampened washcloth will do better to simulate the dough and make it less likely to just float away. Just make sure to wring it out fully.
It’s just a speed thing in my opinion. I’ve been working in pizza shops the last decade and that’s the only reason we push people to do it. It just speeds the whole process up marginally but just slapping it out is equally effective if done right.
Edit for clarity: we use semolina instead of flour so getting excess off is less important at the shops I’ve worked in.
Yeah, my kid loves it.
That’s a human centrifuge right there.
Tossing and spinning the dough creates centrifugal force, which stretches it evenly in all directions.
Idk, but the pizza that goes through a machine vs hand tossed isn’t as good.
As a professional pizza maker I can assure you it’s not just for show, it helps the crust stay well shaped and puffy while also evenly stretching the circle without throwing it off into an oval. But the key is to only throw and catch with the knuckles. Never the fingers