**Oil can float on top of water though and in that sense, the water is a barrier because the oil does not sink below it.
Honest, Mangetout, it doesn’t work that way. To float oil, you need a lot more liquid and it can’t be bubbling. And you skipped over the fact that the cheese wouldn’t “soak into” the dough even if there were no sauce. (Okay, a teeny bit, but not enough to matter.) Ever make cheese toasts? And that’s with open-textured sliced bread. Whereas pizza dough is smooth and relatively impermeable. (Has to be, or the sauce would soak through.) Conversely, I can think of no real-kitchen scenario in which water could be said to barrier oil or grease. But, hey, if you (or anyone else) have one, I’m always happy to learn new things.
You’re probably right about how it works in practical terms, it was just the (apparent)definition that water could not act as a barrier to oil that I was addressing.
Actually the cold curry scenario would be an example; even though the sauce is usually emulsified (to a certain extent), when it is left to go cold, much of the oil floats to the top of the sauce and is thus kept out of contact with the chunks of meat (not that this really matters at all).
I’ve never actually had either item, although I do make a fabulous souffle.
I work there, but I’m not from there. Would it make a diffence in this duscussion?
Wolfman: what about pizza that isn’t cooked with oil? A proper pizza is cooked in a wood or gas fired oven, with the crust sitting right on the iron bottom of the oven. Not in a pan, soaking in grease, in an electric oven…
Sorry, I hate correction posts too, but I have to clarify that I am indeed from southeast Iowa, that I do work in Mount Pleasant, but I am not from Mount Pleasant.
Carry on, pizza debaters.
Bloody hell, it looks like no-one has understood the article. They are saying:
- Tomato sauce creates an oil proof barrier on top of the base.
- The fat/oil from the cheese does not penetrate this barrier and soak into the starch base and therefor does not lead to a poor ‘mouthfeel’ once the pizza cools.
- Chips, on the other hand, have no protective layer and the oil coating on the hot chips soaks into the starch, which on cooling, leads to a poor mouthfeel. ie tastes crap
Water is a barrier to oil. Oil is a barrier to water. Both will soak into a starchy matrix.
Maybe I’m not understanding things, but I just wanted to add a data point:
Many of the pizza shops in NYC offer (in addition to the regular pizza) pizza that doesn’t have tomato sauce. It might be called “white pizza” or something. Anyway, it tastes pretty good cold.
OK - pizza without tomato sauce - wow! That is a good experiment to test the hypothesis that the TS keeps the pizza tasting good.
Well I am sure that the article was saying that the sauce keeps the base oil free.
Does cold white pizza taste as good as cold normal pizza?
A proper pizza cooked without olive oil is an oxymoron. I remember within the Bible in the Letters to the Pizzariarians it states. “And thou shalt use the Oil of the Olive to substantiate within the crust of the Pizza to create a holy product that God has declared ‘good’, and this benointed Pizza shalt be consumed and make a happiness thoughout the land of the righteous.” 
IMHO, it’s not quite as good. However, (1) it still tastes pretty good; (2) it’s certainly better than cold french fries; and (3) IMHO it’s not quite as good as regular pizza if both are hot.
By the way, it just occurred to me that “white pizza” might use a different kind of cheese than basic mozarella. If it’s a cheese that doesn’t release much oil, then “white pizza” might be the exception that proves the rule.
wait… cold pizza tastes good? interesting theory. clearly the word “good” is subjective.
Most “white” pizza’s I’ve had usually do have some kind of sauce on them - I’ve seen pesto sauce, alfredo sauce, and even just straight olive oil.
In almost all cases, there is less of the above sauces put on the white pizza crust than tomato sauces on regular pizzas.
Also, many “white” pizzas I’ve eaten have had high levels of the hard “Italian” cheeses like Parmesan and Romano. Parmesan especially is absolutely wonderful cold.
critter42
Ok, but what’s not clear to me here is what the difference is between hot pizza and chips/fries and cold pizza and chips/fries. Shouldn’t oil soak into both starches?