Re:The Food Lab: Why Does Pepperoni Curl?
by kenjilopezalt on Wednesday July 06, 2016 @01:59PM
(#12044780)
Please report back!
FYI, for my testing the pizzas were cooked in a home oven at 550°F. Though I really, really doubt that pre-sliced, fiber casing pepperoni will curl at all at any temperature. It kinda just melts and falls into the contour of the cheese all floppy-like.
I have definitely seen natural casing pepperoni (as well as other natural casing cured meats like soppressata) curl on Neapolitan pizzas I've made in 900°F+ ovens.
Other pizzas use a variety of heat sources, but Neapolitan pizza is baked at between 750 and 1,000 degrees in wood-burning ovens. I can't imagine even an improperly-packed pepperoni wouldn't curl a bit under 800+ degrees of real flame. Of course the stuffing causes density changes, but at a certain point the surface tension/temperature differential will simply have to cause some curling. Next time i'm at my friend's house for a bonfire i'll toss a couple different forms of pepperoni in to test this.