New York Water

[chuckster]

My son just called and said there was a program on the Cooking Channel in which they did a myth-busters concept on "The best pizza is from New York b/c of the water". They had serveral pizza makes from across the country and they all could pick out the pizza made with NYC water (the other waters were from Los Angeles & Chicago).

1) Any one else see this show? Any merit to the myth? Is water really that important/different to taste?

2) Marketing idea here?

3) I'm flying thru Newark Airport next week. Should I bring an empty gallon jug and fill it from the drinking fountain? Or isn't that close enough to NYC?

Chuck

[dmun]

Re: New York Water

3) I'm flying thru Newark Airport next week. Should I bring an empty gallon jug and fill it from the drinking fountain?

Not even close. Newark airport straddles Newark and Elizabeth NJ. Depending on which system the Port Authority pulls it's water from, it could be pretty good, or not very good at all. It's certainly not the great NYC stuff from the Catskills. That said, I make my pizza from the Elizabethtown system, and I've not had any complaints yet.

[BrianShaw]

Re: New York Water

There's a pizza joint in my 'hood that claims their Pie is best because they use Boston water (correctly spoken as "wat-aaah"). They have boxes upon boxes of Boston water in the dining room... to the point where sitting at the tables is difficult some days. The pizza is OK but not great. I make mine with Los Angeles City tap water (correctly spoken as "wat-er") and most people think my pizza is better than theirs. We even have three (there are likely mroe but I only go to these three) NY Pizza joints but I think they use the same water as I do.

I didn't see the show, but remain skeptical about the busting of that myth.

[james]

Re: New York Water

Ahhhhh. The water in Naples. You should taste the espresso. :-)

We have a water filter, so I guess our waaah tah (as my wife could say), is neutral.
James

[EADavis]

Re: New York Water

I saw that show last night. Having grown up on NY-style pizza, and having grown up on water from a very similar aquifer in CT, I was curious whether their theory had any merit. One of the things I have learned since moving Out West is that the water here is VERY HARD, and more alkaline. You can drink water out of the tap back home, but need to cut it with a knife in AZ and CA! In fact, I could probably pour the water directly onto the top of a WFO for extra mass!

Seriously, I did do a comparison of the water quality test results from NYC and locally here. CA water is substantially higher in chloride, sulfate, calcium, magnesium, sodium, strontium, total hardness, silica, nitrite, total dissolved solids (TDS), total hardness, total alkalinity and pH. All of these are 10x to 200x more! NYC is somewhat higher in aluminum and iron. I didn't even look at the organics, but living in a farming community, I am kind of afraid to look.

Bottom line - this will affect the taste of anything that uses water, and will probably affect certain chemical reactions that is involved in the art of cooking and baking.

James - to paraphase the movie "Jaws" - I think you are going to need a bigger filter!
Ed

[Les]

Re: New York Water

One of the things I have learned since moving Out West is that the water here is VERY HARD

Ed - all the west isn't bad. Moving from the bay area I would agree, the water there was crap and you had to have a softener to use it. In Carson City, our water runs down the east slope of the Sierras, from the snow pack, and it is awesome. If I have any complaints - it's too cold.

Les...

[EADavis]

Re: New York Water

In Carson City, our water runs down the east slope of the Sierras, from the snow pack, and it is awesome.

Les,
That is true - Coors made their reputation on "Rocky Mountain spring water". And unfortunately, a water softener only does an ion exchange between calcium and either sodium or potassium - the rest of the crap is still in there. Anything short of a reverse osmosis multi-stage filter system ($$$$) really does not work.
Ed

[texassourdough]

Re: New York Water

I live in an area with REALLY hard water and the water softener (which replaces the Calcium ions with either Sodium or Potassium ions, depending on the salt you use) leaves the water rather salty tasting. I have a reverse osmosis that feeds my ice makers and provides up to 30 gallons a day of much purer water. I use that for bread and pizza and it works very well.
Jay

[DaveDQ]

Re: New York Water

I saw this show yesterday. In fact, I was just coming here to post about it. Funny. They took about 4 chef/owners from NY and they all picked B (the pizza that was from NY water). I found this to be very interesting, and you can't knock a 100% accuracy.

The first guy made an interesting quote. "Chicago style pizza is not pizza, it's a casserole."

Ouch..harsh.

[BrianShaw]

Re: New York Water

They took about 4 chef/owners from NY and they all picked B (the pizza that was from NY water). I found this to be very interesting, and you can't knock a 100% accuracy.

OK, please forgive me... but the statistician in me is starting to bloom! Yes, one can knock 100% accuracy when only 4 people were polled. That is an interesting finding and "suggestive" of a trend... but as a statistical fact it is merely a novelty observation. Four (4) is much too small a sample size to be statistically significant. Furthermore, I would question their scientific method... it may or may not meet the necessary criteria. I would, if able to obtain sufficient government or private grant/funding lead a scientifically and statistically valid research effort to answer this question. Any potential investors?

[DaveDQ]

Re: New York Water

True..True..but these were people that pride themselves in their product (pizza). If just one could not tell the difference, I would not have been persuaded. The fact that they tasted 3 different pizzas heightens things.

Nevertheless, I'm up for the research.

[vseprosto90211]

Unfortunately, I have hard water at home and that’s why I had to buy a water pitcher to purify it and be sure it’s free of contaminated substances. Despite the fact that the taste of such water is far from perfect, my skin also suffers and gets very dry. To buy bottled water all the time seems a little bit wasteful to me, so eventually, I bought an alkaline Aquagear water filter and I’m very happy with it. The filter does a really good job. It eventually makes my water healthier for drinking. And also, I wash my face with it's purified water every day and it looks much better than before. Yes, I had to pay the price, but I would say it was worth it. Bought it from Amazon for $70. Here is a proper review on it https://pickadvisor.org/best-alkaline-water-pitcher/ I change my filter after 3 months of use. If I don’t do it in time, after 4 months I already feel the changes in the taste of the water.