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Physicists Have Found the Equation for the Perfect Pizza

Wood-fired pizza is often considered the gold standard of the eternally classic dish. Unfortunately, not everyone has the time, money, or real estate to have a wood-burning pizza oven installed in their kitchen, so we have to settle for an electronic oven. Three scientists of varying backgrounds have gotten together to see if pizza can be electronically prepared just the right way to simulate authentic taste.

In a new paper titled “The Physics of Baking Good Pizza,” a physicist from Rome, a physicist from Illinois, and a food anthropologist from Rome utilized the principles of thermodynamics to determine the perfect pizza cooking conditions, sans the wood oven. Multiple factors were considered, including the temperature of the electric oven, the consistency and thickness of the dough. Through a series of tests and fierce chalkboard montages, the team was eventually able to come up with this:

If you don’t speak math, the gist of it is that, to achieve a facsimile of wood-burning, a pizza must be placed in an electronic oven heated at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 170 seconds, with a few additional seconds added to account for the water content of any toppings. Though, the researchers admit, the wood-burned smell is something that cannot be effectively replicated.

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