Biga: The Slow Start of Our Dough
One question, answered in full: what a biga is, and why our dough waits two days before it ever sees the oven.
You can read this without knowing anything about dough
Biga is a word from an Italian bakery, not from everyday English. If you have never met it, that is the normal case, not a gap in your education. Nobody at the door will ask you what it means.
This page explains it once, in plain words. Read all of it, read half of it, or skip it. You can order the same pizza either way, and the dough does its work whether or not you know its name.
A biga is a first dough, made before the dough
A biga is a small, stiff mix of flour, water and a little yeast. It is made first and then left alone. Only later does it go into the full dough, together with the rest of the flour, the water and the salt. Bakers call this a pre-ferment: a part of the dough that starts fermenting before the rest of it exists.
It is not sourdough. Sourdough runs on a wild culture that has to be kept alive over time. A biga is mixed fresh with baker's yeast and used once. The specification for Pizza Napoletana as a Traditional Speciality Guaranteed, published in Commission Regulation (EU) No 97/2010, describes a dough mixed in one go and does not ask for a biga. We use one anyway.
48 hours, 77 percent hydration
Our biga ferments for 48 hours. The finished dough sits at 77 percent hydration, which means 77 grams of water for every 100 grams of flour. That is a wet dough, and a wet dough is harder to handle. Daniele, our pizzaiolo, was born in Naples in 1989 and has decided that the trouble is worth it.
Time is the one part that cannot be bought back. A dough can be pushed with more yeast and be ready in a few hours. Ours is not. Two days pass between the first mix and the first pizza, on every day we are open.
What the waiting does at 400 degrees
Our oven is copper, gas fired, and runs at 400 degrees. At that temperature a pizza goes in and comes out fast. The dough has no time to build anything in the oven. Whatever it has, it brought with it from the two days before.
What you see is a rim that puffs up and blisters, and a base that stays soft in the middle. On top there is not much: San Marzano tomatoes and fior di latte, both from Italy. The dough is not a topping. It is the part most people notice last.
Come and watch the dough get used
The counter stands close to the oven. If you want to see the dough opened by hand, sit on that side. Ask Daniele about the biga and he will tell you more than this page does. We also keep a natural wine list that changes, with its own page for each bottle or grape.
Short answers about the biga
Q.Is a biga the same as sourdough?
No. Sourdough is a wild culture that is fed and kept alive over time. A biga is mixed fresh with baker's yeast and used once, then it is gone.
Q.Does a 48 hour dough taste different?
It handles differently and behaves differently in the oven, and the rim comes out lighter and more open. The taste is yours to judge at the table.
Q.What does 77 percent hydration mean?
77 grams of water for every 100 grams of flour. It is a wet dough, softer to shape and slower to work with.
Q.Do I need to know any of this to order?
No. Nobody is going to test you. The page is here for the curious, and the pizza is the same either way.