Modernist Pizza (2021), by Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya, puts a lot of pizza lore to the test. Over nearly four years the team baked around 12,000 pizzas, by the book’s own count, and visited 255 pizzerias. Several of the beliefs below were tested directly in their kitchen; others are cases where the authors looked for evidence and found none. That difference matters, so each section says which it is.
Myth 1: Wood smoke flavors the pizza
Modernist Pizza’s position is that in a wood-fired pizza oven the smoke rises to the top of the dome and leaves through the vent, so it doesn’t flavor the pizza. In the authors’ words, “If the wood is flavoring the pizza, there’s something wrong with either the pizza maker’s technique or oven hygiene.” They argue the fuel doesn’t matter as long as it provides consistent heat, and they prefer gas ovens because a wood fire is hard to keep steady.
That doesn’t make wood and gas ovens identical. When the team mapped the heat inside both, they found the flames themselves contribute almost no radiant heat; a gas burner heats the ceiling, which radiates down, while in a wood oven the pile of embers also radiates strongly. So the two bake with different patterns of hot and cool spots, and a pizza needs placing and turning accordingly.
What it means for you: buy a wood-fired oven if you enjoy cooking with fire, not for a smoky crust. This is the authors’ reasoning and measurements of heat, not a blind taste test.
Myth 2: Special water makes better dough
The story that New York pizza is good because of New York tap water has a broader version: that dough needs filtered, distilled or otherwise special water. Modernist Pizza tested it. The team made each of its master doughs with tap water, distilled water, filtered water, hard mineral water (2,488 ppm of dissolved solids) and deionized water chlorinated to 4 ppm, the maximum the FDA allows for tap water, baking over 100 pizzas in all.
They consistently preferred tap water and found only subtle differences in taste and volume. The chlorinated water made no difference to the dough’s behavior; the Neapolitan pizza made with it had excellent volume and leoparding. The one exception was the hard mineral water, which consistently gave lower volume and a denser crumb in bread-like pizzas.
What it means for you: “If you can drink it, you can use it in your dough.” If your water looks murky or smells odd, don’t. More in water for pizza dough.
Myth 3: “00” means the finest grind
The 00 on a bag of Italian flour is a grade, and Modernist Pizza explains that Italian law defines the grades by ash content, the mineral residue left when flour is burned, which mostly comes from bran and germ:
| Italian grade | Ash content, by weight |
|---|---|
| Tipo 00 | 0.55% or less |
| Tipo 0 | 0.55 to 0.65% |
| Tipo 1 | 0.65 to 0.8% |
| Tipo 2 | 0.8 to 0.95% |
| Integrale (whole wheat) | 1.4 to 1.7% |
The book says the classification “has nothing to do with the particle size of the flour.” To check, the team had several of its flours analyzed by a lab: particle size varied a great deal within a single category, and the smallest average particle size wasn’t in the 00 category at all. The belief is common enough that even Ken Forkish’s The Elements of Pizza describes 00 as a reference to how fine the flour is.
What it means for you: 00 tells you how refined the flour is, not how strong. Modernist Pizza notes that 00 flour can be milled from soft or hard wheat, and that 00 flours are made for pastry and gnocchi as well as pizza. Check the protein content or the intended use instead. Caputo’s blue-bag Pizzeria flour, for example, is about 12.5% protein, according to Forkish. The best flour for pizza dough guide compares them.
Myth 4: Low-yeast, long-fermented dough is easier to digest
Many Italian pizzaioli told the Modernist Pizza team how “digestible” their pizza was, often crediting how little yeast they used. The authors looked for evidence and wrote: “We were unable to find scientific proof of any of this.” Their reasoning is that yeast dies in the oven, so the amount in the raw dough shouldn’t matter to the eater, and they note that Italian bread, which has more yeast than pizza dough, isn’t treated as hard to digest.
This one is “no evidence found”, not “proven false.” There are good reasons to ferment slowly: Forkish credits long fermentation with better flavor and a lighter, more extensible dough. Digestibility just isn’t a reason the evidence supports. See cold fermentation for what time does to dough.
Myth 5: The weight of the sauce keeps the middle flat
The center of a pizza rises far less than the rim. Pizzaioli gave the Modernist Pizza team two explanations: the middle is stretched thinner, or the sauce weighs it down. The team tested both.
Most Neapolitan pizzas, they found, aren’t noticeably thinner in the middle before they’re topped. To test weight, they covered the center with dry aquarium sand weighing as much as the sauce; the dough still rose substantially. Ice and a wet towel of the same weight held it down just like sauce. Their conclusion is that the key is water: as long as the oven’s humidity is below 100%, the evaporating sauce soaks up so much heat that there isn’t enough left to dry and raise the dough beneath. “The weight of the toppings doesn’t matter.”
What it means for you: a heavily sauced or wet pizza bakes more slowly in the middle. Go lighter on sauce, especially in a home oven, if the center stays pale or soft. The same chilling effect is behind the gummy layer under the sauce, covered in starch gelatinization.
Myth 6: Steam helps pizza as it helps bread
Many bread deck ovens have a steam-injection function, which Modernist Pizza calls useful for bread but not for pizza. The team tested it by injecting steam as soon as the pizzas were loaded. With a pizza’s much shorter bake, the result was a soft crust, reduced volume and wet toppings.
What it means for you: the test was in a commercial deck oven, but it gives no reason to borrow bread’s steam tricks, such as a pan of water, for pizza. Skip them, and bake as described in how to bake pizza in a home oven.
Myth 7: AVPN-certified pizzerias follow every AVPN rule
The Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN), founded in 1984, publishes detailed rules for “true” Neapolitan pizza. Modernist Pizza argues that its definition was “more aspirational than actual” when it was written, with deliberately upmarket choices such as fior di latte or bufala mozzarella and DOP San Marzano tomatoes. The authors write that “it is not clear that any major pizzeria in Naples strictly follows the full AVPN rules,” having “seen violations of one rule after another.”
One AVPN-certified pizzeria the book profiles shows how much room there is. In Modernist Pizza’s 2021 account, Ciro Salvo told the authors that the dough at 50 Kalò had a hydration of 70%, salt upwards of 3% and a 20 to 24 hour fermentation. That’s the book’s report of what he shared, not a freshly checked formula or a complete recipe. For comparison, the AVPN’s current international regulations (2024 edition, checked October 14, 2026) call for 1 liter of water to 1.6 to 1.8 kg of flour, about 56 to 63% hydration by our calculation, so 70% sits above that range. The book also quotes an AVPN campaign line, “If you hear a crunch, it’s not authentic,” and reports that most Italians want a Neapolitan-like pizza that’s crispier.
What it means for you: treat the AVPN rules as one well-documented starting point, not the definition of good pizza. Adjusting hydration, fermentation and bake for your own oven is what most good pizzerias do.
What does matter
The same sources point to a few things that make a real difference at home:
- Match the dough to the oven. Forkish raises a Neapolitan-style dough to 70% hydration for a home oven at 550°F (290°C), because a 7-minute bake dries the crust far more than a 60 to 90 second one. The Pizza Planner does the same, using 70% for a home oven and 60% for an outdoor pizza oven.
- Bake on steel or stone, and preheat it properly. Modernist Pizza recommends a baking steel over a stone in a home oven because steel is denser and gives up its heat to the pizza more quickly, and it recommends preheating for at least 30 minutes. A steel’s maker may ask for longer: Baking Steel gives 60 to 75 minutes at 500 to 550°F for its 3/8-inch Pro and 60 minutes for its Original. Follow your steel’s instructions where it has them; otherwise the Planner allows 45 to 60 minutes.
- Hotter surfaces radiate much more heat. The book explains that radiant heat rises with the fourth power of absolute temperature, measured in kelvins. One of its own examples applies the law to degrees Celsius, which overstates the effect: for equal areas with the same emissivity, a surface at 400°C emits about 4.1 times as much thermal radiation as one at 200°C, not 16 times (calculated in kelvins). That’s a comparison of what the surfaces emit, not a prediction of how fast an oven cooks. Pizza oven thermodynamics explains the rest.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Does wood-fired pizza taste smoky?
- Modernist Pizza argues it shouldn't: the smoke rises to the top of the dome and leaves through the vent, and if the wood is flavoring the pizza, the authors blame technique or oven hygiene. Wood and gas ovens do heat differently, because the glowing embers in a wood oven radiate strongly while flames themselves contribute little radiant heat, so pizzas need placing and turning differently.
- Does the type of water I use for pizza dough matter?
- Very little. Modernist Pizza made its doughs with tap, distilled, filtered, hard mineral and heavily chlorinated water, baking over 100 pizzas, and consistently preferred tap water. Only very hard mineral water stood out, giving lower volume and a denser crumb in bread-like pizzas. If you'd drink the water, you can use it.
- What does 00 flour actually mean?
- It's an Italian grade based on ash content: 0.55% or less for Tipo 00. Modernist Pizza says the grades have nothing to do with particle size, and its lab tests found the smallest average particle size outside the 00 category. A 00 flour can be soft or strong, so check its protein content or intended use.
- Is long-fermented pizza dough really more digestible?
- Modernist Pizza found no scientific proof that it is, and points out that the yeast dies during baking. That's an absence of evidence rather than proof of the opposite. Long fermentation has other, better-supported benefits, including flavor and a more extensible dough.
- Why doesn't the middle of my pizza rise like the rim?
- Modernist Pizza found that it's the water in the sauce, not its weight. Sand of the same weight let the dough rise; ice and a wet towel didn't. Evaporating sauce absorbs so much heat that the dough underneath can't dry and rise.
- Should I add steam when baking pizza in my home oven?
- No. When Modernist Pizza injected steam into a deck oven as pizzas went in, the result was a soft crust, less volume and wet toppings. The book calls steam injection useful for bread, not for pizza.
- Do AVPN-certified pizzerias follow all the AVPN rules?
- Modernist Pizza says it isn't clear that any major Naples pizzeria strictly follows them all. In the book's 2021 account, 50 Kalò, an AVPN-certified pizzeria, made its dough at 70% hydration, above the roughly 56 to 63% implied by the AVPN's current 1 liter of water to 1.6 to 1.8 kg of flour.
Sources
- Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya, Modernist Pizza (2021), volume 1: the introduction (nearly four years and around 12,000 pizzas), page 130 (the AVPN’s founding and rules), page 133 (digestibility), page 134 (the crunch campaign and crisper crusts), page 153 (255 pizzerias visited), page 158 (50 Kalò), pages 279 and 284 (Italian flour grades, ash content and the particle-size tests), pages 288–291 (the water experiment), page 345 (gas ovens preferred), pages 351–352 (the fourth-power law in kelvins), pages 354 and 356–357 (flames, embers and heat mapping), page 369 (why the center stays flat), page 372 (the Celsius example, corrected here), page 388 (fuel and wood smoke), page 389 (steam injection) and pages 391–392 (steel against stone, preheating).
- Ken Forkish, The Elements of Pizza (2016): chapter 2 (hydration for a home oven), chapter 3 (time as an ingredient, long second fermentation and mature dough) and chapter 4 (00 flour and Caputo’s protein content).
- Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana: International Regulations, 2024 edition (water and flour quantities). Checked October 14, 2026.
- Baking Steel: Baking Steel Pro and Baking Steel Original product pages (preheat times). Checked October 14, 2026.