re: Homemade pizza - what's your secret?

One thing that made a lot of difference in my pizzas was when I started using high gluten flour. That's what the pizza places generally use. I'd buy a 50 lb sack and it would last a year or more. This was my source:

Honeyville Farms Xtra High Gluten Flour

I also use a HearthKit oven insert that mimics a stone pizza oven. They don't make them anymore, but you might find one on eBay - that's where I got mine. I preheat for at least an hour to "charge up" the stone. I check heat using an infrared thermometer - I can get it to about 600 degrees because I have a self-cleaning oven. (Self-cleaning ovens have higher temp levels and are better insulated to hold in heat.)



I used to buy high temperature pepperoni by the 5 lb bag a Sam's, but the one by me doesn't carry it anymore.

PizzaMaking.com is a great source of information for making any kind of pizza you want to make.

Peter Reinhart's book, American Pie, has great recipes for pizza. That guy really knows his stuff. I also got a small Hobart mixer ($1500 new) for $35 at a garage sale and I have a nice big dough board, but those are just extras.

Oh yeah, use San Marzano tomatoes for your sauce.