Word Coinage: 'leopard spotting'

Posted by Adam Kuban, August 6, 2009 at 6:00 AM

"Leopard spotting" on a Kesté pie.

Friend of Slice Pizzablogger uses a word from the pizza-crit lexicon that I've never heard before: leopard spotting, obviously a reference to the little blisters of charred material along the pizza's end crust (or cornicione).

Usage: "I think the quattro formaggio looks very lame, although it has more leopard spotting on the outer edge of the cornicione than the other pictures, which is what I personally prefer."

Pizzablogger picked up the term from Paulie Gee.

But I'm also wondering if you couldn't apply leopard spotting to what you see in an upskirt shot as well:

A "pizza upskirt" from Co. Company.

And maybe even to the little almost-caramelized bits of slightly burnt cheese that I have a fondness for?

11 Comments

Tags: language, leopard spotting, word coinage, words

11 Comments:

Leopard spots on the cornicione are a sign for the wood-fired-oven user of properly high air temp (as well as proper fermentation etc.) Highly prized on a neapolitan pie - it's the sign of a well-made crust in a well-fired oven.
If there were excessive charring on the base but no leopard spots on the cornicione - this would be a sign of the wrong balance between floor temp and air temp....so including upskirt char in the definition of leoparding might be a bit misleading.
Am I being overly-anal about this?
FP

foolishpoolish at 6:58AM on 08/06/09

I wish I could take credit for coining that term, but it ain't so. My own term is "freckled char", but I love the term leopord spots as it seems to be a more apt description.

You can see where I got the term leopord spotting if you listen towards the end of this very short 8 second video. Pump up the volume, the sound of the pizza sizzling and hissing is really the bees knees:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryo8qJCCtGw

Pizzablogger at 7:06AM on 08/06/09

@Toby: Yes.....lol

And no :)

Pizzablogger at 7:10AM on 08/06/09

@Pizzablogger :D

I should have added that leopard spots are more typically seen in neapolitan pies than other styles of pizza. This has a lot to do with flour, dough, technique etc. not just the oven. For example, Chris Bianco uses a much wetter dough and gets great char on his crusts but doesn't get the same speckled pattern of smaller leopard spots - which is not to say it's not a well made/great tasting crust.

foolishpoolish at 7:18AM on 08/06/09

@PB: Thanks for the correction. I just noted it in the post above.

@FP: Yeah. Maybe the term should be reserved for the cornicione. Simple "charring" is fine for the bottom. Being overly anal about pizza is what we're about here, I think.

Adam Kuban at 9:09AM on 08/06/09

What with all the upskirt leopard-spotting, this is starting to sound like an over-cougarization of the pizza lexicon.

Michele Humes at 10:03AM on 08/06/09

My earliest recolection from 2005 and an interesting discussion:

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,1471.0.html

seriouspizza at 11:47AM on 08/06/09

@seriouspizza: Thanks! This is like a crowd-sourced, pizza-related William Safire column!

Adam Kuban at 12:06PM on 08/06/09

@seriouspizza
Ahh nothing like having Marco Parente in a discussion about neapolitan pizza ;-)
I'll reserve comment about 'proper' leopard spots vs. improper. The proof is in the eating - spots or shock, gasp, even no spots at all! I've read a lot of theories about how the pizza got its spots - not all of them bear up to scrutiny - but interesting nonetheless.

foolishpoolish at 12:10PM on 08/06/09

Would love to hear Dan Leppards thoughts on this :-)

seriouspizza at 12:17PM on 08/06/09

I've been busy at work today and didn't have a chance to check in at my favorite pizza site until now. Now I know why Mathieu Palombino emailed me to claim that I stole that term from him. Of course, he was not able to produce any evidence. Lawyer up MotorinoMeister.

Ciao,

Paulie Gee

pauliegee at 4:39PM on 08/06/09

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