Pizza

[Perfection]

 

[Oerdin]

What styles do you like? What are your favorite toppings? Any restaurants you prefer?


I am a huge fan of St. Louis and Chicago style pizzas and make them regularly at home. Last night I made a St. Louis Style pie but the special cheese it requires was only available from Amazon by a single brand and it wasn't very good. Plus, I cheaped out on the crust and paid for it when the crust remained doughy while the cheese scorched.

Chicago style is a bit more involved to make but is definitely worth it if you want to have great leftovers for the week ahead.

I've never been to Detroit or NYC so I'm not sure I've had genuine examples of those styles. What are they like?

Pepperoni and bacon are my go-to toppings if I make the pizza at home but I'm partial to plain cheese as well.

One thing that sucks about the LA area is there is no LA style pizza. I've been to a few places that claim they are LA style but as far as I can tell the only thing unifying them was the fact that they just throw on random (and usually pricey) toppings. There is no consistency in crust, sauce or anything else to suggest their pizzas are a 'style' as opposed to an assortment of random toppings that hipster foodies would like.

For restaurants I have not found a good local chain besides Imo's which is only in the St. Louis region. I'm fine with Domino's, Papa Johns and Pizza Hut though. Pizza buffets are also one of my favorite things but they tend to have restrictive hours when the buffet is actually open. And most buffets are pretty low quality anyways, excluding Pizza Hut.

There is no L.A. style but there is certainly California style.

 

[GoodEnoughForMe]

I've never been to Detroit or NYC so I'm not sure I've had genuine examples of those styles. What are they like?

Little Caesars deep dish is considered Detroit style. I don't know how faithful it is to the actual style.

Detroit style is square and deep dish, and the crust is usually covered in butter or oil and then baked pretty long (or twice baked) to make it chewy on the sides and give it an almost crispy fried like texture on the bottom. Some places put the sauce as the very top topping too but that's not a given. Buddy's Pizza, which is the originator of it, doesn't. They make their pizzas in big cast iron pans. They're not Chicago style though where there's like pie layers. They're just about as thick as standard deep dish. I guess you could call the Little Caesar's one inspired by it but I doubt they actually butter the crust or cook it longer, and it's certainly not as crispy on the bottom as its supposed to be.

Buddy's is awesome. I wish I could go more. One of my fav pizzas in the world.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

My wife is Italian from St Louis. She can make the authentic stuff, if we can get the right cheese.

I am somewhat partial to Sam's bake at home. Get the fire blazing and cut the suggested time in half. Serve with Tobasco chipotle style.

Who else does it on the grill?

J

I thought about using the grill for my last pizzas but decided not to. The grills here do not have tops so I'm not sure how the cheese and toppings would fare.

I bought provel on Amazon but it was garbage. Amazon only carried one brand and it only sold it in 2 lb quantities so now I have a bunch of cheese in my freezer. They sell Imo's salad dressing online but not Imo's brand provel cheese.

Detroit style is square and deep dish, and the crust is usually covered in butter or oil and then baked pretty long (or twice baked) to make it chewy on the sides and give it an almost crispy fried like texture on the bottom. Some places put the sauce as the very top topping too but that's not a given. Buddy's Pizza, which is the originator of it, doesn't. They make their pizzas in big cast iron pans. They're not Chicago style though where there's like pie layers. They're just about as thick as standard deep dish. I guess you could call the Little Caesar's one inspired by it but I doubt they actually butter the crust or cook it longer, and it's certainly not as crispy on the bottom as its supposed to be.

Buddy's is awesome. I wish I could go more. One of my fav pizzas in the world.

Little Caesar's $5.55 hot n' ready pizzas are definitely not Detroit style. I know they used to have deep dishes the way you describe them but I'm not sure if they still do after they downgraded most of their stores to hot n' ready takeout places.

 

[warpus]

What's St. Louis style pizza like?

I don't really have a favourite style myself. But give me a pizza and I'll try it and tell you what I think of it. Usually I prefer to stick to thinner crusts, gooey cheese, a medium amount of sauce, definitely some fresh garlic needs to be in there somewhere, and probably at least pepperoni.

My go to pizza used to be a thin crust chicken, tomato, and onion pizza with fresh garlic, and I'd always get that from this place Soprano's. But then they changed something up because it's not as good anymore, so I haven't gotten a pizza like that in a while now

The only other "style" of pizza I ever had was Chicago deep dish. Which was really good. I tracked down a good local place in northern Chicago to try this thing. Had to wait like an hour and a half, but the wait was worth it.. Not the best pizza I've ever had, but it was definitely delicious

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Very thin, crispy crust.
Sweet tomatoes sauce.
Provel cheese (not provelone).
Tavern cut.

People either love it or hate it, mostly because of the distinctive cheese.

 

[onejayhawk]

What's St. Louis style pizza like?

See Hobbs. Here's the wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis-style_pizza

I thought about using the grill for my last pizzas but decided not to. The grills here do not have tops so I'm not sure how the cheese and toppings would fare.

I bought provel on Amazon but it was garbage. Amazon only carried one brand and it only sold it in 2 lb quantities so now I have a bunch of cheese in my freezer. They sell Imo's salad dressing online but not Imo's brand provel cheese.

The grill definitely needs a cover to do pizza. You could half bake you crust on an open grill. It would make for nice charring. I'll have to try it next time I have a fire left over from doing steaks or burgers.

Provel cheese is hard to find in many parts of the country. You can approximate it using slices of provelone and shredded baby swiss. One variation is slices of Gouda sprinkled with Romano. It's not exactly St Louis, but its good pizza.

J

 

[civvver]

Already described, but detroit pizza is just square deep dish which I think little caesars has, although it's not that great. The best detroit style chain is jet's deep dish pizza.

This is jets:

I thought it was called deep dish growing up and thought every place had it, but apparently it's a detroit style pizza and not ubiquitous across the US. Basically it's deep dish and the edges should get nice and crispy with some carmelization as well. Very tasty though some people dislike it cus it's quite a thick, bread like crust. It differs a lot from chicago style cus chicago has layers and sauce on top. I eat this pizza with my hands and I wouldn't eat chicago style with my hands.

It's up there in terms of my favorites, but sometimes I want just a good hand tossed. I hate plain crusts though I need some kind of garlic butter or something which is why I actually really like what dominos and pizza hut have done lately. I'm sure it's all fake oils and stuff but their crusts are coated with greasy goodness.

I also really love the little joints that make personal size brick oven pizzas. They usually turn out pretty good, a thinner hand tossed crust, probably closer to what you get in italy. I go for stuff like capicola, basil and garlic if they have it.

I made pizza from scratch at home once. Made the crust ahead of time, let it rise and all that, rolled it out. Made sauce from anchovies and spices and canned whole tomatoes. It was good but way more expensive than delivery and a lot more work and tasted about the same. It sounds ludicrous that scratch made pizza could be more expensive I know, but consider an 8 ounce package of something like kraft brand mozzarella is around $3 and I think I might have used two packages. When you aren't buying commercial quantities of yeast, flour, tomatoes and cheese it's pretty expensive for what it is.

 

[warpus]

See Hobbs. Here's the wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis-style_pizza

Whoa.. whoa..... whoa.. Why are they cutting a round pizza into squares? No way nobody can convince me that this is sane

I'm down with the rest of the description of the style, assuming that processed cheese is good, which I assume it to be since it's popular. The dough sounds to me just like some thin crusts I've eaten before, so i def. approve of that

 

[yung.carl.jung]

thin crust. too many toppings ruin a pizza. this is how I make mine usually: mozarella, parma ham, rucola and parmesan added after the oven.

 

[Synobun]

Looks like you left the window open while someone was cutting grass.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Papa Johns has amazing garlic sauce though I've heard their quality has been tanking lately.

I like Papa Johns' spinach alfredo pizza. I'm still really annoyed that they discontinued their bruschetta cheese sticks. Suddenly they've got umpteen varieties of stuff with bacon, and I'm not into bacon much anymore.

 

[Takhisis]

People do not mention anchovies. Nor do they mention Fainá. Or provolone with anchovies on top. Or Fugazza.

This is saddening.

One thing that sucks about the LA area is there is no LA style pizza. I've been to a few places that claim they are LA style but as far as I can tell the only thing unifying them was the fact that they just throw on random (and usually pricey) toppings.

There are similar reflections on Californian cooking in The Godfather, of all books.

Looks like you left the window open while someone was cutting grass.

That's how it's supposed to look like, actually.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

That's how it's supposed to look like, actually.

Like a piece of flat bread got left out in a wind storm?

 

[Takhisis]

Describe it with whatever words you like, but the picture's a good one and I want some.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Is that just me but it looks like 50% bread and 50% cheese ?

 

[warpus]

I would estimate 75% bread 15% cheese 10% pepperoni

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I would estimate 75% bread 15% cheese 10% pepperoni

You forgot the sauce.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Whoa.. whoa..... whoa.. Why are they cutting a round pizza into squares? No way nobody can convince me that this is sane

I'm down with the rest of the description of the style, assuming that processed cheese is good, which I assume it to be since it's popular. The dough sounds to me just like some thin crusts I've eaten before, so i def. approve of that

It's called a tavern cut. Its actually really good. It works because the crust is so thin and crispy. It wouldn't work very well with regular pizza dough.

@Takhisis I love me some anchovies and Canadian bacon/ham on a pizza. Especially the way Papa John's does their ham in thin strips. Mmm

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Describe it with whatever words you like, but the picture's a good one and I want some.

My point is that it looks like the wind blew yard debris onto a slice of flat bread - not appetizing at all.