There is cheese, but when I want pizza, I don’t want a salami casserole
Wearing its sauce on the outside like some kind of whore.
A whore who hates browned cheese.
Native Chicagoan here. Something that always gets glossed over is understanding that there’s two types of deep dish pizza: stuffed (what you see here) and pan.
Stuffed pizza (from bottom to top) is dough, cheese (plus vegetables or meat or whatever else you wanna “stuff” it with), another layer of dough, then the sauce on top.
Giordano’s or Gino’s East is most closely associated with stuffed, even though it’s often only referred to as “deep dish.”
Pan pizza is almost the same in shape/dimensions, but instead of it being stuffed with cheese/vegetables/meat, that part is just bread.
Lou Malnati’s is most closely associated with pan pizza, even though it’s often only referred to as “deep dish.”
The differences are incredibly important, and anyone who’s tried both can concur.
Anyways, they both have cheese so idk what this dude talking about lol
Thanks for comin to my TED Talk.
Thank you! I like Chicago-style stuffed, but no one on the West Coast knows what it is. Hell, most people anywhere don’t know what it is.
For those who have never had it: imagine a two-layer lasagna but the noodles are replaced with a flaky, buttery, yeast-leavened bread. It can be great, but it can also be a big pile of garbage if it’s not done right, worse than regular bad pizza.
Pan pizza is almost the same in shape/dimensions, but instead of it being stuffed with cheese/vegetables/meat, that part is just bread.
This makes it sound like pan pizza is dough stuffed with bread, but I’m guessing that’s not what you meant to imply? Regardless, I’ve only had Pequod’s and I don’t know which kind it was, but I know it was fucking delicious.
Nah it’s not stuffed with bread, it’s just bread up until you get to the cheese and sauce up top.
And yeah, Pequods is always poppin. Lotta Chicago transplants go for their deep dish, but their thin is better imo. It depends on how you feel about crust, too. Some people really like their crust.
One is basically meat pie without a crust top. The other is just a thick ass piece of bread, often something tasty all its own like sourdough, with pizza toppings on top (think more like putting cheese on bread sticks and calling it pizza). For some reason they are both called deep dish but one is all filling with a thin crust and the other is all bread topped with a pizza.
…so a calzona and focaccia?
No, it’s a pizza, and if it weren’t it would be either of those things either.
It’s a sandwich.
Yes, Lou’s over Giordano’s for that reason. I don’t care for marinara sauce, but the extra dough and cheese is great.
Jon Stewart has some thoughts about this.
Ha, was exactly the first thing I thought of too.
New York Slice forever, baby! Although Detroit style is quite good also.
New York pizza is just above mid. Always has been, always will be. You’re just the loudest about it.
this is tomato soup in a bread bowl
Well, now I want to try it much more
Don’t let the haters discourage you. It’s worth it.
I’m a relatively recent transplant to Chigacoland so I feel a bit of an instinctive need to defend deep dish. But really, its more of a love for all forms of pizza.
New York style? Hell yes Chicago style? Two slices and long nap, but still hell yes Detroit style, tavern style, California style, thin crust, thick crust, stuffed crust? Yes yes yes yes yes and yes!
I’m a native Chicagoan and I just wish people would stop thinking of it is “Chicago style” pizza lol
There’s only a handful of restaurants that make it and it’s not even their best seller, the way more common “Chicago style” pizza is basically just square cut tavern style.
Deep dish is pretty good but I feel like it’s its own category. IMO it’s a bad choice for most of the situations you’d order pizza. It’s extremely filling so it makes you tired. You have to eat it fast because it’s only good hot (and it cools down quick). The slices are heavy so it’s harder to eat without making a mess.
Like if I want deep dish, I want deep dish. But if I want pizza, I’m not even considering deep dish, you know? It’s like noodle pasta vs lasagna
Exactly. The confusion lies in limiting “Chicago Style Pizza” to specifically a pie. Don’t get me wrong, love a great pie on occasion. Growing up there and visiting other states made it super clear. It means ya got options and they are gonna be quality. Tavern was always the go to. Shout out to OG Aurelio’s. The best places had killer pan, tavern and some had their version of pie. Some had insane New York style. To me, Chicagoland pizza was knowing you usually were gonna get some of the best, no matter the style.
Oh and Chicago “fast food” - dogs, Greek and Italian Beef’s…. Sometimes available at the same place as the killer pizzas. Come on.
They’re all just jealous.
Yeah, we just don’t have a “signature” pizza in the same way Detroit does.
Italian beef feels like such an accidental secret. It’s so good but nobody talks about it outside of Chicago
Ah man, I miss Aurelio’s. They used to have a few locations in the Minneapolis/St Paul area, but the last one closed a little while ago. Their pizzas were great, but the spinach calabrese was the best.
Shout out to OG Aurelio’s
yes. and their pies were cheap, we lived on this in the 80s.
I actually just talked to a friend about this last night. He moved to Missouri and he hates all of the pizza there.
Deep dish is delish, it’s simply… not pizza.
Tbf square cut is also a travesty. It is the norm where I live, but I have a great Neapolitan joint that knows how to cut triangles.
Incorrect, square cut is great. Definitely my preferred cutting method
Triangles have a natural handle so your fingers don’t get greasy. Squares are smaller and easier to overeat. “Just one more square.”
Your fingers definitely do get greasy, lol.
I’d love to know wtf they thought that was
I mean, to be honest they probably knew it was cheese and were just being silly.
That makes me want to ask why the crust is so stretchy!
Chicago!
PVA glue
Glue?
Yep. That’s how you get the sauce to stick to the pizza base.
That’s what I use to keep my socks from falling down to my ankles.
Was this an ad? Then yes. Is it a crappy phone picture ad? Then maybe. Is this a crappy phone picture of someone’s measly deep dish? Then no.
My one and only encounter with chicago pizza was enough to convince me I hated it. Doesn’t mean it’s bad though, just definitely not for me. I think it would be better called a casserole than a pizza.
It’s a no pasta lasagna.
The nature of deep dish pizza aside, doesn’t cheeseless pizza predate the kind with cheese anyway?
Yeah, but New Yorkers believe they invented Pizza. Not joking, some very seriously believe that.
This hurts me as an italian
True Italians know that tomatoes don’t belong on a pizza.
Oh no! Are people enjoying a food you don’t approve of? That sucks for you.
I am referencing the meme that this tweet is referencing.
Easily the best pizza I’ve had in my world travels and by far the cheesiest. A masterful one is a sublime experience.
“It’s under the sauce”
I was gonna post it if nobody else did.
Yeeeaaaahhh, I’m gonna need this to be the top comment
Mushroom team assemble!
Too much cheese and too much sauce. Too messy with the sauce on the outside. There’s a reason normal pizza is more popular.
Too much cheese
As a Midwesterner, no such thing.
I don’t care if it’s under the sauce I still think deep dish pizza is stupid
I don’t have a problem with deep dish pizza; just Chicago style deep dish pizza. Not only is the sauce on top, it’s marinara sauce and is added cold.
it’s marinara sauce and is added cold.
It does get heated up when they put the whole thing in the oven you know. Not disputing your dislike of Chicago style deep dish pizza, love what you love and hate what you hate it’s all good. But I don’t want anybody to be confused about how hot or cold these pizzas are when you receive them.
The sauce goes on after it comes out of the oven, every time I’ve seen a recipe for it.
those recipes are by people who don’t know fuck all about chicago pizza, ignore them
Wouldn’t putting sauce on before putting in the oven prevent the cheese from doing a maillard? That’s half the draw of pizza to me, is browned cheese.
most chicago deep dish i’ve had is in layers for this very reason:
- crust basin
- cheese
- sauce
- cheese again
Yeah the sauce is put on top to prevent the maillard reaction. In every sense of the word a deep dish is not a typical pizza. But it is still a pizza.
The same can be said for Detroit style pizza. If one wanted to make the same kind of disparagement that people do of deep dish, I could say that Detroit style isn’t pizza it’s actually cake.
That’s not pizza.
It’s a pie
Yes, a pizza pie.
A torta salata, a pie
Chicago Style is utter garbage “pizza”. If I wanted a mess drenched in pasta and sauce, I’d get a lasagna. I once ordered a deep dish pizza at a bar, and like a civillized sensible human, I assumed it would be that crispy-crusted glory that is Detroit Style deep dish pizza. Not so, it was the vomit-inducing deep Chicago, which looks and tastes the exact same going in as it does coming out.
Detroit >> Chicago, it’s not even close. I will fight and die on that hill, as you can actually make a hill out of Detroit style slices! You can only make shitty Agincourt mud out of Chicago-style slop.
Until you said Detroit I was going to accuse you of being Jon Stewart’s posting account ;) very entertaining post, I salute you
Wow, then you are going to absolutely hate Mexican food with a passion.
Ar the end of the day, we’re all blood, meat, and bones, but giraffes and humans are different nonetheless. Order matters!
…I’m fine with just garlic bread, really.
