What is so good about Detroit-style pizza?
Detroit-Style Pizza is recognizable by its iconic square shape and crunchy, cheesy corner slices. Influenced by square Sicilian-style pizza, Detroit-Style Pizza consistently impresses pizza lovers due to its unique layering structure and stunning presentation.
The flaky, thin, deep crust of a conventional pie forms the foundation of a Chicago-style slice. On the other hand, Detroit-style pizza features a base with a thick, airy crust akin to focaccia. The lighter texture and cheesy, crispy underside of a crust made in the Detroit style set it apart from other crusts.
Regarding the taste, New York-style pizza has a classic flavor reminiscent of Italian cuisine with its light and airy texture. Detroit-style pizza is heavier due to its thick crust, deep dish shape, and heaping amounts of cheese.
Detroit-style pizza is a deep-dish rectangular pizza topped with Wisconsin brick cheese and a cooked tomato-based sauce. The dough typically has a hydration level of 70 percent or higher, which creates an open, porous, chewy crust with a crisp exterior.
Often referred to as racing stripes, the pizza sauce is poured on top. This keeps the spongy focaccia crust from getting soggy. And you can see why they call it the “Detroit Red Top.”
Crust: Detroit-style pizza has a thick and crispy crust with caramelized edges, while Sicilian-style pizza has a thick and airy crust that's more bread-like. Toppings: Detroit-style pizza has toppings layered on top of the cheese, while Sicilian-style pizza has toppings on top of the sauce and cheese.
Instead of using the "sauce, cheese, toppings" order of a typical pizza, Detroit pizzas are built in reverse. Creamy, tangy brick cheese from Wisconsin is cubed and applied directly to the top of the dough, where it bakes up gooey, buttery, and thick in the middle, crispy and dark brown around the edges.
The most noticeable difference between a New York style pizza Versus a Chicago style Pizza is their crust. New your style pizza is known for their thin crust, while the Chicago style pizza is typically thicker and also known deep dish.
A thick, crispy crust topped edge to edge with whole milk mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, sausage, bell peppers, and red onion. Cook thoroughly.
Detroit-style pizzas are eaten with your hands or with a fork or a knife. While New Yorkers adamantly state that pizza must be eaten by hand and folded over, though, the Detroit style pizza's thickness lends itself to utensils instead.
What cheese for Detroit-style pizza?
the cheese(s)
If you want to be traditional with your Detroit-style pizza, you've got to track down the elusive Wisconsin Brick Cheese. Fatty, creamy, and relatively mild, this cheese melts very well, spreading out to coat the whole pizza in a crispy, golden crust.
Detroit-style pizza is a thick, square-cut pizza with a crunchy, fried bottom layer of crust overflowing with delicious melted cheese. Like most rectangular pan pizzas served in America, Detroit-style pizza is a variation of the Sicilian pizza.
Brick comes in two forms, a young, mild cheese and a pungent, aged cheese; the name comes from the bricks traditionally used to press the curds. It's the mild cheese, a buttery, high-fat, semisoft cheese, that's used on Detroit pizza.
Detroit-style pizza features a medium-thick crust that's light and airy on the inside, yet crispy on the outside, a signature of authenticity that's achieved by a high moisture content (between a 68- and 72-percent hydration level) and the proofing process.
Known for its thick crust with crackly-crisp sides and bottom, it also layers classic pizza toppings in reverse order: first optional pepperoni, then cheese (brick cheese, to be totally traditional), then sauce.
Instead, Philadelphia pizza owes more to Greek pizza—a method of pizza making that emphasizes a thick, chewy crust, sweet sauce and cheese that oftentimes mixes in cheddar alongside mozzarella.
For the second year in a row, Detroit earned the title of America's best city for pizza, according to a new study that ranked pizza scenes in the 50 largest metro areas in the U.S. The analysis comes from Clever Real Estate, a company that regularly releases data-oriented rankings of America's biggest cities.
It's a "square"
A geometry teacher might be inclined to argue, but despite its clearly rectangular form, Detroit-style pizzas are in fact "square." It's also not to be confused with our Windy City neighbor's creation the "deep dish," which is really more like pie than pizza.
Grandma pizza is a distinct thin, rectangular style of pizza attributed to Long Island, New York. Typically topped with cheese and tomato sauce, it is reminiscent of pizzas baked at home by Italian housewives who lacked a pizza oven. The pizza is often compared to Sicilian pizza.
Detroit-style pizza, a descendant of Sicilian-style pizza, traces its roots to one man – Gus Guerra. In 1946, Gus owned what was then a neighborhood bar, Buddy's Rendezvous, when he decided he needed something new for the menu.
What is New England style pizza?
New England Greek-Style Pizza
Originating from Greek immigrants in New England, this type of pizza is baked inside of a pan in the oven instead of being laid straight on the bricks, so the crust comes out thick, soft and crispy (nearly fried) on the edges.
In all of Italy and in most of the world, margherita pizza is number one. The original pizza was first made in Naples and then shared throughout the major cities of Italy.
Whether in its simple version with mozzarella fiordilatte or mozzarella de bufala (in which case it would technically be called a Bufalina pizza), the Margherita pizza is undoubtedly the favourite pizza of Italian people.
In 1889, King Umberto I and Queen Margherita visited Naples and enjoyed their first slice of pizza. The queen fancied hers with mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil, and from there on out, this iconic combo has been called the Margherita pizza. This meal is also credited as the first pizza delivery!
Detroit-style pizza is baked in square steel pans, modeled after the pans once used by Detroit's famed automobile manufacturers. The pans were used on assembly lines for small parts and as oil pans in automotive shops.
Grandma pizza contains sliced mozzarella cheese and randomly scattered thick plum tomatoes on top. Kind of like an upside-down pie. It's almost always drizzled with a heavy dose of garlic-infused olive oil and finished with some Sicilian oregano and Pecorino Romano cheese.
Detroit Pizza has a thick crisp bottom crust, a sweet and spicy sauce, lots of pepperoni, and the unique and undeniably delicious crisp cheesy edges that it's known for. With well-oiled hands, remove the dough hook from the dough and form the dough into a smooth ball.
#1 Domino's
And as our top vote-getter, it's clear that many consider Domino's to be up there with the very best pizzas in America.
Chicago is where American-style pizza really diverges from its roots in Italy. The city is famed for its thick-crust, deep-pan pizza, laden with toppings and cheese, which, in contrast to the thin, delicately-flavored pizza of Naples, seems somewhat symbolic of American indulgence.
The largest Pizza chain in the U.S. is Domino's Pizza Inc. with a revenue of $4.53 billion in 2022. As of 2023, the U.S. pizza chain industry has a market size of $65 billion. There are 35,309 chain and 39,808 independent pizza restaurants in the U.S. as of 2021.
How many slices are in a Detroit-style pizza from Pizza Hut?
"We wanted people to understand what makes a Detroit-style pizza special," Graves said. The double pepperoni has regular sliced pepperoni and the crispy cupped pepperoni. And there's a lot of them — a total of 80 slices. There are 48 of the crispy cupped and 32 regular pepperoni slices.
In general, the sauce should go on first, then the cheese, then the toppings. This way, the cheese and toppings enjoy the direct heat of the oven, which lets the toppings cook thoroughly while remaining crispy, while the cheese melts, browns, and bubbles.
Detroit-style pizza tomato sauce—Wisconsin brick cheese—pizza cheese. This is the most popular and basic Detroit-style pizza and can be the foundation for myriad toppings. “Red-top” refers to the heated sauce that is added to the pizza after it comes out of the oven.
Both Sicilian and Detroit-style pizza are thick and rectangular, but the former is usually heavier on the sauce and the latter has more cheese. Sicilian pizza comes from the Palermo region of Italy and in its migration to the U.S., it was increasingly baked in rectangular pans rather than round ones.
the cheese(s)
If you want to be traditional with your Detroit-style pizza, you've got to track down the elusive Wisconsin Brick Cheese. Fatty, creamy, and relatively mild, this cheese melts very well, spreading out to coat the whole pizza in a crispy, golden crust.
Italians eat pizza with a fork and knife. Pizza is to be enjoyed straight from the oven and piping hot. Waiting for your dinner to cool down is just not an option – protocol says it should be enjoyed straight away.