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.
…I’m fine with just garlic bread, really.
It’s amazing how pizza was perfected somewhere between 100 and 200 years ago and then every city in America has decided they need to make it worse in innovative and unique ways.
By the gods it’s the fucking train of food. Here’s perfection now make it more expensive, harder to build, and somehow worse. Quick get Adam Something to make a video on this.
Italian immigrants came up with most of those different styles of pizza. You can hate them, but the people who invented them were Italian.
If they are born in America they are American.
Even if they were born in Italy they are still American, but they are Italian immigrants. Ric Riccardo was a first generation Italian immigrant. Modern Chicago deep dish is likely a modified version of what he served in his pizzeria, but he did still invent it.
Pizza is actually at least 1000 years old. The thing that identifies it as pizza is the bread not the toppings. And it has actually gotten way better with time.
In the sense that people have been putting stuff on top of flat bread, sure. But that’s why I say it was perfected a hundred years or so ago. Because sure you could argue a flatbread with a a herb and cheese spread and some dates is pizza, but it doesn’t hold a candle to a modern pizza.
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I mean I agree with you, but it’s funnier if talk as if other forms of pizza are an afront to god.
I feel like it’s important to me to learn whether the sauce is actually good. I’m terrified that it’s bland. It looks bland. I cannot see any spices or herbs. This is stressing me out more than it should.
depends on where you go, good places will have a well seasoned marinara. you can also usually see the herbs and spices they’ve used
This finally made me look for the original, deleted, frustratingly unarchived post. But there are higher resolution pics, and they show herbs n’ ground beef. At least a passable amount of both.
It’s a fairly spicy marinara.
They are under the plate.
Does it have bread, cheese, and sauce? Then I’m going to love eating it, don’t really care what you call it
It’s cold sauce on top.
Alright. One layer matzah, one thick layer casu marzu, one layer vegemite. Would you eat the bread, cheese, and sauce?
you mean italian food?
That’s not pizza.
Chicago “pizza” is more of a casserole in a sort of bread bowl really.
I mean that’s fine I’m not saying it’s bad but I am saying it isn’t “pizza.”
It’s a pie
Yes, a pizza pie.
A torta salata, a pie
I would eat one thousand slabs of Chicago pizza to avoid one bite of St. Louis pizza. WTF is up with that ‘cheese’?
I like thin crust with provel but I usually only have it at bowling alleys, bars, and other high class establishments. Imos is overpriced and can be meh nowadays. At the end of the day it is just local chain pizza.
Most of the actual pizza joints in St Louis have New York style hand tossed crust with mozzarella (and good beer.)
That’s not a cheese pull, it’s a cheese fight.
I’m sorry Chicago but even looking at that has made me lactose intolerant.
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
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.”
There’s two types of square cut, and one is fantastic while the other should be punishable by a week in the stockade.
The good way, is starting with a square or rectangle to begin with, and then slicing once down the middle long way, once down the middle short way, and then one down the middle-left and middle-right, for a total of 8 rectangular/square slices. Then you have the corners with more crust, but at least every slice has some crust and some size to it. Most tavern style places will do this one.
The abomination, is to start with a circle, cut a cross into it, and then divvy it up from there like graph paper. The middles get square but with no crust and about the size of a cracker. The edges get at least 4 points that are just crust with about 1cm worth of pizza, and it doesn’t get better from there. There’s literally 4-8 squares on that whole thing that have enough crust to pizza ratio and they’re still the size of a cracker. “It’s better for sharing” no it isn’t, pizza is already perfect for sharing you just didn’t want to order enough. Dominos does their thin crust this way by default (and they fuck up because of muscle memory if you ask for it pie cut like a smart person.)
Your fingers definitely do get greasy, lol.
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.
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.
I actually just talked to a friend about this last night. He moved to Missouri and he hates all of the pizza there.
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
Shout out to OG Aurelio’s
yes. and their pies were cheap, we lived on this in the 80s.
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.
Margherita ftw. So simple and delicious
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.
Rahm Emanuel and Jon Stewart hurt the reputation of the humble Chicago Deep Dish pizza due to some crass comment about skyscrapers. It’s a fantastic pie slathered in tomato sauce with a dough base mixed with corn meal giving it a slight crunch and subtle boost to its flavor. I get not everyone likes the unconventional approach to this dish but in my humble opinion it’s well worth having once in a while, especially with a pint of beer. I only wish it were a little more common because damn not even LA has more than 3 or 4 joints that offer it and they’re all a pain to get to. Just give the pizza a chance people, it’s tasty and filling especially if you like your pie saucy.
Real deep dish pizza is my favorite type of pizza!
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.
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!
Until you said Detroit I was going to accuse you of being Jon Stewart’s posting account ;) very entertaining post, I salute you
Easily the best pizza I’ve had in my world travels and by far the cheesiest. A masterful one is a sublime experience.
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.
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.
I like my pizza like I like my coffee, with no cheese.
