I made a Chicago-style pizza last night:
It was pretty good, but not great. A bit too doughy. Anyone have an awesome recipe to share? I’ve found a regular pizza recipe that I’m satisfied with, but Chicago eludes me. Maybe because I’ve never been there.
Speaking of Chicago, washed-up pants-crapper Ted Nugent responded to the celebrity boycott of Florida until the “stand your ground” law is repealed (which will be never) with a call to boycott Chicago.
“Chicago” has become the go-to wingnut response to any issue connected tangentially with gun control or dissatisfaction with the verdict in the Zimmerman trial. I guess Chicago is the New Black.
Please feel free to discuss whatever.
aimai
I have been making bread every two days or so from the Sullivan Street Cookbook. It takes two days because the fast mix/low yeast breads are their own sourdough, in a sense, and rise for 12 to 18 hours. But the pizza just rises for two hours or so and is so delicious and easy that we’ve gone from never making our own pizza to making it very frequently. Its a thin, crisp, crust though. I make it and I roast vegetables on the side and then pile them on. I also cover the surface with herbs and garlic.
Baud
If the wingnuts boycott Chicago, we should rename the city Utopia.
Xenos
Is there even a big gun control movement in Chicago? He could have picked on Boston or San Francisco, I suppose, and at least been a bit grounded in reality.
Betty Cracker
@aimai: That sounds good. I like thin, crisp crusts a lot. The mister, not so much. He also likes more sauce than I do, so we end up taking turns making pizza his way and then mine.
We both agree on garlic, though. We roast a bulb drizzled with olive oil and wrapped in foil for about an hour and then squeeze it onto the dough before piling on the toppings. It’s heavenly.
Alexandra
My friend from Naples (Italy, not Florida), a kitchen wizz, laughed when I first told her about Chicago pizza…
Not remotely pizza in her book.
I’ve never been to Chicago either, but have tried so-called Chicago-style pizzas before and I’m not sure if they’ve got it right half of the time. Could be like Philly cheese-steaks, best tried locally.
Shibby
Question for the commenters here… I have to organize a picnic for my colleagues. I was given a budget of $350 and have to feed approximately 40 people, drinks included. Last 2 years we’ve just had usual hot dogs/hamburgers due to cost concerns but I’d like to do something better. I have costco card. One idea I had was sangria in addition to the usual beer fare. Any ideas?
MGB
Deep dish pizza aka Chicago pizza. I’m in Chicago, and I really never see any locals eat that pizza. Some do, I’m sure, but none of my friends who were born locals. Now Chicago style thin crust……now that’s good eatin! Spicier sauce, crisp crust, easy to eat square cuts.
And as for Ted Nugent….who is he again?
ETA: My personal nickname for deep dish or stuffed pizza: Tourist Pizza.
beltane
Being an Italian person from New York, my advice to you is to steer clear of Chicago style “pizza” altogether. It is not possible for it to turn out well because the basic premise is all wrong.
Joe student
Did you try pre baking the crust for a few minutes before adding sauce and other ingredients?
Many years ago in Ilinois, would form the dough in the pan, run thru oven about half time for normal cooking, then add ingredients and cook normally.
Nunca el Jefe
There’s a pretty famous book (don’t remember the author and am currently traveling) that my wife and I use for the crust recipe. I only remember right now that it involved corn meal and prebaking the crust, before you add all the goodness. We live in the Chicago area now, though, so we just rely on the local experts. That said, should you ever find yourself in the Bay Area do yourself a solid and go to Zachary’s pizza (mostly in the east bay). Sooooo good.
Keith
I find Chicago style pizza much easier to do well at home than regular pizza due to the lack of a 900 degree oven. I use a cast iron skillet, do a cornmeal-flour dough with plenty of olive oil, and then I make it along the lines of Di Fara pizza. By that I mean low moisture mozzarella on the bottom, bits of Italian sausage on top of that (don’t do a solid layer, since it shrinks as it cooks, pulling the pizza away from the dough), black olives, fresh basil, EVOO, then a layer of tomatoes. After that goes fresh mozzarella followed by hand-sliced (thin) pepperoni, fresh mushrooms, and some more tomatoes. Top it off with a dusting of canned San Marzano tomatoes with plenty of grana padana, and cook for 50-60 minutes. When it comes out, top it with fresh cut basil & more EVOO, and it’s done.
This is one of my favorite dishes to make because it comes out tasting incredible.
jeffreyw
We are quite fond of our cheese crust pies.
raven
Come on
Baby do you want to go
turn it up!
Man Johnny Winter looks bad.
Schlemizel
We bought a grill that has a pizza stone insert and discovered the joy of pizza done at 500-600 degrees! Not sure that would work with Chicago style thought. The crust is entirely different than those done in an oven at a lower temp
I don’t really have any recipes for the pizza itself. Being summer we cheat & use jarred spaghetti sauce with some tomato paste to stiffen it up a bit. I usually add some crushed garlic and fresh basil to liven it up. What goes on top has a lot to do with what we have around for fresh veggies. I like to put fresh basil leaves on then cover them with mozzarella.
Betty Cracker
@Shibby: You could make pulled pork fairly cheaply — marinate and slow roast Boston butts on the grill. Around here, you can buy BB at about $2 per pound, so even if you allotted a pound to each person (which is more than you’d need to, unless you work at the Sumo Wrestling Federation), it wouldn’t blow up your budget.
Napoleon
Does anyone know if the Tunch swag with the Obama ’08 style red and blue with his picture and “feed” which is displaying for me in the left hand column made it onto t-shirts with “hope” instead of “feed” on it? I saw 2 people last night with t-shirts like that at a Steely Dan concert.
BrYanS
Damn, I don’t have my recipe at work, but you want a very low protein flour, not bread flour, also not a lot of water. The crust should be biscuit like. I can’t find the site I got it from, but it had a ratio of flour/water/oil to get the size you want. But cornmeal is not in the crust. I believe Gino’s uses all corn oil, that is what gives the crust the yellow, corny flavor.
Schlemizel
@Xenos:
Chicago has had a string of shootings, mostly gang related, and some form of gun control so the fetishists like to think any gun control = more shootings.
Anya
Since this is an open thread, I am amazed at how Newsmax headlines mix wingnut crazy political views with wingnut health scams. I’ve never clicked on any of the headlines but they’re fascinating.
Geeno
I remember when “Chicago-style” pizza was just a thick crust pizza with a somewhat thicker layer of toppings, and usually lots of toppings (peppers, onions, sausage, extra cheese …. etc). Now they’re a caricature of themselves, too thick, too much topping to even try to eat as pizza.
Villago Delenda Est
In addition to having been born in Kenya, the Muslim Socialist Usurper is from Chicago.
Hence the wingnut obsession with Chicago.
HelloRochester
Cook’s Illustrated’s recipe (cribbed here) is slammin’. Chicago insiders would recognize it as more the Giordano’s style with buttery/flaky crust. I have made this several times and it’s truly great- even better if you make them in cast-iron.
http://themoveablefeasts.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/cook-illustrateds-chicago-style-deep-dish-pizza/
If you’re looking more for the crispy deep dish crust Lou Malnati’s style, you could try this recipe (from one of the Malnatis) but I’ve not made it so I can’t tell you whether it’s good.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/follow-that-food/chicago-style-pizza-recipe/index.html
Also, blind-baking the crust for 10 min before adding the toppings can help with uncooked dough in the center.
Steeplejack
@Xenos:
I think the wingnuts have focused on Chicago because it’s a kind of shorthand for their designated “anti-Zimmerman” city, where blacks are blasting away at blacks, murdering one another by the hundreds, while the hypocritical lieberals ignore the carnage and focus on one poor
whiteguy standing his ground in Florida.Anya
Wingnuts Chicago boycott won’t have the same affect as celebrity boycott of Florida for two reasons: 1) celebrity boycott will impact international tourism; 2) wingnuts don’t travel anywhere other than to Myrtle Beach.
raven
@Shibby: You could kill em with Jambalaya for that!
Marcelo
I’ve always used this recipe as a base for deep dish: http://pizzamaking.com/dkm_chicago.php
Look, purists. This isn’t a zero sum game where there can be only one pizza and the other one has to suck it and not exist. Sometimes I’m in the mood for thin New York folding pizza. Sometimes I want Chicago deep dish tourist pizza. Sometimes I want a fancy truffle-y chicken and barbecue sauce California pizza. Sometimes I want a Naples-style authentic Margherita. This is because I am a normal reasonable person who likes food. I don’t give a shit who made it first or whether it’s authentic or whatever.
We don’t have to be all “don’t even bother.” That’s just gastronomic laziness and shows cowardice instead of a real love of food. Especially when it comes from New Yorkers who are obsessed with making sure their fragile egos are babied and that everyone thinks their city is the Greatest Collection of Human Beings Ever Assembled. ;)
Chicago style deep dish is fucking delicious – once you accept that it’s not the same as any other pizza and enjoy it for what it is – a thick, beautiful, pizza casserole with a delicious cornbread crust and you can only eat one slice before hating yourself for pigging out.
Also, when in Chicago, visit Pequod’s Pizza (Lincoln Park or Morton Grove) for IMO the best Chicago pizza you can get. I still remember my trip from 3 years ago.
The Red Pen
@Xenos:
Due to the rash of violence in Chicago, Democrats in Illinois have been trying to enact some pretty strict controls on concealed carry. This is pissing off the rural, southern part of the state which is sure that a certain type of person is going to wander out of the south side of Chicago and start raping white women in Carbondale.
I work in southwest Illinois and the #wingnutbutthurt is pretty intense.
Chyron HR
@The Red Pen:
Who, Han Solo?
Sibling Nonspecific Firearm of Random Adjective Followed by a Noun That Describes a Mental State (fka AWS)
Way to go and start a pizza war, BC. Trolling your own commenters, you’re learning well.
As for wingnuts in Chicago, the “Civic Club of Chicago” is eaten up by galtian overlord types who are behind the move to gut public employee pensions up there. It’s not quite the liberal paradise these jackasses seem to think it is. And don’t even get me started on the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune.
The Red Pen
On the wingnut atlas, Chicago is the home of all things that are both horrible and related to Democrats. This, of course, includes treating black people like humans and also not turning the world into a giant gun show.
The wingnut capital of blackness is Detroit. Wingnut Detroit is a city populated by blacks, run by blacks and subsidized by white people. Anything not black in Wingnut Detroit is either a union thug or a socialized car company. Everything awful that happens in Wingnut Detroit is the inevitable consequence of allowing black folks and unions to… exist.
The Red Pen
@Chyron HR:
CarboNITE. Han Solo was not frozen in CarbonDALE.
I don’t know why I even read this blog sometimes.
OzarkHillbilly
I found these last week when looking for things to do with all of the Jalapenos I’m growing. Cooked a set in the oven at home, then another set over a grill on a gravel bar this past wkend. Heavenly. (everythings better with bacon)
Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Thingies.
One thing I did in addition is mix 8 oz shredded cheddar with the cream cheese.
p.a.
@beltane: yes. It’s not a bad food necessarily, just don’t call it pizza.
debbie
@Steeplejack:
I think they’re also going for the 2-birds-with-1-stone thing to include Obama and his “Chicago-style” politics. They’re clever that way.
Betty Cracker
@Marcelo: I tend to agree with you on embracing the beautiful diversity of pizza. My sister-in-law is from Yonkers, and to her, there is but One True Pizza, and she never eats a bite of any other (including New York style pizza not constructed and baked at a specific pizza joint in New York) without lamenting its inferiority to The One. That’s no way to go through life.
Riggsveda
@HelloRochester: That’s the one! The laminated dough in the Cook’s Illustrated recipe is absolutely incredible. It’s the only one we’ll use when we make this kind of pizza.
p.a.
@Shibby: any Hispanic markets in your area? Prices are usually reasonable for an interesting variety of chorizo. If it’s a family outing with lots of kids I’d stick with burgers and dogs. Martin’s makes potato rolls for burgers and dogs, that adds a little something, and they are better for one’s glycemic index than white bread.
ronin122
Considering that the asshole Nugent is playing IN Chicago this weekend–technically it’s Ridge Fest out in the near suburbs but it’s still Chicagoland–I hope he makes good on that promise. And I’d say that all of them will have a hard time boycotting the whole reason their little suburb exists in the first place. Tool.
PattyP
I too love the typical “New York” pizza, but every once in a while I get the deep-dish craving.
This recipe from King Arthur Flour Company is one I had success with.
Linnaeus
@Marcelo:
I’m with you on this. If folks don’t like Chicago deep-dish pizza, that’s fine, but the adherence to some kind of Platonic ideal of pizza really isn’t necessary.
OzarkHillbilly
So Ted Nugent says to boycott Chicago, hmmm….
I better make reservations right away.
JGabriel
Betty Cracker @ Top:
As a New Yorker, I wish Nugent and the rest of the teabaggers would boycott us too. You’d think they’d want to because Bloomberg.
Ah, well. I bet Chicago is terrified. I’m sure all the Windy Cityites are shaking in their boots and shouting to the skies, “Oh Noez! A bunch of cheap fuck undertipping conservative tourists loaded up with coupons will stop coming to our city! MY GOD, WHAT WILL WE DO?!”
.
Bitter and Deluded Lurker
@Marcelo: Nicely put.
I can’t eat either now, but I love both a good New York style pizza and a good Chicago style pizza.
Keith
@Linnaeus: I think Tony Bourdain captured my sentiments about deep dish pizza when he was in Chicago (in all fairness, he was probably being complimentary because he’s never snarky to people’s face) in that you can’t compare it to NY style because they’re not the same. Deep dish is really a pie that you have to bake for an hour. Both are delicious.
And I reiterate my philosophy on making it – craft it like a deep dish (mozarella slices on the bottom/sauce on the top), but style it like Di Fara’s (since that one seems to get high ratings when they’re not being shut down for rat droppings) – good Italian ingredients, fresh basil, and plenty of EVOO.
Jerry
@Betty Cracker: Agreed, there is no reason to limit yourself to “one true pizza.” Same goes with barbecue and chili. I have ones I like better than others but it’s crazy to discount a different variety out of hand.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
So who’s gonna join Nugents boycott? Lee Greenwood?
Tone in DC
@JGabriel:
“Oh Noez! A bunch of cheap undertipping wingnut (these idjits are not conservatives) tourist fucks loaded up with coupons will stop coming to our city! MY GOD, WHAT WILL WE DO?!”
LULz.
Personally, I want to start a campaign to stop these gas-holes from coming here. The traffic is bad enough without ’em.
Brian R.
“Oh no, Ted Nugent won’t be coming here to perform!” said no one in Chicago.
Chyron HR
You laugh, but the motorized cart vendors are going to be PISSED.
Schlemizel
@Marcelo:
THIS! I never understood the attitude that there is only one ‘real’ pizza. There is good food and bad food, I have had shitty NY style and shitty Chicago style but when they are good they are nothing alike and either is good for its own reason.
Paul in KY
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Meat Loaf & Billy Baldwin.
KXB
I’ve lived in the Chicago area over half my life now. When I first moved here for college, I could not get enough of deep dish. But having crossed 40, I don’t think my stomach would forgive me. On those exceedingly rare occasions when I have deep dish, I go with Lou Malnatis.
As far as a boycott of Chicago goes, Chicago is recording record tourist receipts this year. The violence is real, and is isolated in a handful of police districts. That is not to dismiss the plight of the families stuck in those districts – we have an overstretched police force, a mayor who is more comfortable with CEOs than with beat cops and residents.
Unlike NY, where I grew up, Chicago still has middle class attractions, where middle class does not mean crappy second-rate attractions and shopping malls. Mayor Bloomberg has remarked that he envies Chicago’s open to the public lakefront and green endeavors, such as the green roof on City Hall. The theater scene, from big names like Steppenwolf and Goodman to smaller theaters, is geared towards theater-goers, and not just tourists. Increasingly, Chicago-originated plays such as “A Steady Rain” start here, and then move to NY.
This city has many challenges, but it is not yet another Great Lakes Rust Belt city, nor is it a NY style split between extraordinary wealth, and everyone else barely scraping by.
Shinobi (@shinobi42)
As a Chicago resident I have frequently had people from big wide open states with not that many people in a concentrated area tell me about how great concealed carry was, and how it would be just the best thing for our shooting problem. So bear with me, because I have THINGS TO SAY.
Over the weekend as 50,000 people had to squeeze out one door to wrigley field at 3am. There were no cabs and no traffic so they flooded the streets along with the thousands of people drinking at nearby bars. Then several thousand crammed asses to elbows into an El station, only to be told 45 minutes later there were no more trains. I couldn’t help but think. “Why would anyone think that all of these people should have a gun.” People were lucky to make it out with their train pass still in their pocket, let alone their valuable fire arm.
And those are just normal drunk Pearl Jam fans, we’re not even talking about the crazy crack heads shouting about jeesus on the train and physically assaulting passengers. (They looove the ladies, let me tell you about that.) And sure, if I had a gun they might not mess with me, or they would grab a gun from someone who wasn’t paying attention and shoot me with it so they could freely grab my ass. (I know, far fetched but these people are not okay.) More realistically, someone’s gun would misfire on a train car crammed with at least 100 people with no room to maneuver, and a lot of tired, caffeinated and armed people would panic, and how many would die?
There is no privacy here. I can’t go to a nearby park and feel alone, or even in my own home. There are always neighbors screwing or babies crying or dogs barking. (And we don’t know our neighbors at all. There are like 50 of them, who has that kind of time?) I’m never more than 30 feet from a stranger in my whole day. There is no time to relax. There is no safe place to put your gun and your guard down.
And if people are saying you can just wear a gun around like it is no big deal, then they should never be allowed to touch one. Going armed is a HUGE responsibility. If you’re excited about it, you don’t understand it.
I don’t want to live in a war zone, I don’t want to have to go around armed all the time because everyone else is. I want legalized marijuana to fight the gang wars, and better opportunities for low income kids and teens. I want schools that have less than 30 kids in a classroom and aren’t filled with “Teachers” from Teach For America. I want things that will actually make lives better, not just make me live in fear for my life every day when I commute into the city along with millions of other people.
KXB
But, I do have to admit, if I am driving, and “Stranglehold” comes on the radio, I do turn it up.
the Conster
@Shinobi (@shinobi42):
Same thing in Boston, coupled with road rage and fist fights over parking spaces.
I thought this observation from a Mom who concealed carried for a month about how carrying a gun put her in constant fear was extremely illuminating, and the takeaway – apart from the obligatory gun nutjob threats – was that more people carrying more guns does not make for more safety or more civility.
BGinCHI
Betty, you are always welcome to the city of Big Shoulders.
And we’re always ready to stack Nugent’s wheat for him if he shows his narrow ass here.
Honestly, they want to go to FL and boycott Chicago? And they want to drive out the gays and the browns? It will be a great day when FL houses all the crackers and northern IL is even more diverse and fabulous.
carbon dated
@The Red Pen: The Dems must be particularly ineffective, because the state just enacted the last of the country’s concealed laws …
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57592940/illinois-enacts-nations-final-concealed-gun-law/
mcfrank0
@Marcelo:
Thanks Marcelo! I was starting to be appalled at the almost wing-nut-like behavior over “proper” pizza.
I was especially amused at the responses that Chicago natives don’t even eat Chicago style pizza .
I lived in Chicago for 33 years and never heard anyone that lived there disparage deep dish pizza; not that there weren’t religious fervor over which was the best.
Not to mention that there is more than one kind of “Chicago style”. I had my personal favorites in Chicago for New York style, cracker crust, deep dish and stuffed pizza.
For something completely different, visit Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder Co. for what they are now labeling “Pizza Pot Pie”. Be sure to order the Mediterranean Bread for an appetizer to tide you over during the long wait for your pie (and that’s after the long wait in line to get in the restaurant)!
spudvol
Chicago Style Pizza Recipes
The Red Pen
@Shinobi (@shinobi42): Well put.
The biggest entitle jerks on the planet are suburbanites. They have never had to deal with strangers in their space, so they don’t think they should have to accommodate anything. Everything for them is relatively convenient so privation of any sort seems like a terrible burden.
Finally, like everyone short of the 1%, they don’t really have it easy. Sure they might have a shiny SUV and a McMansion, but if they missed a few paychecks, those would be in grave jeopardy. Thus, they see any request to make any kind of concession to be terribly unfair.
People in cities are surly because they are chafed; people in the suburbs are just butthurt by the limitations of their privilege.*
* Gross generalization, YMMV.
The Red Pen
@carbon dated:
They were ineffective, but they put up a hell of a fight. Governor Quinn passed a very strict gun law that was struck down. The Wingnuts will be hell bent on punishing Dems for their audacity for quite some time.
It’s a long story and it didn’t end where we wished it would end.
RSR
America’s Test Kitchen / Cooks Illustrated has covered Chicago style deep dish pizza. The recipe is behind their paywall, but it looks like the video is open to all: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2uGmk0kYC4
Mnemosyne
I’m a Gino’s East girl, and I ended up liking the recipe from Cooking Light, of all places. I think the (small) reduction in fat kept the crust from getting soggy. As others have said, it really is a pizza pie, so you may be better off in humid Florida pre-cooking the crust a little bit to prevent doughiness.
Also, the mozzarella goes in a pretty thick layer on the bottom to insulate the crust from the wet ingredients — as others have said, some places use thin slices of mozzarella rather than shredded for better protection.
ETA: And the “people who live in Chicago don’t eat Chicago-style pizza” thing is bullshit, and I notice it’s mostly the people who moved there as adults saying it. It’s not that they don’t eat it, it’s that they don’t want you latecomers cluttering up their favorite place.
ETA #2: Also keep in mind that deep dish is actually a THIN-crust pizza underneath and don’t lay the dough in too thick. Deep-dish pizza and thick-crust pizza are two different animals, and trying to make a deep-dish pizza with a thick crust will end in doughiness.
The Fat Kate Middleton
On another topic … my son sent me this link from the New Yorker, claiming to be excerpts from Ayn Rand’s advice column for Parade magazine:
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2013/07/29/130729sh_shouts_hodgman
One of the funniest reads ever – I thought immediately of SPAT.
Xecky Gilchrist
@Marcelo: Preach it! Food snobbery is annoying as hell.
Tork
I agree that people need to stop being pizza snobs. All pizza is good, and there’s no reason to get elitist about what can be called pizza.
That being said, when given the choice between two types of pizza I am a Chicago guy. Lou Malnati’s is my drug of choice – that solid layer of sausage, the butter crust, the whole tomatoes…its heaven. Giordano’s is popular but I’m not a fan of their crust. Aurelio’s is pretty good, if hard to find.
I haven’t had Pequod’s, but the cook who founded it left and made a new place called Burt’s in Morton Grove. Its a really weird place, its tiny and feels like an old converted house. He doesn’t accept walk-ins; you have to put in your pizza order when you make reservations, because he only cooks what’s been ordered. I’ve seen them turn away a huge group of people if they didn’t put in a pizza order ahead of time. Its kind of hilarious how crotchety he is. The pizza is fantastic though; parts of the crust feel almost caramelized.
I’ve had the famous pizza pot pie, too, but I wasn’t impressed. It was a novelty but wasn’t worth the wait.
Betty Cracker
@The Fat Kate Middleton: OMG, that is hilarious. Thank you!
I took fifteen speed pills, and I got into a contest with Liza Minnelli over who could roar most like a jaguar. She simply sounded like a stupid lion.
muddy
@JGabriel: Nugent doesn’t need to worry, he is not going to draw a large enough crowd for the actual city anyway.
Chicago = Obama = evil!!! FFS.
Martin
America’s Test Kitchen did a Chicago deep dish pizza. It is in the premium content section but you can get a 14 day free trial –
http://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/detail.php?docid=21349&incode=M**ASCA00
I am from Chicago and do not like deep dish. I would venture to say that is not a minority opinion in Chicago.
Shinobi (@shinobi42)
@The Red Pen: Fucking suburbanites. My parent’s biggest concern in life is that the paint color/new yard sculpture/mailbox of one of their neighbors doesn’t match the neighborhood’s “rustic feel.” Literally shoot me if that is ever a major concern in my life.
Shinobi (@shinobi42)
@the Conster: OMG the parking rage. I can’t even look at people without wanting to hit them for like 10 minutes after a search for parking.
Epicurus
Whilst I live in big, bad old NYC, the absence of Nugent from The Second City can only improve the quality of life there. Why, I saw a man who danced with his wife, in Chicago…
ed
Crust needs to be pretty dry ( cornmeal or semolina – I use cornmeal because who has semolina? ) . Chicago is crawling with foreign tourists already – Wingnuts can stay in whatever backwater hellholes they live in or go to Branson – We don’t need them here in Chicago.
Yatsuno
Pizza is like sex: even when it’s bad it’s still pretty good. That’s how I approach the pizza wars.
The Other Chuck
@ed:
The bulk bin section of every grocery store I’ve seen that has one. It’s pasta flour. Pretty bland as crust flour goes and kind of the opposite of cornmeal as goes texture.
Mnemosyne
@Marcelo:
I’ve added Pequod’s to my Yelp bookmarks for our trip next month — thanks!
The Red Pen
@Yatsuno:
Except, of course, Pizza by Alfredo in Scranton, PA. It’s like a hot circle of garbage.
mrmike
@MGB:
Square cuts? Square cuts? Philistine.
Pie cut is the only cut (and don’t even talk to me about square pizzas)
I hate when I forget to tell them and they desecrate my pie by making a tic-tac-toe board out of it.
eta: I’m by way of NewYawk so maybe that’s why this bugs me so much
satby
@mcfrank0: Born and raised in Chicago, lived there for 55 of my 58 years, and never once have I heard people refer to deep dish pizza as “tourist pizza”. Now, they do refer to Gino’s East that way, but that’s just one chain.
agorabum
@Steeplejack: As Villago noted, Obama is from Chicago, and attacking New York as a group of godless sodomite heathens went out of style after 9-11, plus NY had elected non-democractic mayors (Guliani, Bloomberg). The hate of Chicago primarily arose with Obama (and his so-called “Chicago-style politics”, as if he’s some sort of Mayor Daley the First or Capone). Now Obama’s former chief of staff is mayor, so more hate.
If you say the wingnut reaction to Detroit’s BK, it was obvious how much they hate big cities, and all fervently hope all big cities end up like Detroit, which they think is inevitable because of “liberalism” “minorities” and “unions.” They forget (or suppress) the fact that the auto industry decline came from poor management (which made no efforts to develop an economical car with good gas mileage or good safety engineering, e.g. the Pinto), and that Detroit’s leaders bent over to give the auto industry whatever it wanted, and all the years of official discrimination, bank redlining, and block busting. And that Detroit’s collapse came from the decision of the white population to abandon the city and ensure no tax dollars went to “those people.”
Mnemosyne
@satby:
I think that’s because they think of us North Shore suburbanites as “tourists.” ;-p
j
@Shibby:
Paella! I went to some village picnic a few years ago and they were serving paella for about $2.00 per heaping plate. You can rent those giant pans from any good rental store or restaurant supply house. Rice, pre-cooked chicken, frozen shrimp and sliced black olives are very cheap; and you can get a few boxes of frozen garlic mussels pretty much anywhere (Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, etc.). Just dump it all in a pan with a can of cheap salsa heat & eat. Presto! you’re done.
It would be the perfect complement with the Sangria.
j
@Nunca el Jefe:
Yup. I saw one of those cooking shows that said the secret is corn meal, flour and a LOT of butter, shortening or veggie oil.
http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy-ab&q=food+network+chicago+style+pizza+crust+recipe&oq=food+network+chicago+style+pizza+crust&gs_l=hp.1.0.33i29i30.3890.17989.0.22924.40.32.0.8.8.0.223.3671.12j18j2.32.0….0…1c.1.22.psy-ab..1.39.3316.Vly0Y-bHCkw&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.49641647,d.aWc&fp=bcf69ce5bae39d62&biw=1024&bih=598
johnny aquitard
@ronin122: Chicago is urban, and white wingnut suburbanites of Chicago don’t identify as “Chicago”. In fact, they are hostile to it. “Yay suburbs!” as I heard one wingnut family member say who lives in a Chicago suburb.
They think of the suburbs as a place with a genius loci equal to Chicago. They are convinced the suburbs are responsible for the economic success in of the region. They see Chicago as if it were one of those small fish that attaches itself to a big shark, getting its meals without risk. A freeloader without which the suburbs would thrive. (And yes, as one might suspect it always always boils down to resentment over ‘Those People’ getting a free ride off hard working real americans who work hard and get taxed for their trouble of working hard.)
They do not understand that without the city and its economic engine there would be no suburbia. That the city is the organizing principle around which their neighborhoods, even their jobs and lives, were built upon. That there is no sub-urban without the urban. And that for a suburbanite to cheer for the downfall of the city is like a man rooting for his own heart attack.
These are the same kinds of people who used to insist the sun went around the earth.
Wingnut conservatives, in other words.
Mnemosyne
@johnny aquitard:
Which suburb? My wingnutty suburban relatives don’t identify as “Chicagoans,” but they don’t despise the city either. They’re mostly on the north shore in the “Lake” towns (ie Lake Bluff, Lake Villa, Round Lake, etc.) And my in-laws in Oak Park/River Forest are even more attached to the city since those are still mostly “bedroom communities” with daily commuters to the Loop.
Now, once you get outside of Lake and Cook counties to exurban places like McHenry County then, yeah, you get more of the downstaters’ attitude towards the city. But believe me, if you move away and someone asks you where you’re from, you say, “Chicago.” (In part because if you say, “Illinois,” people say, “OMG, do you know my cousin in Carbondale!?”)
ETA: Also, too, I suspect that your relatives who claim to despise the city are the same ones who make an annual pilgrimage downtown to see the Marshall Fields (aka Macys) holiday decorations. Because people are hypocritical weirdos like that.
teiresias
Get the Great Chicago-Style Pizza Cookbook by Pat Bruno. My recipe (URL in header — i sporadically write a food blog) is based on that and is very, very close to the original Pizzeria Uno recipe. (Which is somewhat different from the chain Uno’s, so try it first.) The dough also makes a rather nice loaf of bread.
FunkyEntropy
@Keith:
That’s a good point about the sausage that I hadn’t thought about before (I occasionally make forays into the deep dish pizza arena). One of the secrets to making good deep dish I’ve found is to (as you suggest) use low-moisture mozzarella as the bottom layer – the fat from the mozzarella acts as a sealant that helps prevent the juices/liquids from turning the dough into mush.
Anyway, since I’m generally too lazy to make most of the basics myself, I’ve used Trader Joes pizza dough and sauce to good effect.
Oh, and if anyone doubts the culinary value of a Chicago-style pizza pie, I suggest you try it from someone that does it right before you write it off completely.
Lou Malnati’s makes the best IMO, with a rich and buttery crust.
Carmen’s Pizza (in Evanston) is good. Not as good as Lou Malnati’s (which also has a store in Evanston), but passable. Better than…
Giordano’s is pretty mediocre but will give you a basic idea of how it’s supposed to work. Their crust has always been a little dry for my taste.
The Other Chuck
I’m thinking we should organize an inter-city effort between various municipal governments, starting with Chicago, asking Ted Nugent if he would pretty please boycott all the other participating cities as well.
Banzai Bunny
I cannot say enough good things about the America’s Test Kitchen recipe. It is the single greatest food item we have ever made in our house.
Not Sure
@Keith: What temp do you set your oven?
Pete Mack
Just use a regular (even frozen) unsweetened pie crust. The cheese is the point!
Steve J.
“Chicago” has become the go-to wingnut response to any issue connected tangentially with gun control or dissatisfaction with the verdict in the Zimmerman trial. I guess Chicago is the New Black.
On his radio show, Hannity seems to use Chicago as a direct reflection on Pres. Obama
ExpatDanBKK
You need to try Detroit-style Sicilian pizza, most famously from Buddy’s (6 Mile & Conant branch is original and the best) — http://www.buddyspizza.com . And of course, pepperoni is the only acceptable topping for a pizza.
Anyway this is a decent recipe. Remember, the key is to put the toppings under the cheese which is under the sauce.
Ingredients, crust:
4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp sugar
1 envelope (¼ oz) instant dry yeast
2 tsp salt
1 ½ cups water
2 tbsp olive oil, plus 2 tsp
Ingredients, topping:
5 oz pepperoni and/or whatever else you like on top of pizza
16oz of shredded Wisconsin Brick cheese (or 12 oz shredded mozzarella & 4 oz shredded muenster mixed)
15 oz pizza sauce (slightly spicy, use your own recipe)
½ cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
Implements:
Stand mixer w/dough kneading attachment
2x 10″ x 14″ x 2″ baking pans
Directions:
In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the flour, sugar, yeast, and salt together. Run the mixer on a low speed with the dough hook attachment in place, and add the water and 2 tbsp olive oil. Keep mixing the dough until it forms into a ball. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can also mix the ingredients by hand and knead the dough until it forms a smooth ball.
Grease a large bowl with 2 tsp olive oil, add the dough, and cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise in a warm area until it has doubled in size, for about an hour.
When it’s ready, punch the dough down and divide it into two even pieces. Grease two pizza pans, place the dough in the pans, and spread it out evenly with your hands. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes before baking.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Bake the dough for 2 to 3 minutes, and take it out of the oven. Sprinkle the Parmigiano Reggiano around the edges of the crusts. This creates the famous Detroit-style crispy crust edges. Then add your toppings, mozzarella cheese and sauce in that order.
Bake for another 10 to 12 minutes, or until golden brown.
Blue Galangal
What I’ve heard for Chicago style deep dish pizza crust is semolina flour and some cornmeal. The semolina is what keeps it crispy without getting soggy and the cornmeal gives it the crunch.