I’ve done this for years anytime the pizza looks very greasy. Helps me avoid indigestion and heartburn. Heck why not? Everybody puts bacon on a paper towel to soak up grease. Only takes a few seconds to press a napkin onto a pizza. Save calories and your shirt from drips.
Anyone else tried this?
I have done it on occasion and my daughters always do it for the type of fast food pizza we usually get. Overall calories and fat content don’t have much to do with it. I just don’t like the look or sensation of raw grease on top and it has a tendency to drip down onto my shirt. In my experience, it is a common custom at least for thin slice greasy pizza in the Northeast.
Pretty funny how precise that is–down to the half a calorie. Because of course any standard-issue napkin sucks up *exactly *that much cheese sweat.
Yes, I do it primarily to protect my shirt and avoid heartburn. I’ve got several stained shirts thanks to pizza. That grease won’t wash out. I remove my shirt and eat in my T shirt at home. Can’t do that in a restaurant. 
Any calories that I avoid is just a bonus.
If I have to blot my pizza, I am eating crappy pizza.
I was served a pizza years ago at Chuck E. Cheese that literally had steaming puddles on it. Had to tip it, drain it, and THEN blot it.
This is what happens when the pizzamakers use “white cheeselike product” instead of “mozzerella cheese.”
I sometimes blot a greasy pizza.
I’m a little skeptical about the calorie savings. Any pizza with that much grease has some dripping onto your hands and plate, so it doesn’t seem like you’d be eating all of the grease under any circumstances.
I do have some other calorie reducing tricks, though. Like I often make tuna salad using half sour cream and half mayo. That’s about 50 calories saved and there’s no difference in texture or flavor that I notice.
I guess that calorie number they give is an average? But I agree its probably an inflated number. Maybe at home, with several bounty paper towels you could press down hard and get that much grease out. Not lightly blotting in a restaurant with a thin napkin.
But calories aren’t the reason why I blot anyhow.
Yes, when I see a slice of pizza that needs blotting, that means I’m not eating pizza from that restaurant. I didn’t realize that was so common. A new pizza place opened on my street about a year ago, and when I tried it I got a pizza covered in grease, so I never went back. I noticed a few weeks ago that the place has closed, so I guess I’m not the only one who couldn’t stomach it.
It isn’t exclusive to truly crappy pizza. One of the most successful fast-food pizza chains in the Boston area (known for an abundance of good pizza) is Papa Ginos and I like their pizza in general at least for what it is. However, it is fairly common need to blot their slices or whole pizzas unless you want to make a mess especially when it is fresh and hot. It isn’t an issue when they cool down but it can be when they are fresh out of the oven.
My dad used to manage a Papa Gino’s. People would a. complain that the pizza wasn’t greasy enough and even b. ask if they could have “extra” grease on it, apparently under the impression it was a condiment added to the pizza by whoever made it.
Continued:
The main cause of the greasiness is the type of cheese(s) used and there are multiple right answers:
“[Papa] Gino’s does just that with the addition of Romano. As a result the pies can be a little, well, greasier and the elasticity of the cheese goes from snappy to gooey. But the proportion of cheese to sauce is in good measure. If you mostly eat pizza with all mozzarella you might find yourself trying to pinpoint just what it is about the cheese that is different. Now you know it’s the cheddar.”
Actually I am going to disagree with you about Papa Ginos. It is truly terrible pizza. Pizza is my favorite food ever and when we moved to Boston we tried Papa Ginos and I couldn’t even finish a single slice. Even Domino’s is better than Papa Ginos. Blech.
Sally’s Apizza in New Haven, Connecticut, makes the best pizza on this side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Watch them box it for you when you order takeout. The pie comes out of the oven, they set it in the box, and then SWING A BOTTLE OF OLIVE OIL ALL OVER IT. Whatever you do, don’t slap a napkin on THIS pizza.
When I was checking on the spelling, I saw that Sally’s went up for sale (by the children of the original owners since 1938) last year. Anyone got more recent news on that?
Connecticut is already on the side of the Atlantic Ocean that makes the best pizza in the world.
Any place that makes the best pizza west of the Atlantic Ocean then by definition makes the best pizza in the world.
If Sally’s makes the best pizza in the world, why not say they make the best pizza in the world?
Are you absolutely sure you didn’t mean to say something like “Sally’s Apizza in New Haven, Connecticut, makes the best pizza on this side of the Housatonic River.”?
Bulllllllssssssshit.
If it isn’t in New York, it isn’t pizza. Even New York places elsewhere that import everything including the water ain’t pizza.
Connecticut ain’t anything.
But to the OP - blotting helps cheap pizza, and that’s a good thing.
Have you never eaten pizza in Naples, or Sicily?
Okay, I’ll bite. Sally’s makes the best pizza on Wooster Street in New Haven. But Pepe’s is pretty darn good, too.
Wrong. I’ve been to Di Faro’s. I’ve been to Tontonno’s. They’re damn good, but they ain’t Sally’s.
Haven’t had it in a long time but I’ve blotted McDonald’s steak, egg & cheese bagel. Too damn greasy otherwise.
The first time I ever encountered “pizza dabbing” was at lunch in middle school (so like, 1992?) All the other girls did it. For some reason it made me not want to do it. So I never have.
I notice that cheese pizzas at several local places seem quite bland and dry to me. Pepperoni adds more than just meaty flavors.
BTW, according to BuzzFeed the data everyone is using comes from a 15-year-old study done by Georgia-Pacific. The paper products maker. The data is “no longer available” but still fairly accurate (although a nutritionist that BuzzFeed talked to says it makes a negligible difference in your lifetime of fat consumed).
If I’m eating pizza, it’s because I want greasy, Calorie-laden food. Blotting it defeats the purpose.