NYC pizza is very well known and people enjoy its unique taste. I’ve seen articles which attribute the taste to something about the water, the sauce, or something like that. But one other unique aspect of NYC pizza is that it’s frequently sold as slices that are reheated. It’s common for pizza places to precook pizzas and put them in display cases. When you want a slice, you pick one from the display case and they reheat it in the pizza oven. How much does that reheating step affect the taste? Does a slice fresh from the oven have a different taste compared to a slice from the display case that was reheated? If so, would one taste be considered more NYC authentic than the other?
One other thing I’ve wondered about is if NYC pizza consumption typically comes from slices in the display case or whole pizzas. In most other places in the country, pizza consumption is from buying whole pizzas. But in NYC, it seems like a lot of pizza consumption is from buying slices from display cases. For a typical NYC resident, how often do they buy just a slice versus a whole pizza?
I always thought it was about the extra oil and grease, which if you were transporting the pizza by car had to be accomplished quickly or it’d soak through the box and stain the seat.
Well in NJ at least the pizza ordered as a pie vs slice is probably fairly equal. We have a large number of independent Pizzerias like NYC and they far outnumber the chains. The pizza slices are often better than getting it delivered. Especially if the delivery is slow.
But from what I can tell, the NYC specialty is mostly about a fairly thin crust and excellent not-sweet sauce. That sweet sauce and greasy toppings is the bane of pizza in many places and too thick of a crust dramatically changes the taste and experience.
It’s not unique to New York City. I do think reheated pizza has a little different taste experience as the cheese solidifies and the sauce is absorbed further by the shell. When reheated it is a little different than the still hot burning the roof of your mouth fresh out of the oven style.
But I don’t think that’s what makes them taste so much better, of if they even still do taste better in general. I think it’s a matter of the ingredients that give every part of it better flavor. This was strictly enforced in New York and Philadelphia by a group of concerned businessmen who made sure pizzerias purchased only top quality ingredients and made sure they wore kitchen whites and used towels provided by the best uniform cleaning services. The community makes a big difference, and it’s better for the health of the pizzeria owners also.
I have had multiple fast-food pizza slices in NYC and I would describe them all as “floppy grease triangles”. So the uniqueness I discerned came from the floppiness and the greasiness.
Every shitty slice of pizza I’ve ever (outside the NY area) tasted lousy because of the use of poor quality mozzarella. There’s a chain around here which I won’t name that somehow gets a lot of business (ignorant locals) and I’m certain the cheese they use has never been touched by Italian hands. Everyone who has visited us from the NY/NJ area and has dared try that pizza has agreed with my assessment.
I remember having Woolworth’s pizza when I was a kid. It tasted different from any other pizza I’ve ever had because there were fennel seeds in the sauce.
It too was kept warm under glass at the lunch counter.
The fennel seeds in the sauce was something my grandmother used to do also. She always had great sauce, great meatballs, eggplant parm and so much else. I had forgotten about that.
Actually good Italian Sausage usually have fennel seeds in them.
Most of the places around here do use fennel. It’s the classic Italian-American Italian sausage (though Wikipedia does tell me Australia has a version, too). It doesn’t really have a fresh counterpart in Italy that I know of, but there is finnochiona, which is like a fennel-studded salami. But I’ve had very good Italian sausages from Italian delis here that do not use fennel. But, yeah, almost everyone associates Italian sausage with fennel and/or anise. I’m not sure I’ve even seen a national or regional brand that doesn’t use it – only at some ma & pop delis.
A pizza joint I worked at back in St Paul made it’s own “Dago” sausage,* which was ground beef, hot red pepper flakes, garlic, and salt. Quite good on a pizza, actually.
*Yes, I know it’s a derogatory term, but that’s what it was tongue-in-cheekily called.
It depends on where and when and who - if I’m buying lunch while I’m out , it’s slices. If it’s for just me and my husband and I’m not interested in leftovers, slices. One of the kids is here, or I want leftovers for tomorrow, then it’s a pie.
Reheating makes a slight difference in the taste but not enough to go from great to good or vice versa.
In many/most pizzerias around here (Chicago), yes, you get a whole pie. There are places that specialize in slices, but normally, the local neighborhood pizzeria sells entire pies. Like growing up, there was a slice place by the local high school, but I always associated slice places with having kinda shitty pizza.
There’s not too many places that sell slices in my city. I know of a couple places, but they are in the entertainment district and serve the bar customers. I know of a sit-down pizza place that has slices with lunch. For the most part, pizzas are sold whole here. It’s much different than NYC, where it seems like there’s at least one place selling slices on just about every block.
How do you buy one slice where you live? Is your only option when getting pizza to buy an entire pie?