If the crust is good, none of it’s going to waste.
And again, Pizza Hut has never let me down. When they put that extra cheese in a ring inside the crust, mmm boy! Cheesegasm!
If “sad dry remnants” is the crispy, burnt, sugars, developed caramelization, and the concentrated flavorful bark of a food, then I will be eating there.
That’s more inner pieces for you! You should be happy. I don’t understand this hate of crusts, but, like I said, I’m more than happy to take it off your hands. Have all the inner pieces you want. Usually, we fight for edge pieces around my groups of friends.
You know, I don’t know. That sounds reasonable. It’s a bizarre cut, though, I have to admit.
I wonder if you’re describing how we used to cut pizzas at home, in Illinois.
DesertDog seems confused. Cut the pizza once down the center. Then, rotate and cut several slices perpendicular to that original cut. You’ll have some very long slices in the center of the pizza and some really short ones at the edge.
We used to cut those long ones in the center smaller. Some edge eaters probably took theirs while the other ‘no crust’ people grabbed from the center.
Count me in as a regular customer of “Sad Dry Remnants”. Might go to “Hearts” if thickness of toppings is same or (preferably) less than the thickness of crust/dough…
When I order pizza here in NC we always get the thicker crust, and I do sometimes miss the thin crisp crust I used to get when I lived in Chicago. A few weeks ago I was visiting there and we sent out for pizza; when I was selecting my slices of crispy-crust “party-cut” I found what I believe is The Smallest Slice of Pizza in the World: an edge cut less than a square inch in total size. I grabbed it and saved it for a treat after I enjoyed the rest of my pizza.
Another ‘me too’. End slice of the roast/meatloaf, rind of the cheese, crust of the bread, skin of the chicken, crust of the pizza. That’s where the good stuff is.
I like mushrooms on my pizza. When I order a mushroom pizza, I expect there to be mushrooms on my pizza. Not just one sad little slice of mushroom on each slice of pizza. Don’t make me order triple mushrooms just to get some actual mushrooms on my pizza. They don’t cost that much.
Mmmm. I’ll take all the brownie edges I can carry please. Oooh, and muffin tops too.
I’m for good pizza, I’m against bad pizza.
That being said, I’ve had my fair share of bad pizza. Pizza Hut before the introduction of actual cheese and decent sauce, or Domino’s before they figured out that people actually like having the pie they ordered and hour ago delivered piping hot.
Good pizza to me has come down to ordering 30$ 20-inch pies from small pizza shops. They always get it right.
Amen! We had fights for the heel of the meatloaf. As a kid, I often got reprimanded for grabbing the heels from a loaf of bread; they didn’t mind me getting the heels so much as my method. (With a freshly opened loaf, I’d stick my hand all the way down to the other end, so I could get both heels for a sandwich.) Dad and I would always race for the heels when Mom made kugel.
But I realized my true genius as a cook at the age of 25, when it occurred to me that I should adjust my baking to achieve a more desirable outcome. Nowadays, I make bread, cornbread, kugel, meatloaf - you name it - in a flattened style, to maximize the amount of crust to interior. (Adjust flatitude to achieve *your *desired ratio.) Flattened loaves, baked on a cookie sheet: if you like crust, that’s the way to go!
jali: if you want just muffin tops, make just muffin tops
So am I the only one who likes his pizza cut into tangrams?
I’m moving to your town! They’re $9.99 at Costco here in Vegas!
But I totally agree–both Costco and Sam’s Club have better pizza than most of the chains at a much better price.
I personally have nothing against Pizza Hut–even for a Noo Yawkuh like me, it’s OK. Domino’s, OTOH, is pitiful. And “California”, “gourmet” and “pizza” should never be spoken in the same sentence–make that the same paragraph!
There are a few places here that serve “NY Style” pizza–most of them are just meh.
But when I go to NY to visit next year, look out, Ray’s!
Thanks, guys. Now I want pizza. A pox on all your homes!
No, no, no, you guys have it all backwards. “Good” pizza is the gourmet stuff you have to savor. Eating it is like going to a black-tie dinner. You know it’s going to be pretty good, but it’s a chore while it’s going on.
Imagine a bell-curve on an X-Y map: X is the fanciness of the pizza, going from “cheap generic crap” to “gourmet specialty frou-frou” stuff. Y, of course, is awesomeness. Pizza is at its most awesome smack-dab in the middle of X, where Y goes off the map. As far as I’m concerned, the middle X is at the locally-owned Aviano’s pizza, but I’m sure most towns have such a location. A single site or locally-owned chain, where the pizza is treated like basic pizza, nothing special. Crust, sauce, cheese, and standard toppings. However, the pizza is all awesome. The crust is probably handmade and allowed to rise naturally; the sauce is probably made by hand (maybe in large batches once a week), not packaged. The cheese is applied not in flurries but in drifts. Yum.
“Good” pizza? Meh. Interesting culinary distractions, but for satisfaction purposes, about as “meh” as generic stuff.
Other stuff: Little Caesar’s $5 stuff is damn good when fresh. I don’t know why ther pizzas don’t age well, but I can’t stand the stuff that’s been in holding for an hour… but straight out of the oven, I can pretty much suck down a large pizza from them without even chewing. Good, good, good.
And crust/edge pieces. My friends growing up called them “pizza bones,” and introduced me to the idea of ordering breadstick sauce without breadsticks. Pizza bones? They’re free breadsticks! Dip and eat for a cheap treat!
A pizza on all your homes!
Another variation on the square cut is how Domino’s cuts its thin crust pizza - three (parallel) cuts north/south, 3 cuts east/west. So you get some, with 'edge, some without. Of course, the Domino’s Thin has sauce/toppings to the edge, so there isn’t really an ‘edge’, just a ‘curved side’ (speaking from a position of ‘authority’, as I am a former Domino’s manager).
China bambina turned 8 on Friday, which was also the last day of school. We herded a bunch of classmates/buddies over to Papa John’s. Pizza ensued. Everyone made their own pie (or at least slapped stuff on their pie) and got a pizza maker certificate.
Buying a new SMEG oven, not sure if the Pizza version really is anything more than a place to put the pizza stone. Anyone know? Is it worth a grand to upgrade to the Smeg Pizza oven versus their regular super duper model?
Tamerlane: you would of course mock me with some good Berzerkely pie. The chance of me actually getting one of those again is close to zero but daaaaaamn it’s making me drool.
I want to dine at Sad Dry Remnants.
Suggested menu items:
Brownie corners; pie crusts; edges of egg foo yung; the chewy bits in the corners of a casserole dish; likewise for fruit cobblers; crunchy edges of roasts and hams; the divine stuck-on remnants at the bottom of the rice pot; bread pudding corners; burnt cookies; and pizza crusts, of course.
Some enterprising doper with money ought to open such a restaurant. There seems to be a lot of support in here for it and I’ve known others who prefer the same.
Maybe you could donate the “correctly cooked” parts to charity. But be careful…