Check out this trio of pizza pies!
Between deep-dish, wood-fired, and mountain pie, there’s a lot of pizza styles out there to choose from. Don’t even get us started on regional varieties like New York, California, and Detroit! In addition to the various topping choices, some of the style differences include preparation, pan-style, and cooking method. Let’s take a few minutes to check out some of the ooey, gooey, savory, and smoky versions.
Deep-Dish Pizza
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Deep-dish, or Chicago-style, pizza is a lot like an actual slice of pie. It’s baked in a round pan with tall sides. The dough is pressed up against the sides to form a tall and thick crust. The toppings are placed “upside-down” from a regular pizza. First, the cheese is spread on the crust bottom, next comes the toppings, and then the sauce. The reason for this is so that the cheese doesn’t get burnt during cooking. Since the pie is so tall and thick, it has to cook longer. If the cheese were on top, it could burn.
Mountain Pie Pizza
If you’re into camping, you may already be familiar with the treat that is the mountain pie pizza. Also known as hobo pie, camper pie, campfire pie, and even pudgy pie, it’s cooked in a special cast iron mountain pie iron (or press, if you prefer, but it’s not weighed down like a panini press). It could be compared to a grilled cheese sandwich but with lots more cheese and the addition of tomato sauce and pepperoni.
Mountain pie pizza consists of mozzarella, tomato sauce, and pepperoni between two slices of buttered bread. It’s then toasted over a campfire using the long-handled mountain pie iron. The outside gets crunchy while the inside stays ooey and gooey. The really cool thing about this tool is that it’s available in different shapes (such as waffle, round, and heart-shaped) and you can make lots of other “pie-style” items. Think fruit fillings, s’mores fixings, and ham, turkey, and cheese.
Wood-Fired Pizza
Also known as brick-oven pizza, wood-fired pizza has a thin crust that often has “charred-like” spots on it, resulting in a wonderfully rustic and smoky flavor. The dough is crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. True to the name, the oven is made of bricks (which can reach a higher temperature). The heat comes from burning wood that fills the dome, walls, and tiles of the oven. This creates that charred crust and smoky flavor. While it can take hours for the bricks to heat, it can cook a pizza in just minutes (two to five minutes). Different types of wood (like applewood, cherry, or oak) can be used to infuse different flavors and aromas into the pizza.
If you’re craving a smoky wood-fired slice of pie, check out Smokin’ Oak Wood-Fired Pizza. They use homemade dough and unique toppings like applewood bacon, goat cheese, chorizo, fresh basil, and crushed tomato sauce. Pizzas are cooked in a 900-degree brick oven in about 90 seconds.
Have you tried deep-dish or wood-fired pizza? Which is your favorite? Let us know in the comments.