Chicago Style Pizza???

[system]

Hey… GO BIG OR GO HOME! IT’S CHICAGO BABY!

It is also a bit funny when like you said that 6 pound pizza hits the table and the drinks all bounce. We are not talking stuffed we are talking true to form Chicago style where a 14" pie feeds 6 at one piece each. I understand the par-baking of the crust but I agree with the statement that the sauce needs to cook for the full time. I made a call to a friend last night just to verify the Malnati’s cook process. Close to 45 minutes in the oven…start to finish. Tom… Yes Edwardo’s is one of the best also. I think the top 5 in Chicago all have their own little way of doing things that make them each stand out just enough to make them unique. The one thing I really want to incorporate is the full pie size Italian sausage patty. It’s little things like this that for some reason you just do not see outside Chicago. I need some pizza.

 

[Tom_Lehmann]

And don’t forget, for the authentic flavor, the sausage has to be added raw, cooked as the pizza bakes. Just another reason for that long baking time. But the wait is ohhhhhh sooooo worth it!
Being from the south side, I also like Beggar’s too.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

 

[system]

So true Tom… another hassle but it has to start raw. I know the headaches that come with raw meats…but the Italian sausage and ground beef have to be fresh and cooked to order. It has so much to do with the mixture of natural flavors that are created when the meats cook and the oils (read: that nasty grease) mix with the sauce, cheese, and veggies and then add that distinct flavor into the crust. You just do not get that in a 5-6 minute belt pie. I know there are a lot of good pizzas made out there on belts and a lot of good thin crust made on decks too…but I doubt half of the people on this forum, if that many, have ever had a real Chicago pie. I am sure I will start on heck of a response to that one.

 

[Piper]

We use all fresh sausage (butchered and made ourselves, I might add) on our thin crust pizzas, but we pre-cook it for our stuffed pizzas. I can not for the life of me find the right cooking combination that fully cooks the raw sausage inside the stuffed and doesn’t burn the outside. It would probably be easier with a deep dish, but I can’t get it to work with the stuffed.

And being outside of Chicago, but serving Chicago pizza, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to explain that our pizza is not a “Stuffed Crust.” Ugh.
qcfmike:

The one thing I really want to incorporate is the full pie size Italian sausage patty.

Yeah, the Gino’s East thing. I’d love to do that too but I don’t do a Deep Dish. I ditched the DD early on because I didn’t want to make a second type of dough - the stuffed pizzas are made with our thin-crust dough. I regret that, but I think it’s too late for me to do anything about it now.

 

[system]

Never say never! Or too late…

 

[za4life]

We also do a stuffed pizza but out cook time is much lower than most of yours. We do not par bake and stretch the dough to order. We cook for about 7 min then cover with out hot pizza sauce then cook for about another 4 min. We also dampen the edge of the crust to make sure both layers stick together. The newest addition to our stuffed pizza line is our “monster”. It is a 20’ beast of a 'za that includes 50oz of cheese. anybody else do such a large stuffed pizza. We say it feed up to12(which is how many slices there are). Also we use a MM conveyor at 490.