Experiment 9: Deep Dish Pizza

Figure 1. Delicious Deep Dish Pizza

Introduction

One of the big Chicago traditions we cherish is eating deep dish pizza, especially from Lou Malnati's.  From non-Chicagoans (Read: New Yorkers), we've heard  deep dish pizza be compared to everything from a casserole to lasagna without the pasta.  However, as two people who grew up with the cheesy, saucy goodness of deep dish, we tell you now: pizza isn't a real meal unless you have to eat it with a fork and a knife.

For those of you who have never experienced the glory of deep dish pizza, we implore you to come to Chicago and try it yourself.  If you don't have the opportunity to do so, we hope we can provide you with a piece (or eight) of heaven on a plate with our recipe.

Our NFPA Ranking:

Figure 2. Our NFPA Ratings for deep dish pizza.

Difficulty: We ranked this recipe a 6 because it has multiple steps that a neurochef needs to coordinate in order to maximize efficiency.  The steps themselves aren't complicated, but you have to put them together properly.

Preparation Time: This recipe takes about two hours and fifteen minutes to complete.  We found it helpful to chop the tomatoes while the pizza dough was rising and to make the sauce when the dough was cooking.  Chopping four large tomatoes isn't instant, so allow for some time.

Course: Deep dish pizza is best eaten during lunch or dinner.  It's not sweet, so dessert is out of the question, and it's a bit too heavy for a midnight snack.

Materials

Figure 3. The dough after some thorough kneading.

Pizza Dough:

1) Warm Water - 1 cup

2) Active Dry Yeast - 1 package

3) Sugar - 1 teaspoon

4) Vegetable Oil - 1 tablespoon

5) Eggs - 1

6) Flour - 3 cups

Figure 4. Spices for the Pizza Sauce

Sauce:

1) Large, Fresh Tomatoes - 4
2) Olive Oil - 2 tablespoons

3) Garlic Power - 1 tablespoon

4) Italian Seasoning Blend - 2 teaspoons

5) Salt - .5 teaspoon

7) Ground Black Pepper - .25 teaspoon
6) Ground Red Pepper - .25 teaspoon

Cheese & Toppings:

1) Pizza Cheese (Mozzarella and Cheddar Mix) - 1 package

2) Other Toppings

Figure 5. Simmering the Sauce

Figure 6. Pizza Dough.  It should be thinner than this.

Procedure

Pizza Dough:

1) Pre-heat oven to 350 ºF.

2) Mix warm water, yeast, and sugar in a bowl.

3) Add the vegetable oil and the egg to the bowl.  Mix.

4) Add the flour one cup at a time.  Additional warm water can be added to help mix the flour into the dough.

5) Knead the dough (Fig. 3).

6) Put the dough in a covered bowl and let it sit for one hour.

7) Grease the pizza pan.
8) Place the dough in the pan by spreading it over the surface and then pinching it up the sides to form the crust (this also creates a bowl for your sauce and toppings).
9) Bake the dough at 350º F for 30 minutes.

Sauce:

1) In a skillet, simmer together the olive oil and garlic.
2) Add the herbs and spices (Fig. 4).
3) Turn up the heat and add the tomatoes and sugar.
4) Simmer until all of the flavors meld together to become one succulent sauce (Fig. 5).

Building the pizza:
A Chicago-style deep dish pizza is built in the opposite order from a traditional pizza.

1) Apply a healthy layer of cheese to the crust.
2) Put down a thick layer of your favorite toppings.
3) Finally, pour a layer of sauce on top (Fig. 7).
4) Bake the entire pizza for an additional 15 minutes at 350 ºF.

Figure 7. Pour the Sauce onto the Pizza Dough and Cheese.

Results
We did it!  It is in our hands...the knowledge that we lowly students have what it takes to recreate one of Chicago's defining culinary traditions.  You'll notice from the pictures (proof!) how real this is.

Actually, wait a moment.  To provide you with a painfully alluding reminder: pictures can deceive.  Although it looks more or less like a traditional Chicago-style deep dish pizza, it tasted quite different.  Don't get us wrong, it was still amazingly delicious, but it just wasn't what we expected, and probably wouldn't meet the standards of the Malnati family.

First, let's chat about the crust.  It rose as we expected during the allotted time.  However, baking the crust induced a tad bit more growth.  More specifically, the crust puffed up about an inch.  Instead of being a mere centimeter in thickness which would yield an ideal surface area to volume ratio, we ended up consistency similar to a soft pretzel.  In fact, the dough tasted like a soft pretzel.  While this was not what we expected, it was still quite flavorful.  We were left wondering how Lou Malnati's manages to get such a perfectly shaped crust every time.  Sure, they're experts, but it almost seems like they must have a mold that they use to hold the crust in place as it cooks.

In order to compensate for this unexpected turn of events, we skimped a little on the cheese.  In hind site, the proper way to compensate probably would have been to add more cheese.  Normally, the crust to cheese thickness ratio is roughly 0.5 to 1 or 1 to 1, but for our pizza, the ratio was more like 9:1.  Regardless, we still got goopy, picturesque cheese, just not as much.

Next, the sauce.  It turned out more like bruchetta-esque tomato sauce than pizza sauce.  Chunky, peppery, and savory.  Yum.  However, for the sake of education, we should tell you that we did this all wrong.  The best deep dish sauces are prepared raw and aren't cooked until put onto the pizza.  We broke the rules, but don't blame us, we were just following directions.

Figure 8.  Our final product, with a dash of cheese on top for effect.

Discussion
We want to take this opportunity to talk to you about cheese, that fatty, cholesterol-filled food that contributes to so many of our favorite foods, especially deep dish pizza.  Cheese is an intriguing food, as after it was invented by accident in ancient times, it has worked its way into different cuisines all over Europe and the Americas in different forms.  To make foods like pizza, cheese has to be melted.  How does that happen?  Let's start with how cheese is made.

We all know that cheese comes from milk.  Milk is primarily made up of water, protein, fat, and sugar (Martinez 2012b).  In ancient Mesopotamia, milk was carried in pouches made from animal stomachs (Martinez 2012a).  To the surprise of many, after some time, solid globs would start to separate from the liquid in the milk.  These globs, or curds, were made of protein and fat, while water and sugar formed the whey.  It was discovered that the curds could be eaten, and thus cheese was born.

How did the curds form in the first place?  It turned out that the animal stomachs that were used as pouches contained rennet, a type of enzyme that replaces the water that is bonded to milk proteins with fat (Martinez 2012b).  Because of the presence of rennet, after some time incubating in the dry heat, the protein and fat bound together and coagulated.

When you heat cheese up, the fat and protein in the cheese separate (Martinez 2012c).  This is why cheese "sweats" oil and becomes slick when it is heated up.  Unfortunately, cheese loses its flavor when the protein and fat separate.  This is not a problem in pizza (or your grilled cheese, for that matter), because the starches in the dough will help hold the two molecules together.  Grating your cheese helps retain the flavor, as well as including a small amount of liquor.

Future Directions

Coming soon: Fried Rice!

References
1) Baker, S. (Dough)
2) Dryden, S. 2012. "Recipe for Lou Malnati's-Style Deep Dish Pizza." Roaming Indigo. (Sauce)

3) Martinez L. 2012. Cheese in Ancient Times. Netplaces.
4) Martinez L. 2012. Curds, Whey, and Rennet. Netplaces.
5) Martinez L. 2012. How Cheese Melts. Netplaces.

Figure 9. Getting hungry yet?