Pizza - Thin vs Thick Base

[H-Lowe]

All the pizza restaurants round here have basically switched over to selling thin based pizzas. Growing up it was all thick base. Why has everyone decided all of a sudden that a pizza has to have a thin base. I don;t get it. They taste great, don;t get me woring - but if you're hungry sometimes it's nice to bite into a thick base pizza. More bang for your buck!

 

[LeeH]

Because a traditional pizza has a wood fired thin base.

 

[peebee]

Pizzas have thick or thin bases? I think that's the answer to your question ... there's no "or" about it, except in busy "pizza" take-aways and restaurants. They supply pizzas with uniform thickness bases that drop out of a rolling machine and perhaps get a casual (ineffective) twirl from the "chef". Perhaps the trend isn't towards thinner bases, but an increasing desire for a crispy base? A decent move ... but instead, the limitations of "fast food" outlets means they are getting a pizza topping on a biscuit.

In the same way as a decent Cornish Pasty doesn't have a uniform base, neither does a pizza. It's not even possible by hand shaping the dough (you can try by using a rolling pin ... argg, hisssss). They are thin based in the middle, thick and crispy (just the outer) around the outside edge.

Do yourself (and anyone with you) a great favour and make your own!

 

[RichardM]

Pizzas from Rome and Naples have thin bases while New York and Chicago pizzas have thicker bases.
As @peebee says, make your own, how you like.
This book will help The Elements of Pizza — Ken's Artisan

 

[Sadfield]

Pizza butty. Problem solved.

 

[peebee]

Humm ... I was making comparisons with Cornish Pasties and said "base". Pasties don't have a base! Here's what I meant (thick "base"):

 

[Alastair70]

The explosion of Onni’s and other cheap home pizza ovens have turned people on to Neapolitan style pizza. If you’re hungry, cook a 14”, you get a lot more of the good stuff and some extra crust.

 

[MashBag]

Better still, make your own base & toppings. How ever much you eat is better for you. Than shop *****.

 

[peebee]

@H-Lowe : You are fairly new to this forum? You should be getting the impression that the "natives" are as fanatical about pizzas as beer!

 

[obscure]

I do wonder if at least in part it’s a reaction against ‘cheap, stodgy, pizza, with plastic mozzarella). I’m well aware that thicker pizzas can be delicious in their own right but for the moment thin Naples style pizzas are on trend and where the money is.

 

[Agentgonzo]

All the pizza restaurants round here have basically switched over to selling thin based pizzas. Growing up it was all thick base

It probably depends where you go. Pizza Hut is the only place I've ever seen selling thick base.
Everywhere else I've always seen thin base.

 

[Jim Brewster]

Thin base, crispy but chewy and stringy mozzarella basically perfect