Cast iron pan pizza

[Jenise]

Once upon a time in California there was a pizza chain (maybe called Numero Uno) that did a pizza they may have called deep dish, though if you know Chicago pizza by that name there's absolutely no similarity. It was a lightly sweet (a very minor amount of sugar, but some where none is correct in a classic pizza dough) puffy dough that had a magical crispy crust, close to an inch tall and evenly so end to end which I absolutely adored. The specific version I liked was called a Slaughterhouse Five and if I remember correctly it was topped with pepperoni, sausage, onions, green bell pepper and black olives.

The chain went away, but over the years I've been reminded that it once existed, most curiously about 30 years ago when an Armenian friend's mother, newly emigrated to California from Kenya made a pizza with that same type of crust. She used a sheet pan but the flavor, texture, etc--it was puffy, moist yet cake-y just like the Numero Uno pizza dough. They called it Hye Pizza, 'hye' being a short-syllable identifier of things from their culture and her sons, my friends Vic and Leon, said it was what they grew up with.

I haven't had Detroit pizza but it looks very similar in texture, though it has it's own specific methodology for the cheese and sauce--sauce going over the cheese, not under.

And then just this morning, I watched an America's Test Kitchen video for a cast iron pan pizza. Looks very similar but of course they had their own custom tweaks. Gotta try one soon.

Anyone else a fan of this style pizza?

Is this different from (what I know as) a Sicilian pizza?

And how is this not focaccia "with stuff on it" ?

[Jenise]

There's a similarity to some foccacias, but not all--most focaccias are breadier, not as moist and sponge-y.

Re Sicilian pizza, now that you mention it there's a place in Vancouver that makes a pizza with a dough that is very much like this. I've also, in the U.S., had pizza called Sicilian wherein the dough was breadier like classic pizza dough but simply made in rectangles. FWIW the Vancouver pizza I mentioned is also square or rectangular.

Wonder what the ethnic background for Detroit pizza is?

Never eaten, but still around- one near the American Museum of Natural History
https://www.unos.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uno_Pizzeria_%26_Grill

The two most frequently seen pizza types in New England are the Greek style, found in the ubiquitous Greek-franchise pizzerias, and the Sicilian style. Greek style pizzas have a slightly thicker, chewier crust than New York-style and are always round. Sicilian pizzas are as Jenise describes them--much thicker crust and baked rectangular. Uno's Bar and Grill (formerly Pizzeria Uno) is a Boston-based restaurant chain with a franchise from the original Chicago Pizzeria Uno. Its signature dish is Chicago style deep-dish pizza.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Never eaten, but still around- one near the American Museum of Natural History
https://www.unos.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uno_Pizzeria_%26_Grill

I called it Numero Uno but it sounds right that it was actually Pizzeria Uno. Interesting that they're no longer in California, and mostly back east (plus Saudi Arabia and India!). And the menu has changed to fit the times. They do Chicago deep dish and the pizza I remember loving is now correctly identified as Detroit style, though they didn't call it that in California back in the late 80's when I was a customer who frequented a location near a project I worked on out in the San Fernando Valley.