A Guide to Understanding Detroit-Style Pizza

If you’re new on the journey to explore Detroit-style pizza, You’re in for a treat. Here’s a brief into my personal favorite style of pizza:

What is Detroit Style Pizza?

Detroit-style pizza is a rectangular, deep-dish pizza known for its thick, crispy crust.

It features a unique layering with cheese (usually Wisconsin brick cheese) spread to the edges, creating a caramelized cheese perimeter, called frico.

Traditionally, toppings are added over the cheese, and stripes of tomato sauce are typically ladled on top as the final layer.

Originating from Detroit, this pizza style is baked in a rectangular steel pan, which contributes to its distinctive crust texture and shape​ which yields square slices.

What Makes Detroit Style Pizza Unique?

So what makes Detroit Style Pizza unique? How is it different from other deep dish pizzas like Chicago and Sicilian?

The short answer: The crust and the frico!

The Crust

The crust of Detroit-style pizza stands out for its airy, yet crispy texture.

Hydrated dough achieves a fluffy center, while the steel pan, a tribute to Detroit’s industrial past, ensures a crunchy crust. This combination is key to its distinctiveness.

The Cheese

Traditionalist will say Wisconsin brick cheese is a staple, melting to the edges and caramelizing for a crispy crust. In the industry, we call this frico!

And it’s marvelous! In fact, it’s what made me fall in love with Detroit Style Pizza.

Frico is achieve when the cheese melts and burns a bit up against the high walled pan depicted above. For anyone who is a fan of burnt cheese, Detroit style pizza is for you.

Frico is a key part of Detroit Style Pizza. However, I’m not convinced that brick cheese must be used. I’ve achieved great results with a mix of white cheddar and mozzarella. I also like using Monterrey Jack, and Muenster.

Topping Technique

Unlike most styles of pizzas, the is sauce is traditionally applied on top of the cheese and toppings, before or after the bake, preserving the crust’s texture and adding a unique flavor profile.

This tradition is broken successfully by many well known Detroit Style Pizzerias, such as Square Pie Guys in the San Francisco Bay area.

I prefer to heat the sauce in a sauce pan and apply it after the bake. This helps to highlight the flavor of the tomato sauce.

If your sauce is on point, putting it on top is a key difference maker between great Detroit Style Pizza and average Detroit Style Pizza.

The Square Slice

The last key distinction of Detroit Style Pizza is its shape. As mentioned above the rectangular pans the pizza is cooked in result in individual slices that are square in shape.

Why are You Just Now Hearing About Detroit Style Pizza?

The resurgence of Detroit-style pizza’s popularity has been noted by food enthusiasts and chefs globally, partly fueled by social media and food trends.

Its visually appealing presentation and the rich flavors it packs make it particularly popular on platforms like Instagram, helping to spread its popularity even to cities like Chicago and New York, which have their own traditional styles of pizza.

Furthermore, the pizza’s success was highlighted when a Detroit-style pizza won the top prize at the International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas in 2012, with subsequent awards going to various chefs for their versions of Detroit-style pizza.

This recognition at a significant culinary event indicates the growing esteem of Detroit-style pizza in the culinary world.

In the commercial sphere, Pizza Hut’s introduction of a Detroit-style pizza led to a significant spike in web searches and demand, especially in the Detroit area, where interest was double the national average.

This introduction also marked one of Pizza Hut’s most successful product launches in over a decade, underscoring the commercial potential and consumer interest in Detroit-style pizza.

There you have it! Detroit Style Pizza explained. Now go try it!