A few years ago I was in Chicago for work and wanted to try some Chicago style pizza. I asked the guy I was meeting with where we should go for some good deep dish pizza. He said “Lou Malnattis is good but do you want to go to somewhere better that the locals love?”. Well, of course I wanted the “real” thing so he said Pequods is the place we should go.
Ever since I took my first bite of the pizza from Pequods I knew at some point I would have to try and recreate it myself. Deep dish pizza isn’t really a thing around my parts so there were no restaurants that could satisfy my cravings. I had to do this myself.
First off, let’s get this straight: Even though Pequods is in Chicago it isn’t really “Chicago” deep dish pizza. It is much, much closer to Detroit style pizza. Talk to anyone from Chicago or Detroit and they will tell you why their style is better. I think both styles are delicious but there are some differences between the two.
The biggest difference in my opinion is the crust. In a Chicago style pizza the crust is actually somewhat thin and it goes all the way up the side of the pan. Detroit style pizza has a much thicker crust that is almost foccaccia-like. The Chicago crust basically makes the pizza like a marinara bread bowl. With the Detroit pizza the outside of the crust is a bit crisp but the middle is more bread-like.
Since the crust on a Chicago pizza goes up the side of the pan it really does act more like a bowl. But on a Detroit pizza the crust just covers the bottom of the pan and the side of the pan is lined with cheese. This results in a delicious caramelized cheese edge on the pizza which is one of the best things you will ever eat.
There are other differences in pizza construction, toppings, and so on but I don’t want to get too far down that trail. This post is about Detroit style pizza so let’s keep the rest of the discussion focused on that.
As always my search for a good Pequod’s knockoff recipe started at Serious Eats and with Kenji’s Detroit Style Pizza recipe. I am not going to rehash the whole recipe here so you can visit that site and see it. But I did make a few modifications.
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Let’s talk about pans… A traditional “Detroit” pizza is made in a rectangle pan. The original Detroit pizza pans were automotive parts trays. They are about a 10×14 rectangle with slightly flared sides. Since automotive parts trays are a bit hard to come by these pans by Lloyds Pans are great ones to use. But since I don’t have one of those I used the round Chicago Metallic 14.25 inch pan I got for Christmas.
Pequod’s uses round pans so even though it isn’t traditional Detroit style it is similar to what Pequod’s uses so I was OK with it.
The crust – Since my pan was 14.25 inches round and the recipe is for a 10×14 rectangle I needed to adjust the quantities of the ingredients. The surface area of my pan was 159.5 inches and the area of the rectangle pan is 140. So we need to multiply everything by 1.14. And this is the result:
Bread flour – 354 grams
Instant Yeast – 6 grams
Kosher Salt – 11 grams
Water – 260 grams
I made the dough following the recipe, let it rise for two hours, pressed it into the pan, let it rest for 30 minutes, re-pressed it into the pan and this is what it looks like when it is cooked
You can see it is a fairly airy crust. Like I said earlier, it reminds me a lot of focaccia. The bottom is nice and crisp but the middle is a nice, soft bread. Using bread flour is important to get these results. The first time I tried I forgot and used regular flour and while the crust was good it wasn’t as good as with bread flour.
Also you don’t really stretch and toss this crust like most pizzas. Just dump the dough in the oiled pan (it is somewhat wet dough) and push it towards the edge of the pan. I go around the edge of the crust and pull it a bit too. When you first do this you will have a heck of a time trying to get the crust all the way to the edge of the pan. That’s OK. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and come back in 30 minutes and the crust will easily pull to the edges. And remember, don’t put the crust up the side of the pan. That is for the cheese!
The sauce – The sauce recipe on Serious Eats is excellent. I didn’t really change much at all on this. Use quality canned tomatoes though. Don’t get cheap here. And he calls for using about half the sauce on the pizza but I use almost all of it on mine since my pan is a bit bigger and I like a somewhat saucy pizza. This sauce isn’t overly seasoned but does have a fairly bold flavor.
The cheese – This will be where most people will struggle. Real Detroit pizza uses something called Wisconsin Brick cheese. Maybe it is readily available in the midwest but when I lived in Florida I couldn’t find it. And up here in Spokane, WA I can’t really find it locally either. I was able to beg the manager of the cheese department at a gourmet store here to special order some for me though. It cost about $9 a pound so it isn’t cheap but it is essential. If you don’t feel like begging you can order it on Amazon too.
The flavor reminds me somewhat of a cross between mozzarella and provolone. It has a bit of tang to it but it is fairly smooth and melts great. You won’t get the same stretch as you get with mozzarella either.
Wisconsin Brick Cheese is also what gives the Detroit style pizza its signature cheesy crust. Those edge bites are some of the best bites of food you can have.
When you assemble the pizza you want to be sure to put the cheese up against the edge of the pan all the way around. Depending on how you have your cheese sliced you can arrange it however you want but be sure it goes up the side.
Since my blocks were small 1/2 pound blocks and I couldn’t get big flat slices I had to slice it off the edge so I just stood the slices up on top of the crust leaning against the edge and then filled the rest of the pan with cheese. You want to make sure you have a full layer of cheese. This isn’t just some sprinkled mozz here. I use just over a pound of cheese on mine. That gives me enough for the edge, to fill the whole pan, and then a few slices to put on top.
Toppings – I am not a fan of vegetables on pizza. And a pizza like this wouldn’t be the type you want to go Hawaiian on with ham and pineapple. A good sausage would be welcome but for me it is hard to beat pepperoni.
Don’t just go with the cheap pre-sliced Hormel pepperoni from your grocery store. Get a full stick and slice it yourself. I have really enjoyed the Vermont Smoke & Cure Pepperoni.
This pepperoni has a good spice level to it without being too overpowering and the way it is made gives it a nice curl when cooked. You can order the pepperoni directly from their site or you can get it on Amazon. I use a whole stick, slice it about 1/8 inch thick, and do a double layer on half my pizza (two younger kids don’t care for pepperoni yet).
The cook – This is probably where you will need to do the most tweaking. Every oven cooks different and when you are cooking a pizza like this you need a crisp outer crust, chewy middle crust, caramelized cheese edge, bubbling sauce, melted cheese under the sauce, and browned bubbly cheese on the top of the pizza. That is a lot of different things to get right.
The first time I tried this recipe I had my oven at 550 degrees and put the pizza on the lowest rack. My crust ended up too dark and the cheese on the edge was borderline burned. The cheese should be black but there is a fairly fine line between caramelized and burnt. It still tasted great but needed some work.
For my second cook I went at 500 degrees with the pizza in the middle of the oven. The outer cheese crust never quite got as caramelized as I wanted and the crust didn’t quite cook right either.
Then I tried 550 degrees in the middle of my oven that was right for me. In about 13 minutes the cheese is perfectly cooked, the bottom crust has some dark brown and light brown patches, the sauce is bubbly, and the top cheese is perfectly browned.
Again, this is where you will need to play around with your oven. If your bottom crust just isn’t getting crisp enough try preheating a pizza stone and putting your pan on that in the oven. If the top isn’t getting brown hit it with the broiler for a few seconds towards the end of the cook. Play around with different temps and oven rack positions and you will probably find what works fairly quickly.
So there you have it. That is how I do my Pequod’s knockoff Detroit style pizza. How close is it to Pequod’s? Well I haven’t had Pequod’s in about a year but from what I remember this is pretty darn close. Even if it isn’t exact it is still a very, very delicious pie.
With quality ingredients (brick cheese, good pepperoni, good tomatoes, etc.) this pizza will probably run you about $20 to make so it isn’t a cheap, quick meal by any means but if you are looking for a special pizza it is wonderful.
Start with this Detroit Style pizza recipe on Serious Eats and make some modifications to fit what you can do and you will be rewarded with a delicious Detroit style pizza.
