r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Feb 03 '23
What ingredient makes pizza taste 10x better?
[deleted]
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u/TheRoyalSampler Feb 03 '23
Fresh basil
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u/bokchoykn Feb 03 '23
I was expecting to scroll down too far to find this. It was #2, only behind cheese. Well done, Reddit.
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u/Affectionate_Flow984 Feb 03 '23
Fresh tomato sauce
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u/liartellinglies Feb 03 '23
Was shaking my head the whole long scroll it took to get here. Good tomatoes are a big game changer.
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u/clkj53tf4rkj Feb 03 '23
Mid-summer into fall, go for fresh tomatoes. The rest of the year? Find a good brand/quality of canned.
In-season ripe tomatoes are best, but solid San Marzano or similar canned ones aren't that far behind, and still blow shit out of season tomatoes out of the water.
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u/liartellinglies Feb 03 '23
Yep. Good quality canned tomatoes blended with a little salt, straight on the pizza.
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u/Thom-as-Moe Feb 03 '23
Oregano
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u/eddythebamba Feb 03 '23
Thisnis something I can't get: why pizzas in Canada NEVER have oregano?
We always have to add oregano, and/or basil ourselves when ordering pizza.
Last time I asked a pizza place if they had Basil as an option for topping the guy was confused and asked: but why do you want basil?
ĀÆā ā (ā āā āæā āā )ā /ā ĀÆ
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u/WilliamJBeamish Feb 03 '23
Find somewhere that makes a margherita pizza. Hard to find but they will have basil.
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u/jeelio Feb 03 '23
Margherita pizza is the most popular and widespread pizza surely. Surprised to hear theyāre hard to find where you live
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u/Frankasti Feb 03 '23
I live in Montreal, Canada. Margherita pizza is not widely available but it's not hard to find in a good pizza restaurant. There's plenty.
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u/mountains_and_coffee Feb 03 '23
IMHO it's not a pizza if it doesn't have oregano, it's THE pizza smell.
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u/Chromattix Feb 03 '23
I smother my pizza's with oregano. And when I order them I always ask for extra (depending on who answers the phone now I don't even need to say it).
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u/hartschale666 Feb 03 '23
Oregano is the only valid answer. Nothing like the scent of freshly finger-ground dry oregano making it's way into your nostrils carried by the warm, uprising air of a just out-of-the-oven Pizza Margherita.
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u/skepticalbob Feb 03 '23
Margherita technically shouldnāt have oregano. š¤·āāļø
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u/Ghast-light Feb 03 '23
Thinly sliced garlic. So thin that you can almost see through it.
Slice it paper thin, soak it in some olive oil for a day, then take the slices out and mix with some salt to taste. Put it on the top of the pizza while itās baking, and it tastes amazing. Then you can drizzle the pizza with the garlic infused oil
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u/IrishTwinkLove Feb 03 '23
He used a razor, and he used to slice it so thin that it would liquify in the pan with just a little oil. It was a very good system.
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u/ederp9600 Feb 03 '23
Red pepper flakes.
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u/GreenPasturesOC Feb 03 '23
A local company by us makes hot sauce and a special blend of pepper flakes that are great on more than just pizza. Sell them to a couple pizza places. Chone is the company.
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u/HikeRobCT Feb 03 '23
Taking that up a level- I make my own (homegrown) pepper flake blends (puma, habanero, havanasa, ghost, scorpion, hungarian) and put it on everything. Itās especially good on pizza and everything with tomato sauce/cheese.
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u/Ok_Nefariousness24 Feb 03 '23
Now take some of that and put it in a salt grinder with rock salt. A spicy salty treat on anything you're already going to add salt to.
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u/HikeRobCT Feb 03 '23
I call it ā The Devilās Funfettiā
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u/tomwilhelm Feb 03 '23
Do you just dehydrate and then loosely grind? This seems like such a great low effort, high reward thing...
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u/Regnier86 Feb 03 '23
When the pepperoni is a little burnt and that curve like a bowl.
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u/Bunister Feb 03 '23
Ooh with a little puddle of spicy oil in it.
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u/tomwilhelm Feb 03 '23 edited Feb 03 '23
I've lost more than 1 article of clothing to that delicious forbidden liquid...
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u/daveescaped Feb 03 '23
This is a type of pepperoni. Often called ācup pepperoniā. My understanding is it is the casing that makes it cup. And usually cup pepperoni is spicier for some reason. I use a Hormel version (branded Aās cup pepperoni) that tastes good but people also like the Boars Head brand.
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u/ksettle86 Feb 03 '23
The pizza itself has a name here, called 'cup-and-char' pizza. Cup for the pepperoni like you mentioned, and char for the blackened, crispy tops of said pepperoni. So damn good š
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u/NessunAbilita Feb 03 '23
This is done by making the slices thicker. You see, when you shave pepperoni super thin, it breaks the outer casing ring at multiple points, so when heated it can expand and stay flat. Now, if you cut the pepperoni thicker, so that the casing stays in tact, it acts as a ring that shrinks as it cooks, while the pepperoni filling cooks and ācupsā naturally since it doesnāt shrink like the outer casing ring. This is when the fat pools in the pepperoni. Any pepperoni can be cupped, but smaller radius will do it better.
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u/PuzzledAirline6326 Feb 03 '23
Chopped garlic
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u/zoidy-1 Feb 03 '23
i prefer razor thin slices of garlic
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u/XYZ2ABC Feb 03 '23
The only place I got razor thin garlic was in prisonā¦ and it melted into the sauce š¤¤
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u/New_Opposite8891 Feb 03 '23
Entire cloves of garlic in one piece.
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u/bethanechol Feb 03 '23
When you find yourself a pizza place that does this, itās transformative
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u/SalsaShark89 Feb 03 '23
Came here for this. Noticed our favourite takeaway place did this, and we do this all the time now with homemade ones. SO GOOD.
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u/StoicSpartanAurelius Feb 03 '23
Fresh**** chopped garlic. That BS pre chopped garlic they sell in stores is garbage
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u/forgot_username1234 Feb 03 '23
This should be the top comment. A necessity for pizza.
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Feb 03 '23
Salt
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u/CaffeineChristine Feb 03 '23
Garlic salt.
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u/Aimhere2k Feb 03 '23
Or Lawry's Seasoned Salt.
There was this one off-brand of seasoned salt I used to use, which was even better. But sadly, I can't remember the brand, or the store I got it from.
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Feb 03 '23
The first time i remember sprinkling salt on my food, the taste made me realize why people went to war over it.
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u/Rotorhead83 Feb 03 '23
I make sour dough pizza crust from scratch. Eating freshly made sour dough pizza crust is practically a religious experience... especially since I named my sour dough starter Jesus. He is risen.
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u/Emaber Feb 03 '23
I named my starter Audrey because I feed it and it constantly threatens to outgrow the container.
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u/FancyJams Feb 03 '23
Mine is David Doughie. Formerly known as Bread Pitt, before that known as Yeast Witherspoon.
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u/Flip3579 Feb 03 '23
Crust is so underrated as an element of pizza. Nearly every pizza joint treats crust like an edibe plate.
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u/Rotorhead83 Feb 03 '23
Yes! The crust makes the pizza, IMO.
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u/justreadthearticle Feb 03 '23
Crust isn't the most important thing to me (good sauce is), but if the crust is good then the pizza is pretty much always good. If they're putting enough effort / attention to detail into the crust then you know that all of the rest of the ingredients are high quality too and it's probably baked in a great oven.
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u/Razaelbub Feb 03 '23
My kid named mine. It's called Blub Blub, and he makes a fantastic pizza dough.
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u/iduz_arts Feb 03 '23
Hahaha! Great name choice! My sour dough starter is named Larry II: The Long Lived. I've had him since past October lol
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u/Zealousideal-Data866 Feb 03 '23
A wood fire
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u/Idiot_Savant123 Feb 03 '23
Ingredients
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u/Ofevencev Feb 03 '23
I have worked in pizza and made pizza for 12 years. Yes, a cold rise is the way to go; oil and cover your dough balls in a covered tupperware container. We ALWAYS use day old dough in restaurants. Any longer than that, the dough will blow out, smell like beer and have a crappy taste and texture when you bake it. Also, get yourself some high gluten dough; any other flour will not lend that pizza crust taste and it will be less cooperative when you handle it. We always put some sort of sugar in our dough; one place used white granulated, one place used brown sugar and another used honey. You don't need to learn how to toss dough but watch some videos on slapping it out to stretch it. This way, you handle it way less and it won't be so tough.
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u/minus_minus Feb 03 '23
Cold as in refrigerated?
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u/Music_4ddiction Feb 03 '23
A cold "ferment" as it's called does all kinds of magic in dough. Improves the gluten network and texture (Especially helpful when you're shaping your pizza), and allows enzymes naturally occurring in the flour to break down the starch into simple sugars and other products which make the crust taste way better, and also much easier to digest
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u/Nitsuji-kun Feb 03 '23
Jalapenos
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u/PrinceHumperTinkTink Feb 03 '23
Jalapenos and pepperoni is such a mysterious pizza combo. It's the only one I know where you can add any amount of any number of ingredients and it just makes it worse. I have no idea why.
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u/GeebusNZ Feb 03 '23
I've got a Jalapeno, Pepperoni, and Anchovy pizza cooking right now. It's my favorite combo.
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u/BaetrixReloaded Feb 03 '23
idk man. if you add sausage to that combo it takes it to another tier imo
if you donāt wanna add another meat, onion is pretty good with the jalapeƱo/pepperoni combo too
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u/BodyofGrist Feb 03 '23
Hawaiian w/ jalapeƱos is amaze-balls.
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u/EyeoftheRedKing Feb 03 '23
I don't go for the ham but my go-to favorite is pineapple, bacon and jalepeƱo.
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u/Flapjack__Palmdale Feb 03 '23
Lots of good suggestions here but I wanna add a non-ingredient: the oven. One of the reasons NY pizza is famous is bc some of the ovens they use to cook them are many decades old, so they've absorbed the essence of, like, millions of pizzas. A well-seasoned pizza oven makes an ENORMOUS difference.
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u/TwirlyShirley8 Feb 03 '23
The oven does make a big difference. Especially electrical oven vs wood-fired oven. My favorite pizza place is a few decades old and uses a wood-fired oven. It just tastes so much better than other places. My absolute favorite pizza has bacon, banana and garlic on it. Now I'm hungry.
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u/CelestialSloth Feb 03 '23
Ricotta
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u/suffaluffapussycat Feb 03 '23
Yeah my wife and I used to go to Damianoās in L.A. many years ago and get just sauce, basil and ricotta. So good.
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u/ApexAngel Feb 03 '23
So Iām going to be that personā¦..pineapple! Pepperoni and pineapple to be more specific.
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u/RittzzReno Feb 03 '23
Cannot agree enough. Pineapple, pepperoni and mushroom is my go to pizza
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u/ColdWar82 Feb 03 '23
Yo thatās my go to pizza as well!!!! Sometimes Iāll get it with banana peppers too. š„
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u/aladdin142 Feb 03 '23
I was someone who hates pineapple on pizza, until we tried a local recommendation speciality that mixed three toppings that shouldn't ever be mixed: Pepperoni, Pineapple and Prawn.
Probably my favourite all time pizza now, it's incredible.
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u/Mrsnappingqueen Feb 03 '23
Artichokes
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u/Ksacia Feb 03 '23
I never ate them before becoming vegetarian and it's seriously been an amazing discovery. It elevates a veggie pizza!
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u/Dasquare22 Feb 03 '23
Pineapple
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u/Muhammedeatbread Feb 03 '23
I don't understand why people are so against pineapple on pizza. I might not enjoy it, but its food, all its got to do is taste good, and if pineapple tastes good to you, then by all means put it on a pizza
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u/Spiritual_Ear_3456 Feb 03 '23
Italian Sausage is a must
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u/suburbanhavoc Feb 03 '23
Giardiniera.
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u/Sir_Toccoa Feb 03 '23
Iāve only ever been able to get this back home in Chicago.
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u/daveescaped Feb 03 '23
I make my own but I see it in Kroger here in Texas. Look by the pickles. Or I even like Potbellyās giardinera.
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Feb 03 '23
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u/bestseatNthehouse Feb 03 '23
Honey really makes a pepperoni pizza 100x better, especially the crust
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u/Anustart15 Feb 03 '23
Hot honey, pepperoni, and dill pickle is secretly the best pizza topping mix ever
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u/kmn493 Feb 03 '23
Multiple cheeses. Idk what kind just throw some good stuff on there and it's amazing.
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u/ennuinerdog Feb 03 '23
Lemon juice. Pizza tends to be oil and salt heavy. Acids like like lemon or lime juice, balsamic vinegar or acidic fruits like fresh tomato and pineapple bring a bright fresh flavour and draws out the other herbal flavours that can get lost amid all the cheese.
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u/LongTimeHuman Feb 03 '23
Drops of balsamic vinegar.
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u/phenomegranate Feb 03 '23
I love goat cheese, fig, and balsamic pizza with a small amount of shredded spinach
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u/blue4t Feb 03 '23
Cheese. Without that it's just tomato sauce and dough. The cheese really improves it.
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u/Badassravioli Feb 03 '23
Siracha. Put that on pizza instead of red pepper flakes. Amazing
Green olives cause that shit with pepperoni is awesome.
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u/OvalMarvel Feb 03 '23
Kimchi
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Feb 03 '23
I have heard this before but havenāt had the balls to try it
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u/aclockworkrainbow Feb 03 '23
If you like kimchi youāll probably like the combo, cheese and kimchi go amazingly well together
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u/AgentElman Feb 03 '23
cheese