POLL: Which component of a slice of pizza is the most important?

sauce u got the love

assuming all the caveats about the monstrosity of breaking it down like this, I'd rather lick good sauce off bad bread than wipe bad sauce off good bread. cheese is least important imo

it's how many hamburgers you can fit onto it

Crust by far -- flavor, overall doneness, rise and char at the edge. Important shit.

are we just going to call the entire base the 'crust' then

Yes?

debatable but ok

How is this even close? Crust. It's the one thing you can't really do as well as a pizza oven at home (temp is too low), and is key to holding everything together. Plus, I would never eat just the sauce by itself, or really just the cheese by itself. But the crust? Hell yeah. For sure. Caramelized crust, or big carbon bubbles or foldable or firm or basically in any form. You don't even need sauce, or even much cheese, if you've ever had, say, a great fig/arugula/prosciutto pizza, or pizza with caramelized Brussels sprouts and honey. Pizza margarita, one of the all time classics, doesn't have much sauce, either (though in that case quality globs of cheese is vital). But hell, pizza bianca is basically *just* seasoned/herbed crust, and it's awesome.

One of the best things about kids is their weird tendency to leave behind bread crusts, which is gross when it comes to sandwiches but awesome when it comes to pizza. Basically bonus bread sticks!

voted crust but

while cheese rarely elevates a pizza from good to goodness gracious (except perhaps occasionally by sheer quantity), it can ruin a pizza pretty easily: thinking obv of provel but also emmental which is disgustingly normal in France, i.e. if a pizza place just lists "cheese" as a topping here then it's probably emmental rather than mozza & it's a fucking crime, they say it melts well but it's grossly sweet, ewww. you can find mozza pizzas pretty easily but you can't take it for granted.

Dough implies uncooked, so crust it was.

a great fig/arugula/prosciutto pizza

"ewww ewwww ewwwwww ew ewww ewww" - american ilx, 2006-2017 (at a generous guess)

assuming all the caveats about the monstrosity of breaking it down like this,

Not getting past this monstrosity.

A pizza is a unified whole.

^^^

is this poll strictly about cheese slices? bc not all pizzas have cheese and/or sauce
which means the default winner shld be crust.

we had pizza for lunch today. we oiled some slices of sourdough and placed upon them the following ingredients:

- tomato puree
- artichokes (marinated in oil)
- goat's cheese
- black garlic (fermented garlic)

then popped it under the grill for ten minutes, then at the end added

- quartered burrata
- sprinkling of arugula and other delicate lettuce

obviously it was incredible. now, what made it great? it wouldn't have worked with a lesser bread, but equally it wasn't made out of pizza dough, just normal sourdough bread. the cheeses were sublime, but the toppings were what really made it. but there is no option for 'toppings' here, just 'sauce'. i do not want to think of it as 'sauce'. i want to think of it as 'toppings' - this was no incorporated mulch, these were discrete, solid toppings, carefully placed in order that different mouthfuls would have subtly different effects

in consequence, i abstain

Crust, I like it to have a bit of crunch to it.

does french bread count as crust

definitely not cheese. i can kick it with any cheese, and if there's too much on the slice i can pick some of it off.

i'm thinking crust.

which component of a magnum is the most important?

⚪️ chocolate
⚪️ ice cream
🔘 stick

lol

Are there jokes printed on it y/n?

I suppose the most important component is really the spirit in which it is offered

crust -- sauce loses by default because of the existence of white pizza; cheese is important but mediocre cheese can't ruin a pizza like a mediocre crust can

insufficient sauce = bread

no rocket no cred

sauce being underappreciated. there shouldn't be too much so that cheese slides, and gives some acid to counterbalance other non-acidic ingredients

imago, your toasted bread with toppings sounds delicious, but it ain't no kind of pizza.

As others have well-noted, pizza is a gestalt. If any of these elements are out of whack, you have a bad pizza. However, crust is literally foundational.

Real heads know the answer is sauce.

The answer is "toppings", you need to have the right balance of sweetcorn to cheese or it isn't real pizza or whatever

indeed, the sweetcorn:pineapple:prawn ratio has to be just right to balance out the essential textures and flavours

A pizza is a unified whole.

― Feel a million filaments (Sund4r),

pizza is a flat circle. everything we have done or will do we will do over and over and over again- forever.

A good pizza is basically like a casserole where the crust replaces the dish or whatever

Like slow-braised beef and carrot on a pizza, is like delicious to me? That's what I think is good

lol, i came to the pizza thread to consider the merits of sauce vs cheese vs crust. i came away thinking of a carrot sticking out of a hunk of beef on a casserole sitting on a crusty plate

i don't agree with your pizza decisions but i respect the innovation!

Is pizza a hot dog?

respect to imago playing the very long game

a good hot dog is basically a delicious thin slice of pizza, so yes

wait is that true

it has always been true - take a solidly constructed thin slice of pizza, fold it in half, add a few toppings in the middle and you've got yourself a delicious hot dog

(add the optional accordion fold if you need a hot dog glider)

https://i.imgur.com/3k9dDat.jpg

The New York City water, baby!

Interesting. Put some doubanjiang on it, little bit of "tianjin preserved vegetable", you might have something approaching edible

voted cheese because I'm a monster but this is a silly question

A good pizza needs no toppings, get real.

confused about this 'crust' thing. that's the bit most people throw away

Ch...chicken Kiev, on a pizza

But you have to like, boil the Kiev in the sauce, which as we've established must be made with a base of doubanjiang and not tomato, and then spoon it into the crust

I am wading into the ocean as I type this

i want to have posted on this thread

so many spin-off threads, I guess pizza stimulates everyone's imagination

I just saw the word 'pizza' in the thread title and came in to make a remark about pizza. Some people seem to eat a lot of it.

I care about pizza.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

No clue how I voted

sweet justice

indeed

No idea why we needed a poll to spell out the obvious.

wisconsin wept

Sauce deniers will inevitably taste retribution

cheese is more important to me than sauce, but crust is most important, so mostly agree with this poll

also love pepperoni and anchovies

Just ate a pizza with fine crust and sauce but the cheese was not right. That's why I voted cheese. Pizza is a vehicle for melted cheese.

base

how low can you go

Eric makes a compelling case there.

I just really don’t like the words “bread” “sauce” and “cheese” all together so much, it does not evoke delicious pizza thoughts

bread let alone “crust” ick

I know pizza dough is considered a type of bread but it doesn't seem anything like bread to me. I guess it's just a matter of flour protein and yeast content and treatment

i would've voted for cheese even though i recognize that crust is the thing. but the cheese is ultimately why i'm there

I'd wager that pizza dough has been more intensively studied by 'food scientists' than any other bready substance.

would y'all eat an all crust pizza

otherwise known as bread

honestly yeah

Could you please stop bumping this thread, I wouldn't want to inadvertently order pizza right now.

wait can u place a pizza order via ILX thread now

I look forward to the cheese most, but I think that that is because most pizza crusts are good but not great and I love cheese.

I have only had a few experiences where the crust is perfect, but those have been memorable

I think a couple of those experiences were with wood fired pizza

ILX PIZZA ORDER

hi System, plz order me three cheese pizza, large
take the pizza back if they use the word "base"
-Neanderthal

I make pizza crust from scratch, while my housemate uses Trader Joe frozen pizza crusts. And yet his pizza is consistently better than mine, because he knows the secret of making really delicious pizza sauce. So I voted for sauce.

god it's all so important

beautiful balancing act, pizza

I suppose the most important component is really the spirit in which it is offered

Underrated insight

Speaking of all crust pizza, there was a pizza place in Boston I used to go to that served rolls made from their pizza dough, and they were damn good.

See also “garlic knots” and “breadsticks”

thought you meant actual “pizza rolls” for a second there, I was like wow

a pizza dough roll is hard to imagine. what do you all think of cornmeal crusts?

Vicolo Pizza was my first experience with cornmeal crust in the late 80s/90s. They are long closed now but I think their idea of a crust made of wheat flour, corn meal and soybean oil was really good

recently discovered a local pizza mini chain that makes it with

1. medium thickness crust/base, like a slightly upscale version of a corner place slice; not flimsy but not like eating a loaf of bread
2. slightly fancy toppings, many of them spicy
3. an uncooked tomato sauce base with a lovely sweetness (they have alfredo pizzas as well but have yet to try)

and I may never go back in any of these respects

As much as I love alfredo and all other non-tomato-based pasta sauces, I have never taken the plunge on a slice of pizza with anything other than the red.

Carbonara may be my favorite dish ever, but I'd never get a pizza version of it.

what do you all think of cornmeal crusts?

i'm a fan of putting some cornmeal in dough. adds a nice texture so long as not too much is added and yeast is rendered useless. like up to 20% by volume i guess, but probably more like 10-15%

I saw a place list "aioli base sauce" which seems terrigying

mmm white sauce pizza (olive oil, garlic, spices) with a spinach/marinated red onion/prosciutto top is an all time favorite

Kinda reminds me of this clam pie a buddy made once that I still plan on recreating.

Frutti di mare

have had frutti di mare as pasta but never as pizza

Seemed pretty common on pizza in Naples and Sicily

Glad to see this poll has the correct answer