Detroit-style pizza

Detroit-style pizza is a rectangular pan pizza with a thick, crisp, chewy crust. It is traditionally topped to the edges with mozzarella or Wisconsin brick cheese, which caramelizes against the high-sided heavyweight rectangular pan. Detroit-style pizza was originally baked in rectangular steel trays designed for use as automotive drip pans or to hold small industrial parts in factories. It was developed during the mid-20th century in Detroit, Michigan, before spreading to other parts of the United States in the 2010s. It is one of Detroit's most famous local foods. Detroit-style pizza is a deep-dish rectangular pizza topped with Wisconsin brick cheese and a cooked tomato-based sauce. The dough typically has a hydration level of 70 percent or higher, which creates an open, porous, chewy crust with a crisp exterior. The fresh dough is double-proofed and stretched by hand to the pan corners. When seasoning new steel pans, they usually need to be dry-baked using 10–18 ounces of dough per pan. Randazzo says that the crust should be about 1+1⁄2 inches (40 millimeters) thick for true Detroit-style pizza. The buttery flavor of the crust results from a small quantity of oil and the melting properties of the mozzarella and Wisconsin brick cheeses. Shield's Pizza describes the importance of the sauce for flavor and how quality is ensured by consistently baking pizza for 13 minutes at 440 °F (225 °C). Loui's Pizza places the pepperoni first, underneath almost one pound of brick cheese and then bakes the pizza at 700 °F (370 °C). The brick cheese can withstand the heat due to the heavy butterfat content.

Source: Wikipedia