Deep dish question

SoundsFamiliar · July 2016

Just throwing this out there... When I was in college, I worked at the best pizza restaurant called The Upper Crust (Now, sadly, out of business). Their pies were cooked in a spring-loaded pie pan with a crust on the bottom, fillings and cheese next, then another crust, crimped around the edge, then sauce on top. Awesome! Super thick! The problem was that it was very hard to get the inside cooked. They had these cast iron inserts that looked like an electric stove eye (spiral) with, about 1 1/2" spikes pointing down, about every 2" around the spiral. You just dipped it in oil, shoved it down in the pizza, stick it in the oven for the same time as a regular pizza and it would heat up and cook the inside, pull it out with a pair of pliers, and... Voilà! Perfect every time! My question is: Has anyone every heard of this? I have no idea what this gadget was called, or if they had it specially manufactured. They had 3 different sizes, sized to the pans. Would love to get ahold of a set... Made deep dish so easy, with no worries of burnt crust with raw middle!

nolaegghead · July 2016

Sounds familiar, as a technique firmly grounded in science.

Although it takes longer, you can cook the inside more without burning the outside of a deep dish pizza by cooking it at a lower temperature.

As a general trend with just about any food that is cooked, you can control the ratio of inside/outside cooking by changing the temperature you cook at.

Cook slow - cook even. If you want, you can blast it at the end and cook your outside more without too much impact to the inside.

bigbadben · July 2016

Funny, I started reading your post and cringing. We had a local chain called upper crust. It was s franchise, most were friends and I went to high school with them. Let's just say they were not the nicest crowd then and ran the Boston chain into the ground by exploiting the workers. You must be referring to a different restaurant.

The principle you are referring to is the same as baking a potato with a nail through it. The metal conducts heat and that helps cook from the inside.

If you are handy, I would use a spring form pan as you described. You could find a small aluminum plate (or cut one) and pierce it with SS screws or nails.

Please followup with whatever you figure out

SoundsFamiliar · July 2016

Thanks, Ben. Don't think this was a chain, but it was 25 years ago, and I was in college. Exactly the same principle! The cast iron worked really well, though... My uncle is an iron sculptor. Might put him on it.

SmokeyPitt · July 2016

I like the idea of using the springform pan. I have done a couple of deep dish in a cast iron skillet and removing it from the skillet in one piece is a bit of a challenge.

bigbadben · July 2016

SoundsFamiliar said:

Thanks, Ben. Don't think this was a chain, but it was 25 years ago, and I was in college. Exactly the same principle! The cast iron worked really well, though... My uncle is an iron sculptor. Might put him on it.

I am sure it was not the same place. Google upper crust Boston for some interesting reading and lesson on how not to run a business.

dougcrann · July 2016

bigbadben said:

SoundsFamiliar said:

Thanks, Ben. Don't think this was a chain, but it was 25 years ago, and I was in college. Exactly the same principle! The cast iron worked really well, though... My uncle is an iron sculptor. Might put him on it.

I am sure it was not the same place. Google upper crust Boston for some interesting reading and lesson on how not to run a business.

This fellows sound like a true class act....

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Crust_Pizzeria

SoundsFamiliar · July 2016

Nope, not the same, but... Wow!

Deep dish question

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