For a few weeks now, I’ve been pondering the possibility of reproducing an acceptible version of a Chicago Deep Dish Pizza at home. I’ve been searching for pizza dough recipes (There’s a minor controversy about corn meal; I’ll write about that later), and I’ve also been looking for the proper pans to bake them in. Then the Obama thing happened (read Pizza Rant #1) and I figured I should start blogging about my minor culinary quest.
DEEP DISH PIZZA… THE PAN
After a bit of exhaustive research, I’ve done it. I’ve ordered some deep dish pizza pans. From my google-assisted investigation, I’ve learned that tin-plated steel is the way to go (aka aluminized steel) instead of plain aluminum, as the steel is supposed to make the pan stronger and the aluminum helps to distribute heat better for more even baking of a larger pizza.
There are a few brands out there that sell deep dish pizza pans, which are really no more than large heavy-gauge metal cake pans. If you’re in a hurry and don’t want to do the research, you can easily find one on Amazon.com by searching for ‘deep dish pizza pan’, and you could go with the ‘Chicago Metallic UNO Deep Dish Pizza Set
A small word of caution: Although this is a great deal whether you got the recipe book or not, I don’t know if I would trust the recipes, as the Uno Chicago Grill restaurants around the country don’t quite make an authentic deep dish like their namesake at the original Pizzeria Uno in downtown Chicago. The franchises all over the country serve a pizza-hut-inspired version of a deep dish pizza, which is tasty enough, but really doesn’t qualify if you’re looking for authentic Chicago deep dish. For that, you need to go to Pizzeria Uno or Pizzeria Due which are owned by the same people and are located about a block away from each other, or have a par-baked pizza shipped to you frozen from Lou Malnati’s which you can bake in your oven… or make it yourself (which I am attempting to do). The last option is obviously the most difficult and it’s going to take a bit of trial and error and a lot of research to learn the truths about making authentic deep dish pizza. The first step of course, is getting the right pan. Let’s continue…
The REAL Pizzeria Uno in Chicago (not the franchised knockoff).
I wanted to see if I could find a 14″ pan, which is the same size as a large pizza from Lou Malnati’s or Pizzeria Uno. A more extensive search on Amazon found me a company called AMCO that makes aluminized steel pans. The deep dish pan is actually a ‘round cake pan
So while I wait for the pans I ordered to arrive, I will work on the next step: THE CRUST. (to be continued)
*update 4-25: a quick note – the AMCO pans i ordered from Amazon are aluminized steel (not tin) with a silicone coating (so I guess they actually are non-stick after all). Actual tin-plated bakeware darkens the more it is used; aluminum typically does not, but the coat
ing on these pans is supposed to darken the more you use it. I’ve learned that tin melts at 450 degrees, which is why it was replaced by aluminum in bakeware.
PREVIOUS PIZZA RELATED RANTINGS:
Click to read PIZZA RANT#1:
FOLLOWUP RANTINGS:
Click to read PIZZA RANT#2.5 :