Quote:
Originally Posted by snj90
Seriously, I assume pizza is generally at least decent in the Midwest and elsewhere. Probably generally not quite to New Jersey levels, but this is quite clearly ridiculous.
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I am a bona fide NY/NJ pizza maven, born and raised in the metro area and seriously picky about which representatives of the "one true style of pizza" pass muster.
But I lived in southwestern Ohio for a while and feel the need to defend the concept of Midwestern pizza as a viable foodstuff even if it is not "pizza-as-we-know-it".
The main difference between a good pizza and a bad one, regardless of the style, is the quality of its ingredients and preparation (and obviously the atrocious and disqualifying presence of pineapple).
In the area of Ohio I was living, the chief style was far from the "Wonder bread with ketchup and Velveeta" as described by one poster early in this thread. Ohio, like much of the Midwest is region where the raw ingredients of food are
produced, and thus conflating America's breadbasket with industrialized dreck is way off base. It is true that the region has a reputation for bland and gloopy food, but when food is taken seriously in the Midwest, its quality, even if not in the style we prefer, can be top-tier. The Midwest is
far from the food wasteland that provincial, untraveled coastal dwellers like to imagine.
The style of the area, SW Ohio (near Cincinnatti), consisted of a medium thickness crust of a high gluten flour, like that used to make the ultra thin crust of NY/NJ, and CT crusts, yet still thin enough that the chew and emphasis is drawn to the sauce, cheese, and toppings.
The sauce tends to be longer cooked than the fresher flavored, short cooked sauced more typical back east, but not so much that it tastes like an over sweet, sun-dried tomato which is a flavor I find common in many pizzas across the country. The Ohio sauce still tastes like tomatoes that were growing in recent memory, not a sauce of sun-tortured raisins. Nor is the sauce over salted or excessively seasoned with unnecessary amounts of garlic powder or oregano.
The cheese is applied liberally and all the way to the edge of the crust where it browns and melds into the flat, unraised edge. As far as I can tell, it is the same type of low-moisture mozzarella common in the pizzas you find in most Northeastern pizza parlors. Fresh, full-fat buffalo mozzarella it is not, but then neither is that the case most anywhere.
Toppings are typical, pepperoni and sausage seem to be popular at parties where many pies were provided for large groups. Finally, the oddest element, though something that seems common to the Midwest, is that the round pies were cut into squares. That was perhaps the most striking and unusual aspect of the Ohio pizza style I encountered. The only advantage to this that I could discern is that is allowed a large group to enjoy their preference of crusty, browned edge pieces or sumptuous, gooey center pieces as they desired.
Anyway, that is my defense of Midwest (Ohio) style pizza as a viable alternative foodstuff to the "One true style of American pizza" as found in our great Northeastern homeland.
No, It is not your mother's pizza, in fact it is a pizza-face only a mother could love, but Milillo's pizza in Hamilton, Ohio is a tasty treat in a land where "proper" pizza can be very hard to find:
Source:
https://s3-media1.fl.yelpcdn.com/bph...DcR1A/348s.jpg
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