Board 8 > RANK 'EM: Parts of a pizza, by importance

(+) Yeah! (+)

Specifically, how to do each of these "right" (for your taste buds):

Crust
Sauce
Cheese
Quality of toppings*
Reheatability

*I do NOT mean which toppings you put on your pizza. I mean the preparation, quality, whatever of your favorite toppings. Because a meat lovers is gonna taste very different than a veggie lovers'. Water is also wet. But that's why it's quality only.

Cheese
Toppings
Crust
Sauce
Reheatability

Crust
Cheese
Sauce
Toppings
Reheatability

If there's one great pizza killer, it's poor quality cheese.

Sauce
Cheese
Crust
Toppings
Reheatability

Cheese
Crust (Assuming this includes the base)
Sauce
Quality of toppings*
Reheatability

Crust
Cheese
Sauce
Reheatability
Quality of toppings*

Crust (if it means like the dough in general)

Sauce
Cheese
Toppings
Reheat

Crust
Sauce
Cheese
Toppings
Reheat

Crust is the most important part of the pizza because without it you have cheese goo

but in the spirit of "flavor" sauce is most important

Cheese
Crust
Reheatability
Sauce

I'm a boring cheese pizza normie most of the time so quality of toppings doesn't really enter in.

Cheese
Crust
Toppings
Sauce
Reheatability

I like a good sauce, but also like my sauce to be pretty light so I wasnt quite sure where to put it.

Sauce
Crust
Quality of toppings
Cheese
Reheatability

Cheese is kind of hard to say because I'm okay with it as long as it isn't like plastic. So medium quality to high quality makes almost no difference to me. The most important thing to me is making sure the cheese isn't excessive. Excessive cheese is always trash-tier pizza.

Cheese
Crust
Sauce
Toppings
Repeatability (doesn't even factor in for me really. I eat my leftover pizza cold lol)

The crust is the bread. What else could "crust" even mean?

Least important thing is crust, for everything else it needs to not suck and I'm a happy camper

If crust sucks, everything is ruined, and it's easier to make bad crust than anything else.

Crust
Toppings
Cheese
Sauce
Reheatability

If your pizza is lasting long enough without getting eaten to be reheatable and also tastes bad cold, you're getting some nasty pizza

And here's mine:

1. Crust - If the crust is too crunchy, it's nigh inedible. If the crust is too doughy, it's also inedible. If the crust is excessively thick, it tastes more like bread. The right crust is the right base for everything else and the largest determining factor in whether a pizza is delicious or not.
2. Sauce - A plain sauce makes the pizza devoid if all taste. The right amount of zest - and the right amount of sauce - goes a long way in determining it.
3. Cheese - I can eat a pizza with any amount of cheese. Adding Parmesan or Provolone can make a massive difference, too. It's hard to differentiate quality cheese from low-quality cheese when it's melted though.
4. Quality of toppings - Bacon tastes like bacon. Pepperoni adds zest and grease. Sausage needs to be spiced the right way. Tomatoes, onions, spinach, and basil - whichever veggies I have on - are very hard to do wrong.
5. Reheatbility - I always have leftover pizza since I live alone but it doesn't make too big a difference tbh. It tastes similarly to how it did the first time.

Crust >>>>>>>>>> Sauce > Cheese >>> Toppings > Reheatability

As a New Yorker and Italian-American, crust is far and away the biggest factor in how good a pizza is. Toppings are mainly for covering up otherwise mediocre pizza.

Crust > stuff > Reheatability

I'm not eating it for the crust, and yet it can really swing my opinion of a pizza. There's only so bad tomato sauce and cheese and toppings can really get.

Quality of toppings*
Crust
Cheese
Reheatability
Sauce

First thing I will notice is if toppings aren't fresh. Crust needs to not be sad [prefer HRI or Reggio's for frozen, prefer crispy over chewy]. Cheese quality is noticeable, as is reheatability. Sauce is last bc I only notice it if it's terrible.

Crust = Cheese >= Sauce >> Topping Quality >>> Reheatability

First three are all critical, but
Tom Bombadil posted...

There's only so bad tomato sauce and cheese and toppings can really get.

This is why I'm giving Crust first billing.

Topping quality matters, but significantly less than the other three.

Reheatability barely matters at all because fresh pizza is 20x better than even the best reheated pizza imo (and I go out of my way not to get pizza if I anticipate there being leftovers unless I'm splitting it with somebody who will take all of the leftovers)

Sauce
Crust
Cheese
Quality of toppings
Reheatability

A weak sauce ruins the whole pizza honestly. A bad crust can too but I rarely run into that. Cheese is almost always good and I've never had a pepperoni I didn't like. I don't reheat pizza so it literally doesn't matter

Sauce
Cheese
Crust
Quality of toppings*
Reheatability

trizob posted...

Crust >>>>>>>>>> Sauce > Cheese >>> Toppings > Reheatability

As a New Yorker and Italian-American, crust is far and away the biggest factor in how good a pizza is. Toppings are mainly for covering up otherwise mediocre pizza.

Topic can stop now. This is the answer.

Also, can we talk about the special place in hell for people who don't eat the crust?

Cheese
Crust
Toppings
Sauce
Reheatability

Seanchan posted...

Also, can we talk about the special place in hell for people who don't eat the crust?

The crust is the unhealthiest part of the pizza. Not eating it (when you have a ton of pizza) makes perfect sense.

You suck if you have two pieces of pizza and don't eat the crusts though.

trizob posted...

Crust >>>>>>>>>> Sauce > Cheese >>> Toppings > Reheatability

As a New Yorker and Italian-American, crust is far and away the biggest factor in how good a pizza is. Toppings are mainly for covering up otherwise mediocre pizza.

I'm also from NY with an Italian background and I agree with this

It would be investing to see what region each answer is coming from

Llarian posted...

prefer HRI or Reggio's for frozen

Never heard of Reggio's, but yeah Home Run Inn is pretty good stuff. My personal favorite is probably Screamin' Sicilian.

KokoroAkechi posted...

It would be investing to see what region each answer is coming from

I'm a Midwesterner who's thoroughly American (my mom was raised German-American but I was not), so I'm more used to deep-dish pizza (and tbh I'm not really fond of New York style). Crust is still the #1 and sauce is #2.

BlueCrystalTear posted...

My personal favorite is probably Screamin' Sicilian.

Screamin' Sicilian is amazing. I say this as a Sicilian. The cardboard mustazzu on the back of the box that you can pop in your nose while you wait for your pizza to finish baking is peak comedy.

Reggio's is basically HRI on a budget. There's a difference, but only if you squint.

Crust
Sauce
Cheese
Toppings
Reheat

Sauce
Crust
Quality of toppings
Cheese
Reheatability

Sauce
Cheese
Toppings
Crust
Reheat

Sauce, crust, cheese, topping, reheatability.

Baker and part Italian. Sauce is an art, and if you fuck up crust you're not making a pizza.

EDIT: and even with the lowest quality crap I still really want the pretzel crust pizzas to come back at Little Caesar's. I don't care that it's frozen dough rolled out and spread with Velvetta, frozen cheese, and rock salt, it's delicious.