You will find many flat types of bread or round shape dough with various toppings in the history of gourmet food. The history of pizza can be traced back to Naples Italy in the middle ages. Although its origins are not clear but Italians are considered to be the pioneer of term pizza which comes from the Italian word pizziare.
The basic ingredients and toppings include cheese, olives, potatoes, herbs, dates and honey. Although it is believed that tomato sauce and tomatoes were introduced long before the sixteenth century. Peasants from that era enjoyed it with the rounds of dough that was their primary staple at that time. Later because of its simplicity and taste it became more popular around the world and pizza parlors were introduced that started to make healthy business.
In the late nineteenth century, pizza reached United States as tomatoes made their way to Europe. One of the first pizzerias that was introduced in New York was opened by Gennaro Lombardi in 1905. The early pizza was made with thin crust and toppings include mozzarella cheese, tomato puree, sausages and pepperoni. Deep pan pizza was introduced in 1943 by Ike Sewell in his restaurant, Pizzeria Uno in Chicago.
Frozen pizza was introduced in 1957 and by 1990 it became so popular that one out of every 20 meals eaten by Americans is now pizza. It started as a humble meal from the peasants of Staple but now it comes with many varieties that include ingredients like BBQ chicken, shrimp to pineapples. However the main recipe and its preparation remains the same.
Types of Pizza
From the very beginning it has gone through many transformations to become one of the most loved dishes by people these days. Today you may find many pizza parlors in your city or neighborhood that presents many style of pizza for you to enjoy. However you may find that the most sought out flavor in pizza is pepperoni. Other flavors include fajita, Mexican style and supreme which include most of the ingredients like olives, mushrooms and sausages with beef, ham or chicken.
Pizza Crust
Dough and crust is the foundation of any pizza and the taste of any pizza depends on how good that crust is. There are two most popular types of crust used in making the most delicious of pizza these days. One of them is called thin crust and the other is called thick crust or deep pan. So, before finding the best way to reheat pizza, we should have to aware of the variety of pizzas.
Thin Crust Pizza
This type of pizza contains slimmer crust in the center where ingredients are placed. It has crunchy but doughy edge. You can obtain thinner crust by gently stretch out the dough to form the edge. Pizza with thinner crust contains less topping because the crust can’t handle the weight of extra toppings. It is liked by people who like pizza but also want to keep an eye on their consumption of calories.
Thick Crust Pizza
This kind of pizza comes with more dough that can contain more toppings for flavor. The thickness of deep pan may vary from 0.12 inch to 0.25 inches. Unlike thin crust, this type of pizza has edges to contain all kinds of toppings and extra cheese. Deep pan pizza is widely popular among foodies who like to get the full flavor of their meal.
What is the Best Way to Reheat Pizza
Pizza is a meal that can be enjoyed as a leftover as much as it is freshly maid, if you know how to properly reheat it. If you are not careful then reheating a pizza can make it hard, dry or soggy which cause it to lose most of its flavor. Luckily you won’t have to choose between soggy or hard crusted pizza because we are discussing a few proper ways to reheating pizza.
Reheat Pizza in Oven
It is the best way to reheat pizza. This method will bring out almost exactly the same taste as you experience the first time when you eat that pizza. With reheating the pizza in the oven, you will get the same crispy crust, sizzling pepperoni and goosy cheese. This method is the longest and it will warm up your kitchen. It is also the best way to reheat frozen pizza.
This method is best when you have a large quantity of cold pizza, there is no point in heating the entire oven just for a couple of slices. The most suited oven temperature for reheating pizza is 450 degree Farenhite. If you maintain this temperature, not only your pizza gets perfectly reheated but you will also avoid it to get burned.
You can place a foil over the oven rack to keep it together and get a crispier crust. 10 minutes in oven with 450 degree Farenhite heat will be enough to reheat your pizza. Hope now it’s not a mystery how to reheat pizza in oven!
A Skillet on the Stovetop
Another best way to reheat pizza is to reheat it in a skillet on the stovetop. This technique is useful when you have only one or two slices of pizza. With this method not only you use less fuel but also keep your kitchen cooler. You can retain the crispiness of the crust while heating the toppings all the way through.
Make sure to add a little water to the pan. This way you will create some steam that will heat the topping perfectly. The temperature of the skillet must be medium and your pizza will be reheated in a couple of minutes. Cast iron skillets are ideal for this reheating method but you can use stainless steel skillets too.
The Microwave
While this is a much quicker way which also prevents from heating your entire kitchen, you may find that the result is not as good as you have expected. You will notice that with this reheating method the crust will feel quite soft but in few seconds it will turn hard and bitter.
The reason is that the crust is mostly made of protein and starch, which is a composition of sugar molecules. These molecules melt when you reheat them in a microwave oven and your pizza’s dough felt soft and fluffy but when it cools down they recrystallized and harden.
The best way to reheat pizza in microwave is to keep the power of your microwave low and as soon as it is finished reheating take the pizza out from microwave oven. We recommend that you keep the power of your microwave oven to 30 to 40 percent and reheat the pizza for only 45 minutes. You may have to reheat it longer if it is frozen.
Another way to prevent your cold pizza to be ruined is to defrost the pizza in the microwave and then heat it in a toaster oven. This method is more useful in office kitchens and dorms, where you don’t have stovetop or oven.
Conclusion
Nothing beats the taste of freshly baked pizza but ruining the flavor of leftover or cold pizza is not an option for its lovers. There are many cold pizza lovers but these methods will help you recreate the pizza’s original taste. Hopefully these pizza reheating methods will help those leftover pizza slices taste a little better.
