Detroit-style pizza is truly a wonderful thing. After being a regional style for many years, it’s now become a familiar addition to menus across the country. While not everyone might be within arm’s reach of a mom-and-pop pizzeria that serves this signature style, there are a few fast food pizza chains that do, like Little Caesars and Jet’s Pizza (home of the good ranch). Hell, even Pizza Hut was in on the game for a while. But there’s one version of Detroit-style pizza that is particularly coveted: the eight-corner (or all corner) pizza. What makes it so damn special?
It all comes down to the edges
First of all, we’ve got to dive into the anatomy of a Detroit-style pie. It’s a rectangular pizza (or, less commonly, a square one) baked in a steel pan, its thick dough achieving a fried-like texture on the bottom as it bakes. Since the cheese is spread over the entire surface of the pizza—rather than just the center, as with a circular pie—it creeps over the edges of the crust during the baking process. And when it does that, something magical happens to the cheese: it caramelizes.
Since there’s no naked crust on a Detroit-style pizza, the crispy, cheesy crusts easily become the most coveted bites. The darkened cheese at the edges has an extra savory note to it, plus it has additional crunch that sets this pizza apart from every other variety. Even if you usually leave your crusts untouched, do not skip these.
Why are corner pieces such a big deal?
The matter of pizza corners comes down to culinary geometry. Corner pieces are twice as valuable as any other edge piece, since they have two caramelized sides, while the ones plucked from the center of a rectangular Detroit-style pizza only have one. Any savvy eater knows the corners are the first to go and tries to get there first.
To cater to all the corner-lovers and leave no one with a slice featuring three soft interior sides, some pizzerias offer the eight-corner pizza, a structural marvel that ensures two crispy exterior edges on every single slice of pizza. No more fighting at the dinner table.
How are eight-corner pizzas made?
You may wonder exactly how one achieves these eight-corner pizzas when a single rectangular pizza can, by definition, only have four corners. The answer is that the pizzeria is kind of cheating.
The secret is in the pan, or I should say, pans. Rather than baking off in one rectangular pan, a single eight-corner pizza is actually baked in two smaller square pans that equal the same amount of pizza as one rectangular pie. It’s still served as one rectangle with eight slices; it’s just that 50% of the slices are now twice as special as they were before.
You will, however, be charged slightly more for these pizzas. There’s extra labor involved in prep, along with the use of a second pan, so naturally the restaurants has to make it worth their while. If you can’t tell, I totally think it’s worth the extra cost.
Where can you get an eight-corner pizza?
Unfortunately, not every place that sells Detroit-style pizzas does the eight-corner type, but Jet’s Pizza and Little Caesars both offer it. The originator of Detroit-style pizza, Buddy’s, is now finally selling an all-corners pie as well, reports Restaurant News.
Due to the extra labor and equipment involved, it’s not as easy for an independent restaurant to offer these pizzas. However, there’s nothing wrong with ordering two whole Detroit-style pizzas, assembling an eight-corner pizza out of half the slices, then using the remainder to build a zero-corner prank pizza. Serve it to your enemies.