Leftover pizza - hot or cold?
6While I used to be good with cold pizza, I’ve realized it's better hot. I like thin crispy crust, so it’s hard to get the texture back. Nuking it for 40 seconds or so, then crisping in a sauté pan is the best method I have found (when I don’t want to turn on the oven in the summer). Your preferences?
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Cold, reheating pizza never ends well from my experience.
Cold. Unless it's cheesy bread. Warm that up.
depends how much time I have and how hungry I am. Also More likely to just eat it cold if I'm alone.
Hot. I'll always throw it back in the oven for a few minutes. Unless it's room-temp, in which case I'll usually eat it between the box and the cookie sheet.
Hot - toaster oven, never microwave.
@mfladd ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
@mfladd -That does sound best, don't have one now, don't really need one for anything else I don't think. Maybe if my toaster breaks I'll look at a small one.
@KDemo I love my toaster oven. They are great for times when the entire oven isn't needed. Great for baked potatoes, reheating subs, or anything else you may want crispy that the microwave doesn't do well. Especially good for tomato slices topped with mozzarella, drizzled with a good balsamic and topped with fresh basil - YUM!
@KDemo Wait, how do you make corn dogs w/o a toaster oven?
@mfladd and corn dogs, fish sticks, dino nuggets, etc. I mean the possibilities are only limited by your creativity, wallet, and blood pressure.
@KDemo I love mine. I use it to make so many things, because it doesn't heat the house up like the oven does. Plus, I can use it and the oven at the same time to make 2 pizzas at once. No claims of dying get from hunger from one child while the other's is cooking first!
@connorbush that is so funny you brought up the dino nuggets. We only give them to the kids rarely and when we are pushed for time. But ask them every night what they want - Dino Nuggets.
@mfladd my favorite "unhealthy" bachelor meal. Dino Nuggets, Sweet Potato fries, and a dark beer.
@mfladd - Stop! Going out to dinner with friends, saving my appetite, You're definitely not helping!
@connorbush @jaremelz - Don't eat corn dogs, but I'm questioning all of my life decisions made without a toaster oven. Guess I'll be cruising garage sales this weekend.
@KDemo woot has a toaster oven in the woot off for $19.99 :)
@stardate820926 - I think I got the last one. You are awesome!
Now, keep me away from that place.
@KDemo yay! Glad you got one.
I've done my woot shopping for the year lol
Best warmed up in the oven, convection mode. I've never notice my house warms up any significant amount from using the oven, however I have air anyways so not an issue.
If time is an issue, start in the microwave, then in a saute pan. Depending on type of crust perhaps a dab of butter in the pan.
Reheated. Reheat the oven to 300. Put the pizza on a cookie sheet. Cover the sheet in tinfoil (Completly), then bake for 20-25 minutes to recover most of the texture/flavor. The tinfoil prevents all the moisture to be wicked (Baked/cooked) out of the crust.
Another way if you like thin crispy crust, buy a pizza stone and place it into oven. Turn on oven to 400. When preheated, place pizza on pizza stone for ~5 minutes (Until cheese looks ,mealty).
@Bogie - Sounds like you have studied this extensively ;-)
People eat pizza cold?
I can't eat leftover pizza, hot or cold. The only time I get close is the rare time we get the chicken/bacon bake from Papa Murphys. It is more like a calzone, and when I reheat it, it's always in the convection oven.
Either way- hot is usually better, but cold is good. Who eats cold pizza for breakfast?
@dashcloud This guy.
@dashcloud leftover pizza is the breakfast of champions. Only once have I had a better breakfast: fresh shawarma in a laffa (8am after a crazy night of partying//drinking)
Fresh hot pizza is the best but I love cold leftover pizza too.
But if I'm going to reheat pizza now what I do is heat up some oil (vegetable/coconut preferred over olive) in my cast iron skillet to medium heat. Toss in leftover pizza (crust-side down, obvs) and it'll crisp up again and the cheese on top will get a little melty. If you want more meltier cheese you can cover it with a lid to steam it up a little bit.
@JonT - Yes! Best if you can get the cheese a little bubbly. Wonder why so many of our threads come back to cheese? Never mind, I know why.
@JonT Broiler for top, then skillet for bottom. Or, even better than a skillet, cast iron griddle thing that spans two burners and hasn't left my stovetop since I got it.
@brhfl Wish this worked on glass cooktops!
A few minutes on a gas grill does wonders for cold pizza.
@sammydog01 YES. YES. YES
I'll grab a cold slice in the morning, I like cold pizza. The fun part is eating it in front of my husband. Cold pizza gives him the willies.
@lisaviolet I star this..all the while thinking, "your poor hubby!"
@mikibell He eats hot dogs in front of me at least once a week. I think we're square.
-laughing-
Always hot, always oven or stovetop/broiler (only possibilities in my kitchen).
Both. I eat one cold slice while reheating another slice (or two) in the toaster oven.
wtf has gone so wrong in your lives that you think cold pizza is acceptable
@Lotsofgoats Plenty of things have gone wrong with my life(mostly by my own poor choices), but when it comes to cold Pizza, not a damn thing went wrong. it's nearly as good the next morning as it is fresh from the oven/pizzeria.
BEST. BREAKFAST. EVER.
@earlyre meh. Not as good as a nice omelet but I'll grant cold pizza is orders of magnitude better than cold cereal for brekkie.
@nadroj Its one probably the tastiest option for breakfast that requires zero prep. Walk into kitchen, eat pizza, fin.
LOVE cold Pizza. the Ultimate breakfast of Champions.
somewhere i saw something about reheating Pizza with a Clothes Iron. have to look for that again...
What is this leftover pizza if which you speak?
@beachbum I was going to say this but you beat me to it. The gluten free pizzas that I eat are typically smaller and I can eat the entire thing for dinner without any leftovers.
Sure it's best reheated wrapped in foil or on a cookie sheet in the oven, but who can wait ? The answer is not usually me. So today ( and many times ) I nuke it and just eat it. I was hungry.
related news: I got pizza and they upsized me for free because why not
^5
@Lotsofgoats hey me too. that's why I had leftovers--Monday Madness they call it here.
Cold!
@Collin1000
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Depends how hungry I am. My wife has to have it warmed up, but sometimes I just want to stuff some fucking pizza in my face.
Like the old saying goes: cold for breakfast, hot for dinner.
I depends. If its leftover $30 gourmet pizza then usually I nuke it unless I'm really hungry and the coffee is already made. If it's Domimos then I nuke it because it tastes like soap if it's cold. Papa johns is good cold.
Cold pizza is the best breakfast you can ask for...
If you HAVE to reheat it, then a toaster oven will help. But reheated pizza just isn't the same.
HOT, unless you have a hangover, then COLD.
When I read this thread, it occurs to me that I really can experience empathy. I feel bad for the majority of Americans that don't know good pizza.
@JerseyFrank But good pizza is what you grew up with, so most people know good pizza. That said, there's a narrow stretch of the East Coast from Boston to maybe as far south as Trenton that has real pizza.
@JerseyFrank Of course we don't - 'cause we haven't had whatever the fuck it is you think superior!
@editorkid Yeah yeah sure sure its the water, the different dietary effected chef arm sweat. After growing up in said narrow stretch I call bull droppings on your superior pizza. It's the quality of the of the cook and ingredients. Y'all can babble on because you need something to feel superior about living in the tushie of the country and all.
@cranky1950 But I don't live there.
@editorkid There is some freakin' great pizza around Trenton..............and don't even get me started on tomato pies.
@editorkid I was totally trolling, but that's true too. If you live somewhere that has a style of pizza that is not a clone of Domino's, Papa John's, or Pizza Hut, you probably know "good" pizza... but the rest of us know that you don't.
Yes
Truth be told I don't like truly "cold" - but I am OK with "room temp"
@Pufferfishy -I'll confess something here - I don't usually put pizza in the fridge. It's always been fine at room temp overnight. When I say cold, I really mean room temp.
@KDemo Same - I put mine on plate, cover it with cling-film, and put it in the microwave for the night.
Who ever has "leftover pizza" longer than that!?!?
I do like heating a pan and just "crisping" the bottom for a couple minutes.....
Usually cold. If I have time, I will heat a small pan over medium heat and put the pizza crust side down in the pan for a couple minutes (until I see the top start to become warm again) at which point I'll cover for a minute and then enjoy. Keeps the crust the right consistency. Cold pizza preserves the flavor.
FYI. 90% of DFW Pizza sucks. Midwest Pizza Fo Life.
@ChadP Got COMPLETELY lucky here in "greater Tampa" - there is awesome pizza (which is completely relative to the person saying it) just minutes away.
I've had some pizza in "greater Dallas" (where my office is) - have yet to find anything exceptional - but there is a small local chain that does wood-fired that I found "OK" - don't recall the name tho...
@Pufferfishy Cane Rosso is fantastic, but it's not everyday pizza. It's special occasion pizza. At this point we are going to Pie5 more than anything else.
@ChadP I'm scared that by "Midwest Pizza" you mean that abomination that's a cracker-style crust and, even though the pizza is round like real pizza, they cut it into squares.
@editorkid That is exactly what I'm talking about. By far the best pizza around. Thin crust. Great sauce. Great toppings. Square pieces.
@ChadP I'm going to suggest a compromise where I won't ever disagree with you or even interfere with you saying that, except for every time you call it pizza, I will make the air quotes signs with my fingers.
@editorkid Disagree. Obviously pizza taste is an outcome of what you grow up with, but to dismiss it to me means you haven't had great midwest style pizza.
I was really lucky and grew up in a town where when you went to get a pizza, you only went to mom and pop places. I look at my friends who only grew up with Pizza Hut and it upsets me.
That said, of the 25 local pizza places, 5 of them were amazing and what I consider pinnacle pizza today. That's what I look for.
It's more sauce and topping style for me than crust, but that thin crust is where it's at.
/rant
@ChadP Wait -- they cut the pizza in squares????????????
@beachbum inorite? People think this is a thing:
@ChadP
Of the 250 local pizza places here, 250 of them are amazing.
@JerseyFrank @ChadP Outsnobbing both of you, I'm just gonna say that with 3 cups of flour, 1 cup of water, 1 packet of yeast, a little salt, and whatever toppings you want, it really doesn't matter how many local pizza places are around. But another good rule to follow is, wherever you get it from, if you can't fold it, it isn't pizza.
@editorkid - Jon Stewart would approve.
@editorkid I cheat and get my dough from Winco. They sell balls of dough for dirt cheap and the toppings as well. Saves me a little time and still beats any of the pizza joints around here.
@editorkid That square cut pizza is just wrong.
@beachbum They do it that way because they can't cut it into slices like real pizza. As soon as they do, it's obvious that the crust has the texture of corrugated cardboard. (I.e., you can't fold it.) You can hammer nails with the bones, too.
@KDemo On a foodie board here in Chicago, I once got into a hands-down brawl for pointing out that while that creation is very nice, it's a casserole pot pie. Chicagoans are in the most denial of anyone about pizza, I think.
@jaremelz Totally OK with store dough... I mean, with four ingredients, and all of them very basic, this is one recipe no one can screw up. I usually have a couple of batches in the fridge to develop a little more flavor, so unless I planned badly and ran out (which happens kind of often, considering), there's always a batch within reach.
@ChadP I actually respect your point of view and if you know anywhere in Chicago that you'd say had a great example of what you like, I'd check it out. Also, I'll try to make the air quotes signs where you can't see them.
@JerseyFrank impossible.
@editorkid Depends I guess. Aurelio's is pretty great midwest style, though not the mom & pop style I argued above. Also, my wife would be stoked I just told you to eat there.
This is what I grew up with
@beachbum @editorkid- It begs a whole new question - Would you rather have an outside or an inside square? Who wants to start the thread?
@KDemo Well, I'd rather have a slice.
@ChadP Looks like there's only one Aurelio's in the city proper. I can't make a timeframe commitment but I'll post back once I've been there.
@ChadP @editorkid I will NOT eat square pizza. God made it round and it must be cut into wedges as intended. On a related note I won't eat Wendys burgers either...
What the hell is leftover pizza? You eat pizza until it is gone.
This seems relevant.
"Study My Taste Buds Agree With Says Women Love Pizza More Than Men Do"
I think this means women are less likely to eat pizza cold, because, since they like pizza, they won't eat it cold.
@editorkid agree. It's the same for sandwiches.
Hot, but not too hot in the microwave on account of the crust getting too chewy.
@SIMBM Cold pizza, breakfast of champions
i just ordered a white pizza from local place. Standard white is garlic, ricotta, mozzarella, broccoli, spinach . I have them add pineapple. I will put my own fresh garden tomatoes on top of it all. It's on it's way......
oh @ceagee…@ceagee, @ceagee, @ceagee…that sounds super weird.
@JonT And somewhat disgusting. @ceagee Why the hell would you ruin pizza with ricotta, broccoli or spinach? Fresh tomatoes on pizza is also wrong on too many levels to even count (so more than 3 for me)
@tightwad @JonT
White Pizza is a classic here in WNY. There is no red sauce on it, there is a special garlic sauce-- but it's not really saucy , it's more of a coating or garlic & olive oil & some secret stuff on the crust. Yum garlic.
Do you not have this elsewhere ?
Maybe it's a local thing.
I tried to google for a picture, but nothing listed for white pizza online looks like what we have here.
Triva: My neighbors Grandmother was the FIRST person to sell pizza in WNY. Maybe all of NY state. I forget.(my mom co-wrote a book on regional Italian heritage) To note: we don't count NYC as a part of the state. This cheek pinching grandmother made the most amazing pizza. AND She made it as sheet pizza. Can you say square : ) We have a large Italian community and the local pizza shops are stellar. Most are round, but you can order a sheet. Small and medium are cut slice . Large size are usually cut square, unless you order only a slice or ask for your pizza to be cut that way.
We are also, if I may add, the part of the world that invented Buffalo chicken wings.
TLDR: we have better and more authentic pizza and wings then you do.
White pizza can be a nice change up. Plus my dad can't have the tomato sauce, and we were dining together. : )
@ceagee than*
@hollboll all that writing and pizza information and all you could come up with was a grammar nazi comment ? *Please note I did not capitalize my first word and it is probably a run-on sentence. :P
@ceagee I've had white pizza before, I love it! The problem isn't the white pizza.
The problem is spinach, broccoli, pineapple and tomatoes on the same pizza. Pineapple with those flavors sounds weird as hell!
@JonT The fresh tomatoes were my personal thing b/c they are ripe from the garden and I put them on just about everything at this point.
The veggies are standard white pizza toppings in this part of the world. You order white pizza and that's what you get.
The pineapple is, I must confess, a family thing. It got morphed over onto our white pizza from the "Hawaiian Pizza" toppings. I don't eat red meat so that was the compromise. It works ! I used to think pineapple on any pizza was weird. All I can say is don't knock it til you try it.
Lunch here is leftover sardine and onion pizza, which is not as good when it's cold. Nuke for a couple of minutes. Mmmm!!!