The Difference Between Slices and Pies

The Tour de Slice is coming. We’ve got a date. The floor is open to nominations. People are sharing their thoughts.

Burnt My Fingers is one of those people, and he brought up an interesting point regarding slices, and his concerns about the entire venture:

It is as if, when we had the Italian sub tour last summer, you had restricted it to establishments that had pre-made sandwiches wrapped in the deli case.

Would you not agree that a slice is a convenience product, and likely inferior to a custom made pie? If so, why not just order and taste whole pies?

Steve N. came to the defense of the slice, and did a great job at succinctly getting to the heart of the matter. But I wanted to take a few more minutes to talk more about pies versus slices and the elevation of convenience foods in general.

Without a doubt pizza sold by the slice is a convenience food.

It’s fast, it’s cheap, and can be eaten on the go. There’s a bigger question about the New York style pizza slice and its foldability. For me, folding a slice is a necessity when walking with it down a New York City street. However, since I typically stop for a few minutes to enjoy my slice, I almost never fold. That said, I do not begrudge those who do.

That’s an entirely different post.

Burnt My Fingers makes a reasonable argument. Wouldn’t it be better to eat a pie that is fresh, hot, and made to order instead of a piece of one that has been sitting around for an unknown amount of time and reheated before serving? There is just one flaw to his argument.

Pizza that is produced for slices is often different than pizza made for whole pies. The biggest difference is its thickness. Or rather, I should say its thinness.

Because pizza made for slices will need to be heated up quickly, thin is a necessity.

I’ve been to pizza shops where you can look at the pies going out the door for delivery and the pies sitting in the display case for slices, and they look as if they have come from two completely different pizzerias. Which isn’t to say this is always the case. It’s a big world. There are lots of notable exceptions.

On the issue of freshness, I’ve learned a hard truth over the years. Every now and again you’ll walk into a slice shop and a cheese pie has just come out of the oven. Invariably the clerk behind the counter will cut you a slice, tell you it’s hot, and serve it straight from the platter.

I’ve heard a pizza maker suggest the gold standard of slice shops is to be constantly churning out pies, so that everyone can have a slice from a hot fresh pie.

Maybe there are some people who prefer their slices this way, but I am not among them.

When I encounter such a situation, I very politely ask that my hot fresh slice be thrown back into the oven to crisp the bottom crust. Occasionally I’ll get a funny look from whoever is working the counter. But that’s of little concern. We just think about pizza slices differently.

As Steve N. wrote in defense of slices, when the slice is cut off a hot pie, it does not go into the oven for a second heating. And as a result, the bottom crust loses out on the chance to get a double toasting. Gone will be that characteristic crispness which is absolutely required for a proper fold. Something gets lost. Nothing is gained.

Instead of thinking of slices as reheated leftovers, I prefer to think of them along the lines of french fries. French fries are fried, and then they are fried again. Can you single fry fries? I mean, you could. But they just aren’t the same.

Slices should be thought of as something distinct from whole pizzas. When done right, it’s an entirely different food. Sure, it’s one made from the same ingredients, with just a few minor stylistic differences.

Consider the egg and cheese sandwich. It’s an entirely different experience if you have it on toast, a hard roll, or a bagel. The texture of the bread that contains the sandwich is a critical component to the end product. The same is true with pizza. And that’s what makes New York style slices so unique and special.

It’s that thin and crisp bottom crust, and you can only get that one way. Reheating.