Everyone loves pizza, right? Truth is, though, there's pizza and then there's pizza — and if
you're ordering take-out or delivery, there are a few classic errors you'll want to avoid to
really get the best out of it. These are the mistakes everyone makes when ordering pizza.
"Pizza time."
Okay, so ordering pizza is supposed to be the easiest, most hands-off dinner ever.
But hold on one second, because there's one thing you might want to do yourself:
slicing it up. If you cut your pizza yourself as soon as it hits your dinner table,
you'll benefit in a number of different ways.
For one, if you ask for your pizza uncut, you'll get to decide on the exact shape and
size of slice you want. Plus, you're likely to show the job a little more care than the
cook back at the restaurant, who is likely going to be throwing your pizza in the box in a hurry.
Additionally, if you're worried about your pizza growing cold during transportation,
asking for your pizza uncut will help it retain more heat until it reaches your house,
since cut-up food chills faster. And, lastly, if you prefer a crust on the crispier side, cutting
your pizza seconds before you eat it will help you keep that crispy crust actually crispy, as the
sauce and other liquid toppings won't be dripping down into the cut crust on the ride to your place.
While the hope is always that you'll open up that delivery box to a nice hot pizza,
chances are that your delivery won't be as hot as it could be — it's not coming
straight from the oven, after all. But reheating your pizza before you dig in
is a simple trick with a big benefit. It's more convenient than you probably think,
too. You just want to ensure you reheat your pizza in the correct way.
The best method is to reheat your oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit,
either as soon as you place that delivery order, or when you get home from picking up your pizza.
Then, place a baking sheet in the oven to heat up with it.
Once the oven has reached the ideal temperature, toss your pizza onto that piping hot baking sheet,
and let it heat up for about five minutes. This not only guarantees a truly hot pizza,
but it also can help crisp up a crust that's gone a little soggy during transit.
If you're feeding a group, there's nothing worse than realizing that you don't have quite enough
food. It's just as disheartening to realize you've ordered way too much and wasted money on pizza
that didn't get eaten. The next time you feed a crowd with pizza, you'll want to make sure you get
the numbers just right — and there are actually a few tricks you can try in order to pull this off.
The first of these is the ⅜ rule. This rule assumes that most medium pizzas are cut into
eight slices and that the average person will eat three slices of a medium pizza.
So, to find out the number of pizzas you need for a group,
just multiply the number of guests by ⅜ — or 0.375 — and then round up. So, if you have 10
guests, you need four pizzas. If you have 20 guests, you need eight pizzas, and so forth.
You can adjust the formula to account for larger or smaller pizza sizes with more or
fewer numbers of pizza slices, as well as to account for hungrier or less hungry guests
that may not eat an average of three slices. You can also adjust the number of slices
each person will eat by what type of pizza you're ordering; adults are more likely to
eat more slices of a thin-crust pizza, for example, than they are a deep dish pizza.
If your motto with pizza toppings is "more is better," you may want to think hard the
next time you order one. While all those extra flavors and textures can make a pizza great, the
more toppings you order, the less the quantity of each topping pizza makers will add to your pizza.
"One small pizza for all of us, and no toppings."
"Cheese is a topping, Jerry."
Hypothetically, if you only order two toppings on your pizza, you'd get a larger quantity of each of
those two toppings than you would if you ordered six toppings on your pizza. In other words,
more toppings does not actually equal more overall food. According to one Domino's employee:
"There are three price brackets for toppings: one to two toppings, three to four toppings,
and five or more toppings. You might think that [by] getting nine toppings,
you're ripping Domino's off but really you're just playing yourself
because once you go over four toppings, you're actually getting less of every topping."
Still, although you can't game the big pizza chains by ordering more toppings,
that doesn't mean you need to forgo all your favorites. Instead, you just need to add the
toppings that you want, yourself. This will not only ensure you get fresher toppings,
but also that you get the exact amount of each topping that you want.
For example, Men's Health recommends adding sliced onions, greens, and hot
peppers to your pizza to start. These can all give your pizza a flavor boost,
and will be especially helpful if your pizza is on the greasy side. For the ultimate convenience,
you'll want to start prepping your toppings as soon as you place your order,
so that when your pizza arrives, all you need to do is throw them on top.
Well-trained foodies typically avoid ordering anything "well done," but when it comes to your
pizza, you may want to consider asking for just that. A well done pizza generally only takes a
few minutes more to make, but those extra minutes in the oven make all the difference, resulting in
a pizza with a crispier, tastier crust and more thoroughly cooked toppings. In the end,
you get a more delicious pizza, and it all comes down to something called the maillard reaction.
This is the name given to the transformation of sugars and proteins that occurs when food cooks,
resulting in new flavors and aromas that are particularly tempting to the human palate.
So, forgo your limp pizza slice with that chewy mozzarella
and those barely-cooked vegetables — next time, ask for your pizza well done.
So, you're ordering pizza for a family, a few friends, or even just for you — either way, you
want leftovers. You take a look at your options and decide that two small pizzas is the way to go.
After all, surely the two small pizzas are, together, larger than one large pizza... right?
Wrong. With a little bit of math, one Twitter user recently calculated the surface area of
both of two, 12-inch pizzas and one 18-inch pizza, and found that you get more pizza when
you order the 18-inch option versus the two, 12-inch pizzas. And yes, while you might point
out that 12 times two is indeed 24, that's not really how math works. At the end of the day,
an 18-inch pizza has 254 square inches of pizza, whereas two, 12-inch pizzas give you a combined
total of only 226 square inches of pizza. That's more bang for your buck, whichever way you cut it.
If you order delivery, the state in which your pizza is transported is pretty much
out of your control. That delivery driver can punt your pizza into the back of their car and
let it slide around their trunk as they take every corner at genuinely frightening speeds,
and you'll never be the wiser. But if you order takeout, you can be a little more conscious about
how you transport your pizza. To start, try keeping your pizza level on the ride home,
for less cheese and topping slippage. There's even a nifty little trick to help you out.
Just lay a 16-ounce soda bottle on its side in the crevice at the back of your car's passenger seat,
and then set the pizza boxes onto the seat. The bottle is typically just the right height
to make that side of your pizza level with the side lyings toward the front of the seat,
so everything should keep on the straight and narrow. Just don't speed and you should be fine.
Restaurant diners are often split into two camps:
the ones who will complain vehemently anytime anything at all goes wrong with an order…
"It says 100% guaranteed, you moron."
"Mister, if you don't shut up, I'm gonna kick 100% of your ass."
...and the ones who'd rather just keep quiet and deal with an incorrect meal.
Obviously you don't really wanna be in that first group, but if you fall into the latter,
you might also be doing yourself a disservice.
According to a former Domino's Pizza employee, it's incredibly easy to get
free food if you just call up the pizza place and politely let them know you're not happy.
While the past employee does note that Domino's, as an international chain,
is working with some decent profit margins that allow the brand to do this, it's worth trying
this out at your local pizza places, too. Just remember — be nice and don't take advantage of
the system. Only call your local pizza joint up to complain if there really is a problem with
your pizza order… and don't forget them when they go out of their way to make it right.
Of course, sometimes you can get a little free food simply by being a nice — and
regular — customer. As the same Domino's Pizza employee noted, if you become a
regular at a specific pizza restaurant, and you're consistently nice to the employees,
they'll probably be happy to treat you every now and again. The employee says:
"For nice people [...] I would always try to go the extra mile. [...] Sometimes if we had
extra stock of something, my manager would let me give it away for free to customers I liked."
So, whatever the circumstances, treat the food service employees you encounter with
respect and a smile — not only because it's the decent thing to do, but also because you
might get some free breadsticks out of it. It does pay to be nice, after all!
Okay: so you get your pizza home, you reheat it, you top it with some fresh veggies,
you slice it yourself, you enjoy every bite — your work's done, right? Well,
not quite. In order to ensure you enjoy your leftover pizza just as much in the morning,
you'll want to store your leftover pizza the right way — and, no,
the right way is not simply stuffing the oversized box into your refrigerator.
Leaving your pizza in the box overnight or longer results in dried out,
lackluster pizza, thanks to all the airflow reaching the food.
What you want to do instead is take your pizza slices from the box and place them one at a time
on a suitably-sized dinner plate, alternating pizza slices and sheets of wax paper,
parchment paper, or aluminum foil. Once all of the slices are stacked,
cover your pizza tower with plastic wrap and then place the tower, plate and all, in the fridge.
Not only do you save room in your fridge, but you also keep your pizza from drying out. Neat, huh?
Finally, when it's time to enjoy your leftover pizza, you'll want to make sure
you're reheating those slices correctly. Here are several ways you can do that:
If you're using the oven, reheat your pizza at 375 degrees Fahrenheit, on a foil-lined baking sheet,
for about 10 minutes. If you want to use the skillet method, put your cold pizza
in a non-stick skillet, heat the skillet up, add a few drops of water into the pan,
cover the skillet, and wait. The skillet will brown the bottom of the pizza and crisp it up,
while the water helps the toppings and cheese get all steamy and melty.
What you absolutely don't want to do, however, is simply throw your pizza into the microwave.
That's the perfect recipe for a soggy, sad pizza — and you're better than that, right?
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