What size pizza should you order? The answer to that question is given in a February 26 post at the National Public Radio (NPR) website Planet Money: “74,476 reasons you should always get the bigger pizza” by Quoctrung Bui. And that answer, as a moment’s thought will tell you (unless you’ve forgotten high-school geometry), reflects a simple fact: the area of a round pizza is proportional to the square of its radius, so a pizza that is twice the diameter of another has four times the area, and thus four times the nomming quantity. If it’s not four times as expensive, then, the better deal is the larger pizza.
Bui compiled the data on pizza prices throughout the country, showing the decline in price per square inch (we’re assuming, as is the case, that for a given pizza the depth is constant regardless of diameter); the graph at the NPR site also has a slider to show you how much you’re saving relative to a smaller pizza:
I did this calculation for one of my favorite pizzas, which happens to be purveyed only a few blocks from my crib: the Edwardo’s Special stuffed pizza from, of course, Edwardo’s. If you don’t know such a pizza, it has two crusts with oodles of filling in between, and (along with the deep-dish pizza) is a Chicago specialty that is not made properly anywhere else.
The Edwardo’s Special looks a bit like this, but with more veggies (onions, peppers, etc.)
This is not an Italian-style pizza, and I do like those, too, but if you’re the kind of snob whose only idea of pizza is a cracker with ketchup on top, and if you turn up your nose at the thought of tucking into the item shown above, then you’re a bad person who doesn’t like food.
But I digress. Here, from the Edwardo’s website, are two of my favorite stuffed pizzas with the sizes and prices. Below that I have calculated the price per square inch for the three different sizes of the Edwardo’s Special:
9″: 63.6 square inches; 30.2¢/square inch
11″: 95.0 square inches; 23.4¢/square inch
13″: 132.6 square inches: 19.0¢/square inch
Notice that the price per square inch is substantially higher than in the NPR graph, but that’s because this pizza is stuffed and not flat. At any rate, you’re saving 37% per square inch if you get the largest rather than the smallest.
Why, then, should you ever order anything smaller than the largest pizza possible? I can see only two reasons. First, you’re impecunious and simply can’t afford a bigger one. (Note, though that the price difference for the pizza I’ve discussed is only 6 bucks between largest and smallest.)
Second, you can’t eat it all. But the second reason is not so good given that cold pizza (or even warmed-up pizza) is the most awesome breakfast in the world—second only to pie. If you’re a normal person, you will eat all of it eventually, even if you must take it home. Never in my life have I discarded pizza.
So remember the simple math next time you’re in the mood for a pizza: PIE ARE SQUARED.
h/t: Miss May
Mmm… πzza
(where z is radius and a is thickness)
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PS. Having corned-beef hash instead.
Sub
[[geddit?]]
That’s not a pizza, it’s a hot quiche.
You can say that again.
That’s not a pizza, it’s a hot quiche.
Agreed. But I love quiche as well as pizza.
I’d say more of a casserole. It still looks good, just not like what every other city in the world besides Chicago calls pizza.
It’s a “schiacciata”
A quiche uses pastry dough and not on the top so that thing (shit, I’ve drooled on my keyboard) is still a pizza.
“Second, you can’t eat it all. But the second reason is not so good given that cold pizza”
There’s the added problem that you don’t always have refrigeration available when you leave the pizza parlor with leftovers.
And, if you like a high crust to toppings ratio, the small pizza is the way to go.
Get a fridge that plugs into “the cigarette lighter”!
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Immediate refrigeration is not necessary. Pizza standing in the box at room temperature will keep at least 24 hours, though it’s advisable to reheat it to cheese-is-bubbling temperature if you go longer than simply overnight.
Yes, that’s what I was going to comment; if I am traveling or in the middle of errands, I have to order what food I can eat in one sitting. (Though then I am more likely to eat pizza by the slice anyway, unless the restaurant makes personal pizzas.)
xkcd had it all figured out some time ago:
https://xkcd.com/1184/
Of course, even the Edwardo’s stuffed probably contains less than $5 worth of ingredients.
Even restaurant owners have to make a living.
Doc, that brings back some memories of my time at Northwestern. There was (is?) an Edwardo’s in North Chicago. Some really great pies.
I didn’t care too much for Northwestern, but the pies were great!
This is a trick question, of course.
Pizzas should be made at home…though I’ll grant that there are a (very) small number of restaurants that make acceptable pizzas. Edwardo’s would appear to be one of those exceptions.
Oh — and the volume of a pizza of radius z and height a can be determined from the following formula:
Volume(pizza) = pi * z * z * a
Cheers,
b&
Beat you by 12 mins this time! 😀
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Oh…that was supposed to be a pi? Looks more like an n….
‘sides, I don’t think the joke works bilingually…and this is an Italian dish, not Greek. Seems to me that
π * ζ * ζ * α
has more to do with Reimann’s doubly-fine constant circle…but how, then, are you supposed to eat -1/12 of a pita?
b&
That is nobody’s font but your own …
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Looks like a zeta to me.
Either a zeta or a quarter note rest….
b&
Pizza should be made at home. It is healthier and almost always better tasting.
Not all of us have coal-fired ovens that attain really high temperatures and can char the crust. And I disagree with your dictum.
Its definitely geography, not my conventional oven. There are no reputable pizza restaurants within 50 miles. That is a sadness I must endure…plus I am no where near Chicago, where pizza is greatness.
The wood-fired oven is definitely a reason to eat at one of the (few) restaurants that make that style.
But a pizza stone in a conventional oven makes a wonderful crust for most other styles of pizza. It’s also a great way to bake bread.
“Healthy” isn’t necessarily the point of pizza. If you’re eating it as a staple, it should be…but pizza seems much more in the “special treat” category for me. And any pizza worth eating is going to be far healthier than any of the chain delivery so-called pizza-like substances.
One great thing about homemade pizza is that it’s not particularly labor-intensive, even though it takes a little while from start to finish. It’s great for a weekend meal when you can be lazy in the kitchen and do other lazy things at the same time. Most of your time is spent letting the dough rise and the sauce simmer, neither of which requires much in the way of brain cells.
b&
You also get to use toppings not typically found in most restaurants. My favorite pizza is sliced potatoes (pre-cooked), mozzarella cheese, olive oil, and rosemary.
Sounds interesting — I’ll have to give that a try some time.
b&
Seconded but with feta mashed with mashed potatoes on top of oil/rosemary.
I doubt pizza with brain cells would taste very good.
Certainly not Christian brain cells…they’re so rare the prices are outrageous, and they’re nothing but bland and empty calories, besides.
b&
Not if you make them with ground of being. It gives them a certain indescribable apophatic flavour.
A trick some Italian friends taught us is to use a grill. They get hot enough to cook the crust pretty well (of course, they were cooking Italian style pizza).
I have to agree with Jerry’s disagreement. For that to even have a chance of being true you’d first have to know what you’re doing in the kitchen. Which I don’t.
Pizza is actually a good learning food. You can even start with all store-bought ingredients, including the dough and the sauce, and work your way up by substituting the real stuff as you get more confident — which shouldn’t take long at all.
And, when you’ve mastered the art of pizza, not only have you mastered the art of pizza, but you now also know how to make bread and tomato sauce, neither of which is difficult, both of which are staples….
b&
And secondly, you’d have to like doing it.
Cooking–bleah.
Exactly.
I’d rather be reading.
Amen, brother!!
I make pizza at home on a regular basis. All you need is a ceramic pizza stone to put in your oven. I’ve also made is successfully on the grill.
Homemade pizza is delicious and fun, just different from also delicious pizzaria pies.
Although area and volume are handy shortcuts, a closer approximation of value would be weight. But that would have required actual field research and spending some money on pizzas rather than a free pontification based on basic geometry. :-p
At least you get to eat the evidence.
You just live in the wrong area. If you live in or around the NJ/NY area, pizzeria pizza will pretty much always beat homemade pizza. You just don’t have the right tools in your kitchen (most importantly the right kind of oven).
There does happen to be one of the top-rated (sometimes the top-rated) pizza restaurants several miles away from me: Pizzeria Bianco. But I haven’t made it there yet…keep threatening to take Mom and Dad, haven’t gotten around to it….
But, again: it depends on the style of pizza. Classic Neapolitan pizza? No, I can’t do that at home. But any of the American styles I can do at least as well as (almost) any restaurant.
b&
For me, the medium pizza is still the more economical choice. Week after week we get a big one, eat half, and then the rest goes in the fridge where it stays until thrown out.
Wut!? Throw out pizza?!?
That’s like throwing out whisky cause the bottle’s half empty.
One reason why I shouldn’t order the larger pizza is not because I can’t eat it all, but because I can eat it all !
Too true. It’s a tragedy not to eat it when it’s hot. Pizza reheated is a farce.
I prefer the meats, veggies, cheeses and sauce without all the dough. I am not a big fan of the crust on pizza but like it on breads. Just my personal preferences, since I have reduced my carbohydrate intake.
Weakness: my wife just prepared a mushroom lasagna for company tonight.
Oh yes, lassagna! Forget the sweets, give me lassagna! 🙂
Seconded. I see eye-to-eye with Garfield on this one.
The pie’s are terrible ’round here…
… And yes, I will be allowed to eat some.
Curiously enough, I’ll actually be making lasagne for dinner tonight, myself…but no company….
b&
What time shall I be there?
We have to eat early because of 21 month old granddaughter, so 6:30 EST. Salad and Caprese too.
Wonderful stuff sir! Gives me a big smile! 🙂
I do prefer thin crust pizza in the Italian style, however — HOWEVER — lest I be branded an evil-doer: I would certainly tuck into that stuffed pie with enthusiasm.
And pie is the best breakfast! Still trying to convince my family of this fact of the universe …
Ohh man! That stuffed pizza looks really good!
Never did understand pizza snobbery. A fine example of any style of pizza is good noms. And a fine Chicago style pie with sweet Italian sausage and that chunky tomatoe sauce? MMMMMMmmmmmmMMMMmm!
The formula doesn’t even take into account the crust/topping ratio. Assuming the thickness of the crust is constant with different diameters, that makes the advantage of the larger pizza even greater (assuming you don’t really like crust a lot).
Some of us do like crust a lot. Personally, I don’t like it when the toppings get too close to the edge and don’t leave me enough crust left over. So by that critera, small pizzas have the better (higher) ratio of crust to area. Come to think of it, sometimes I prefer the breadsticks to the pizza itself.
(OMG. WTF WordPress? This is my third attempt to submit this comment.)
Jerry, you taunt me!
I’ve been on a quest for a decent Chicago-style deep-dish ever since Uno left the Twin Cities MN (I understand the original Uno is in Chicago).
There was also a deep-dish joint here several years ago called Edwardo’s, but I doubt it was the same Edwardo’s since the crust pictured looks like the appropriate buttery, quasi fried crust. The Edwardo’s here only had regular bready crust.
All the deep-dish I’ve tried since Uno abandoned me has either had an acceptable amount of cheese, sauce and toppings, but not the right kind of crust, or has had that fried crust but skimped on the cheese etc.
Argh!!!
(Just to allay the concerns I know you all have, I’m no pizza snob. I like all the styles. It’s just that within those styles, I have certain requirements.)
Not so, MB, The Edwardo’s on 494 did a deep dish as well, although nothing to write home about. Uno’s here was a poor attempt at chain expansion. I have a somewhat limited experience with Chicago deep pizza but a recent trip there has me convinced: Lou Malnati’s, nothing better!
The 494 location was the one I has in mind! Edwardo’s also had a downtown Mpls location.
Yes, they did deep dish; what I mean was that their (deep dish) crust just had the regular baked bread texture, not the quasi fried texture Uno had. (Perhaps I’m wearing rose-colored glasses, but I remember the Uno on France being pretty good.)
Um…*had*
I liked Uno too, both locations, although I also got a pizza that was basically still frozen at the core at both locations! Suggests not made here? Or at least, not made fresh. Anyway, there are some other local pizza joints getting hyped, e.g., Pizzeria Lola, if you can get near it!
Thanks for the tip!
I was also just introduced to Frankie’s in New Hope. They do a stuffed deep-dish that’s not bad…but it has the regular style crust. They make it fresh. It takes 40 minutes!
Great, now I want pie! Gotta call wife before she leaves work.
You live in a crib Jerry. Interesting. Down in NZ a crib is, if you you live in the lower South Island, what everyone else calls a bach. A bach is a ramshackle weekend place-or at least was. Probably a 5 bedroom house now but still the holiday place.
“if you’re the kind of snob whose only idea of pizza is a cracker with ketchup on top, and if you turn up your nose at the thought of tucking into the item shown above, then you’re a bad person who doesn’t like food.”
You have to balance the thought of the pleasure in tucking into something like that, with the pain of the consequences. And unfortunately as one grows older the balance tends to shift in the wrong direction.
Oof. That’s true. I used to be able to eat much more before feeling ill.
That balance isn’t the only thing that shifts in wrong direction.
Ok, I will now open up a controversy here.
I like Brooklyn pizza. Gimme slice!
My Pugliesi friends would call that a “Schiacciata”
I have no objection to that delicious looking thing, but I don’t hold with these Chicago liberals trying to redefine “pizza”! God intended pizza to be flat. It says so in the Bible. Traditional pizza has been with us since time immemorial. Call it something else — “civil onions” or something.
“civil onions”
+1
I’m partial to the quattro stagioni (in Italy, of course).
I had access to Chicago deep dish for 9 weeks attending a Navy school at GLNS. The best. Gained about 15 pounds. 5 months later, standing on a sidewalk on my first night over, I ate a Napolotena stagioni-style pie cooked in a fire oven inset in the exterior wall at the corner of a masonry structure in Naples, Italy. The opposite of deep dish in terms of both crust and ingredients volume, but IMHO equally savory. I had no awareness at that moment that fabulously delicious calzone was in my immediate future, which of course is a deep dish double crusted pizza.
Gah! I hate having to keep clearing up this misconception! Pie are NOT squared. Cornbread are squared. Pie are round.
I thought beer and schnapps came in rounds.
🙂
A very important consideration is the ring of crust around the pizza. I feel the crust should be subtracted from the radius before doing the calculation. Some restaurants get the cheese closer to the edges than others so that doing the calculations without that data can be tough. I always do a rough mental calculation, thinking about the crust also, before ordering. Rarely two smalls are a better deal than a large when the crust factor is included in the calculation.
Not a pizza, but a pie.
It’s pizza AND pie! The best of both!
‘pizza’ = ‘pie’ in Italian.
“Pizza pie” is redundant.
No, sorry. If you have visited the UK, you will know that the most awesome breakfast is last night’s vindaloo, not some bread based construction.
Given the substantial improvement in food in the UK when I was last there, I wouldn’t be surprised that if in London or other larger places one can get vindaloo pizza.
(There is actually a place near me that makes a tandoori pizza. And this is *Ottawa*.)
That type of “fusion” style of pizza was first popularized by the California Pizza Kitchen company. Good food, for a chain. The culinary creativity is to be commended and embraced, while acknowledging that it’s not at all even close to traditional.
b&
PIE ARE SQUARE No No Cake Are Square. Pie Are Round.
Cheesecakes are round.
Every time I go through Midway, I try to stop at the Giordano’s a few blocks south. I know of nothing like it around here. Fortunately, I’m a pizza pluralist. Why can’t all pizza just get along?
I, too, am an accommodationist pizzavore: I can accommodate a lot of pizza in many styles! 🙂
I’m astounded that nobody has posted this yet:
Jon Stewart’s pizza rant
LOL! Thanks for the best laugh of the week!
My favorite pizza joint (called Serious Pie) makes just one size, a rough oval about 9″ x 14″. Price per square inch works out to about $0.15-0.18 depending on flavor.
One of the pleasures of my job is to go there with a gang of ballet students, order four or five different pies, pass them around, and send any leftovers home with the kids.
OMG! Do they ship to Canada?! This would be the ultimate meal of choice for my son’s bday. The guy can eat pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner! Would pass up dining at a very good restaurant for pizza!
Well, that explains it: I’m not a normal person.
I don’t like cold pizza; just one of those things. You can also have my peanut butter and my cola.
Just as well that the good local pizzeria makes only two sizes, and the larger of them is 10 inches in diameter (there’s a six-inch one if you just want a snack); a bit over half the price for just over a third as much pizza. The advantage of this is that I can have mushrooms on mine, and the partner can have anchovies on his, rather than having to get toppings only from the intersection of the things we like.
You can go different toppings on each half of the larger pizza.
JAC, if you are ever in Champaign IL, ask your hosts to feed you Papa Del’s pan pizza. It’s excellent.
This is the best post ever!
Well, actually, the best breakfast ever is lox and cream cheese on onion bagels. Not earth-shattering, I know, but since this is, I think, the first time I’ve ever disagreed with our esteemed host, I thought it might be worth a mention.
Better than lox and cream cheese on an onion bagel is lox and cream cheese on an everything bagel with onions, tomato, lettuce and capers (although I don’t use tomato).
Heresy! Thy bagel shalt be onion (or, ideally, onion and poppy mixed in the dough rather than sprinkled on top), and thy toppings shalt be cream cheese, lox, and maybe some sliced fresh onions.
All else is goyishe abomination.
b&
Aye, that’s one of the great ones…but perhaps not quite so great as Mom’s sourdough pancakes or Dad’s coffee cake….
b&
Without a canid, of any genus or species, in the fight (as I’ve been to precisely none of the 50), and merely because I suspect (and hope) the comments might be interesting, here is Zagat’s opinion as to the best pizza in each of the 50 states.
JAC:”Never in my life have I discarded pizza.”
I can believe it!
Yeah, I always rate the quality of my food by cost per square inch.
Thanks for the snarky comment. Apparently you’ve misunderstood the meaning of the post, which is to determine value among a number of different pizzas of equal quality but different sizes.
Lean how to comment constructively.
Whenever our d*gs resisted coming back inside from their walkabout in the yard, all we had to do was yell, ‘PIZZA!’
Deep dish pizzas — called pizza rustica or pizza ghena — are common in Abruzzo & elsewhere in Italy, & a traditional Easter meal (often using a sweet pastry crust.)
Then there’s calzone, and pizza genovese (focaccia), and the schiacciata Stephen mentions above.
Neapolitan style is what most Americans think of as ‘pizza’, with the great debate between the merits of New Haven vs. New York pizza. If you fold your slice lengthwise before taking a bite, you were raised on one of those two.
Chicago “pizza” may taste good, but there’s just one problem, it’s NOT pizza! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8IKxbOpt0E&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Not what I would call a pizza – a pizza is supposed to be thin!
Here in London you do not oder by size – the size is standard in most places. Why not just have two- though I cannot see whay anyone not in training to be an athlete might want more 🙂
that looks more like a Pie or a quiche of some sort.. and it looks like it could feed a family of 10!!
Yeah, I always get the biggest pizza, because they only cost $4-5 bucks and they generally don’t offer a smaller size around here. Yeah, I wouldn’t be too keen to tuck into that monster above; American pizza has always scared me, and I loved the Ninja Turtles when I was a kid (still do).