A rectangular, thick-crust pizza baked in a deep rectangular steel pan so the dough rises into an airy, focaccia-like base. Brick cheese is spread all the way to the pan walls, where it caramelizes against the hot steel into a crisp, lacy fried edge; the tomato sauce is ladled on top of the cheese in stripes after baking or just before. The result is a tall, square-cut slice with a deeply browned, almost-fried bottom and corner pieces prized for their double crust.
The style was developed in 1946 at Buddy's Rendezvous, a former speakeasy at Six Mile and Conant in Detroit run by Gus and Anna Guerra; the Sicilian-style base is variously credited to Anna's mother's sfincione recipe or to an employee named Connie Piccinato. The pans were blue steel utility trays sourced from local automotive suppliers, originally used in factories to hold parts and scrap. The Guerras sold the renamed Buddy's Pizza in 1953 and opened the Cloverleaf Bar in Eastpointe, seeding a second lineage of the style.
The hallmark is the frico edge — the rim of brick cheese that fries crisp and brown against the pan, shattering like a cracker against the soft interior. The crust itself is tall and open-crumbed, chewy and light rather than dense, with an almost-deep-fried bottom from oil pooling in the steel. Sauce sits on top, so its bright, slightly sweet tomato hits the tongue first, before the salty cheese and the toasted dough. Corner slices, with crust crisped on two sides, are the contested prize.
Steel conducts heat far more aggressively than the aluminum or stone of a typical pizza, so the dough's bottom and the cheese touching the pan walls both brown hard; the lacy cheese edge is frico — milk proteins and fats browning and crisping by Maillard reaction directly on metal at oven temperatures near 260°C. A wet, well-fermented dough is needed for the open, airy crumb, and oil in the pan effectively pan-fries the base. Putting the sauce on top of the cheese keeps the cheese from steaming and lets it caramelize freely.
Variations
Brick cheese, a mild Wisconsin variety, is the orthodox choice for its high fat and low melting point; some shops blend in mozzarella. The original Buddy's style stripes the sauce over the baked cheese, while many pizzerias sauce just before baking. Sicilian pizza and grandma pizza of the East Coast share the rectangular pan but lack the frico edge and the sauce-on-top order. It is wholly distinct from the round, thin Neapolitan or the deep-dish of Chicago.
On the Palate
Where Detroit-Style Pizza sits in the American flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
6 steps · 40 min active + 2 hours 20 min waiting
- 1150 min
Mix a high-hydration dough, knead briefly, and let it ferment 2 to 3 hours until doubled.
- 225 min
Oil a rectangular steel pan generously and press the dough out to the corners; rest 20 minutes.
- 38 min
Cover the dough edge to edge with cubed or sliced brick cheese, pushing it against the pan walls.
Watch outPush the cheese right up against the pan walls — that cheese browning directly on hot steel is the crisp frico edge, the whole point.
- 415 min
Bake at 260°C for about 15 minutes until the cheese edge is crisp and the bottom is deeply browned.
Watch outBake at 260 until the cheese edge is crisp and the bottom deeply browned — the steel's fierce heat is what hard-browns both.
- 53 min
Ladle warm tomato sauce in three stripes across the top of the baked cheese.
Watch outSauce goes on top of the baked cheese in stripes — that keeps the cheese from steaming so it can caramelize freely.
- 64 min
Lift the pizza from the pan, cut into squares, and serve with the crisp corner pieces first.
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