I Tested 1000 Years of Pizza

Pizza Legend has been overloaded with mythical stories passed down through time that were inevitably untrue so today we set the record straight and provide the definitive history of everything Pizza fact checked by our good friend Scott weiner one of the most knowledgeable Pizza historians in the world to answer the ultimate question are you living in the greatest time to be alive for pizza or was it better far in the past it's the year 997 in Italy a small village between Roman Naples a doent in Latin shows a feudal Lord promising 12 pizzas to the local Bishop as a yearly tribute it might have looked like this which we got from a 1570s cookbook by the Pop's Chef the evidence points to the fact that pizza didn't change much between 997 and 1570 so uh not a lot of progress during that time so while we have no exact recipe to go with the earliest written word of pizza we know from dictionaries that it was likely a sweet cookie or cake were there flatbreads eaten 10,000 years before yeah probably but that wasn't considered pizza so here in his cookbook from 1570 to Pope Chef just calls the recipe number 121 And he says neapolitans call it Pizza it was made very generally Bowl you add ground almonds ground pine nuts cinnamon sugar egg yolks rosew water and ground up dates figs and raisins which was essentially like a thick boy paste you mix it all together you add it to a grease cake pan lined with what's called royal pastry bake and serve hot or cold but what did it taste like couple things to note here the variations we don't really know for sure we don't have an exact recipes cuz it was the Dark Ages I would imagine in the Dark Ages you don't really give that much of a about tracking recipes you probably care more about tracking if your son is alive so let's taste I actually kind of like this it's actually pretty good the base is sort of like a moderately salty kind of dry hearty shortbread base shortbread but then the top is like this chewy fruity sweet almost like health bar texture I kind of like it maybe cuz I'm on a diet I don't know then you also have this like fig date Vibe honestly you could probably sell this you probably would do pretty well throughout this video We'll be asking one important question is this the peak of pizza obviously this being the first iteration no it's the beginning but this is a strong start moving on by the mid to late 1700s big fast forward pizza's finally evolved past its sweet Prime and into what we sort of know it as today and the pizzas might have looked kind of like this how do we know this to be true drawings from this era show pizza I I'm not going to say it it's it's this is the word why does it look like this why did this pizza appear you got to keep in mind Savory pizza at the start was not really a celebrated food like it is today it was honestly born as a necessity to the bread baking process so essentially to avoid burning their bread Bakers would cool down their oven floor by baking big pieces of old dough weigh down with cheap ingredients and then they could sell it to poor people after as food so essentially how Savory Pizza began so how are these pizzas made well they both get the same dough Stone miled whole grain flour likely un sifted likely still had brand in it broken wheat berries maybe yeast but it probably was like wild yeast maybe like a sour dough you get this dough you stretch it out as best you can and the white pizza would be topped with just strips of lard or leftover butcher trimmings and a little bit of peinao Romano there definitely was no extra version olive oil because that was a luxury ingredient now we're cooking with the closest thing that we have to wood burning oven then post bake you had a little bit of Basil if they had it now for the Tomato Pizza it was the same dough garlic Tomatoes a little bit of oregano baked the same way and now let's see how they taste honestly not bad looking not bad smelling typically these were made with lesser ingredients or what was left over wasn't really for the wealthy what's a taste really good I feel like today the things that make up fine dining back in the day were actually eaten out of necessity pork fatty the salt Sal iness from the cheese the dough is like rustic if you had a little olive oil this would be amazing big fan and the whole wheat dough provides a lot of flavor even though it's a little burnt it actually tastes quite nice all right same context as before this is the first recording of tomatoes being added to Pizza so we're getting closer to an actual pizza here it is noticeably more exciting a little bit of sweetness tartness it's an elevated flavor I will say I would like some salt I would like some oil but that's not really what they had or either of these two the Pika Pizza definitely not let's move on to the next now we enter the 1800s today we know the Neal and Margarita Pizza to be the purest form of pizza so to speak and by 1860 pizza and Naples is getting closer to that but not quite we see several records of cheese and tomato together on pizza but not with basil and no record of the term Margarita Pizza didn't they say the margarita pizza haveen around this era didn't they say it was created for Queen Margarita so what would the 1860s cheese and tomato pizza look like likely still made with that same whole grain dough we do learn from the earliest English accounts of pizza that the big time was around 5 minutes much longer than the present day so at this point pizza's popularity in Naples is increasing it was eaten by Rich poor and me this looks like a big step in the right direction this is starting to look like a pizza starting to I'm a little uh hesitant with the lack of salt and oil still but you know I'll let him slide on that I can already feel what they were probably thinking they were probably thinking pause did we just invent something by accident because somehow I wasn't even thinking of anything beyond I'm eating a piece of bread that's like okay with got different ingredients on it but when I took a bite of this everything harmoniously came together and suddenly made sense it was just like all the flavors the sweetness the tartness the Tomato the cheese the flavor of the cheese the chewi of the cheese and then the bread base added that final sort of Pizza Brick Oven flavor my brain immediately goes this is pizza so the book of pizza begs the question what about Margarita Pizza in 1889 Queen Margarita visited Naples and loved a pizza with mozzarella cheese tomato sauce and basil made to represent the Italian flag the pizza maker named it after her on the spot so that's the story right wrong that story is just a legend there's no proof she ever visited in 1889 there is a newspaper article that says she visited in 1880 and was offered 35 different pizzas but no mention of pizza being named after her so where did this pizza and its name come from the book tells us it's a mystery the best we can do is pull together the facts we have and summarize that a recipe existed sometime after 1870 because we know grain Milling evolved to provide better flour tomato canning evolved so Tomatoes changed to taste more like we know today cheese and tomato existed on Pizza as well as basil for the name believe it or not for pizza so famous the earliest records of pizza margarita on a menu is the 1940s yikes to celebrate it we might as well taste it so simple so perfect even the smell by far my favorite bite of pizza this says the whole tail of Pizza in one bite what you get is the symphony good mozzarella cheese tomatoes basil and olive oil and those somehow coming together on a pizza create almost its own unique flavor that is perfect as it is but that doesn't necessarily mean it's even remotely close to the best but only one way to find out now by 1893 Pizza has come to America and the earliest known pizzeria in New York City and the US most people think lombardis is the first pizzeria in America but that's not true and the story of them applying for the first pizza license in 1905 it's actually also not true because Pizza licenses didn't exist the earliest known pizzeria in New York city in the US was simply called Forno e Pizzeria or oven and pizza house but what was the pizza sauce on top of cheese just like 1860s Naples the big differences are the pizza was cooked in a coal oven since coal was cheaper than wood the pizzas are bigger than Naples because bread ovens in America are bigger it's America and also American flour has higher protein levels than the softer Italian flour so it can stretch much larger so where did the pizza go next right up the coast to New Haven Conneticut by 1908 similar Coal Oven pizzas appear here and in 1925 the famous Frank Pepes opened so how did Coal Oven Pizza taste it's a very flavorful Pizza I don't know that it's my favorite but it is good this is getting its distinct crispy crunchy almost cracker-like bottom of the crust certain smokiness from a special kind of char specifically due to that coal or charcoal and the sauce is obviously very different it's a little sweeter it's got more ingredients than you would see in like a classic Italian version where it might just be tomato and that's it is this the height of pizza honestly I don't know that this Advanced from the last one so hopefully it'll be the next one in the 1930s Tavern thin crust pizza was introduced with the introduction of gas ovens coal ovens got retrofitted for cheaper natural gas gas Cooks at a lower heat than coal so time increases which means drier crispier crust but we're going to need to taste it to see the difference I mean it's good thin crisp almost cracker-like crust on the bottom is this the ideal best pizza in the world for me I'm not so convinced I do like how crisp it is I like the cheese I like the sauce is it the peak definitely not to me I think we still have more to go so moving on now in the 1940s and 1950s during and after World War II the invention of gas fuel deck ovens coupled with soldiers returning from military service with a taste for pizza is going to give birth to many of America's most iconic Pizza Styles let's start in 1943 the pizzeria we know as Uno opens in Chicago and introduces Chicago style deep dish pizza a higher fat higher sugar pan pizza with the cheeses at the bottom then the toppings then the sauce this is to prevent the cheese from burning because it's going to be baked much longer than a New York style pizza we see a new innovation in pizza maybe the first really big step outside of what was originally seen as Pizza this is delicious this is not pizza not to me not to a lot of people now I understand there are people out there that love deep dish it's not that it's bad it's a tasty version of what I would call more of a pie we have more to go now in 1946 Detroit style pizza is born at buddies it's a modification of Sicilian faka it features crisped up Wisconsin brick cheese all around the outside of the puffy Square thanks to its signature High walled Pizza pin supposedly from nearby hardware stores I don't like the element of hardware stores being involved in my food but let's taste some Innovation is occurring here I've had Buddy's Original Pizza before it was all right and now we're back it almost tastes better knowing how we do here now we're thinking about how the technique is affecting the outside of the pizza how the cheese can become a bit more of an advocate other than just being melted on top it could become part of the crust there's a lot of thoughtfulness going on here it's wonderful is this the best iteration of pizza of course it isn't we have more to go now around this time closer to the turn of the 1950s in New York City we start to see pizza by the slice now we're getting somewhere the low moisture mozzarella cheese has now replaced fresh mozzarella it's cheaper it has a longer shelf life and I'm sure the mafia had something to do with it it's it's fine big Pizza typically made in a gas oven this could be the Pinnacle of pizza this has been a roller coaster we've gone completely far away from Pizza to closer to pizza to farther away from pizza and back home to Pizza I don't know I need to try the rest to really find out if this is the Pinnacle moving on to the next Pizza by the mid to late 1950s the first family style franchise Pizza chain arrives it started with shakies in California in 1954 now the real big news for Better or For Worse Pizza Hut opened in 1958 in witch do Kansas followed by the first God Little Caesars 1959 and the first dominoes in 1960 look the original styles were fairly traditional now the downside to this is that these chain pizzerias grew their centralized distribution business models which unfortunately led to a steady decline in independent small family-owned pizza shops you know where the good stuff is unfortunately let's taste Little Caesars dominoes and Pizza Hut you guys know how I feel about this pizza is this going to be the peak of pizza no but we will pick at least a favorite Little Caesars which I've actually never had that's just bread with sauce and cheese that's not a pizza crust dominoes similar issue a little better step in the right direction at least there's flavor the sauce isn't as sweet which I appreciate it's not bad and it's not good and then Pizza Hut Domino's wins the mediocrity off we're moving on to a controversial time at least it's controversial to me 1962 America wants more convenience and Frozen Pizza goes National when totinos opens their first frozen pizza plant like a factory now prior of this frozen pizza was a regional special in 1951 Totino actually started as a restaurant I did not know this but thanks to the success of their frozen pizza in 1975 the husband and wife owners sell totinos to Pillsbury for $22 million they got to be good right the irony is this was supposed to have been an innovation but there's a destructiveness to progress sometimes they just want to make money and this is the result of that that is single-handedly one of the most revolting things I've eaten of 2024 this has the flavor profile that only an iPad baby would love this was a massive step in the wrong direction if we were to rewind all the way back to the very first version of pizza at The Peasant level that was significantly healthier and more flavorful than this holy we have a lot of progress to work on here now on to 1968 Gino's pizza rolls debut there's no more American story than this an Italian Chinese food entrepreneur named Gino paluchi saw the success of frozen pizza and filled his extra egg roll wrappers with cheese and sauce and invented the pizza roll aren't they made by totinos here's the thing 1985 guess who bought it Pillsbury in 1993 Pillsbury rebranded goo's pizza rolls as Totino's Pizza Rolls American entrepreneurship at its finest Corporate America has realized wow people really like pizza what if we turned other things into Pizza that should be good right somehow these are worse than I remember moving on now in 1974 stuffed pizza debuts in Chicago but is it actually Pizza first of all what is it unlike Chicago deep dish it's got two layers of crust encasing toppings and cheese with sauce on top so let's taste wow if it wasn't a step in the wrong direction before it may be another one now this is the American palette at this period in time Jesus at least this one is stiff enough to hold somehow slightly better and slightly worse if I were to compare to this the original Deep Dish it's not any better there's no progress that happened here if you are the type of person that just loves loves loves cheese more than anything than this pizza is for you it's just more cheese which is not what it needed bad Pizza is not going to be fixed by more cheese and great pizza doesn't need more cheese moving on a decade later in 1983 and 1984 two Pizza snacks were invented that would change the after school world forever 1983 the pepperoni pizza hot pocket debuted something I've always hated in the 1984 Bagel Bites debut something I used to like and then my prefrontal cortex developed let's just taste them bigel bites first my god oh broke my to off I mean The Bagel Bites are okay like this is like a crouton Hot Pocket nothing about these two items are pizza at all I'm not thinking of pizza I'm not enjoying them these are mostly for kids but I feel like they should still taste good right they taste okay I don't know that I would say it's in the wrong Direction it's just not on the path of pizza at all this is not even pizza now on to 1985 California Pizza Kitchen opens introducing California style pizza to the masses what is California style the term California style means Neapolitan inspired pizza with unique toppings but you know these were higher-end pizzas they were exclusive they were expensive someone needed to democratize it California Pizza Kitchen so what was the pizza that made CPK famous the original barbecue chicken pizza was the answer to that no one was putting barbecue chicken on Pizza in the 198 if anything it probably was seen as a horrific transition for pizza by Italians and I'm sure it still is today what really happened here and this is my own personal opinion is that people were thinking to put other things on Pizza that had never been put on it before so let's be a little fair and give it a try so we're supposed to get this from California Pizza Kitchen but we don't have any near us so I made the exact spec that CPK would have made I've been there a million times as a kid I mean first of all it's obviously good California you're saying we're going to put other things on Pizza not just tomato not just cheese so this was a gateway to another level was this the the best version of pizza I don't think so as good as it is and it is delicious it's just different it didn't beat the margarita so is there anything left that will oh finally we're getting closer to the modern day 10 years later 1995 rising crust Douro introduced by Craft which was the first frozen pizza advancement since the 1960s really not that much time opposed to the flat crunchy crust of most frozen pizzas Douro features a doughy crust that rises as it's baked did it pay off for craft actually yeah in 2010 craft sold the joural to Nestle for $3.7 billion is it even still successful well despite It featuring a lot of additives to strengthen the do and keep it hydrated it still is the top selling frozen pizza in the US with over 1 billion in Revenue yearly that hurts let's make it hurt a little more and give it a taste this is an innovation though in the frozen pizza space they're trying to make it more like actual pizza but is it it's just mediocre bread did it get better the frozen pizza space yes but did pizza get better absolutely not moving on now in the same year stuffed crust pizza at Pizza Hut becomes a thing now originally patented in 1987 by a solo entrepreneur Pizza Hut rejected his initial pitch and well they did it themselves 8 years later isn't that nice the entrepreneurs sued Pizza Hut for $1 billion and lost nobody ever said that this was going to be a happy story sadness aside let's taste it yet again man trying to play with nature some things are good as they are and we try to make them better did we win in doing so this could be a win for cheese lovers and it's not necessarily a loss to me if it's done properly matter of fact I do think that there is a traditional Pizza in Italy that has cheese in the crust I don't like this form of it but cheese stuffed crust pizza is good but is it the best version of pizza no it's not we're almost nearing the end of our story here 2008 the Chipotle of pizza arrives MOD Pizza is founding now the largest fast casual made on demand Pizza chain in America the value prop to customers is unlimited toppings for One Price It's really fast and it's technically made fresh which I guess I can't argue with it's a big talk but does it have big taste the most recent in and potentially the thinnest little I've ever seen a little bit of a step in the wrong direction a little bit of a step in the right direction it's chewy it's a little crisp the sauce isn't overly sweet the cheese tastes decent this is going to taste like whatever you put it on it's a little too thin for my taste it might even be closer to like a Tavern style this is the most recent update we've seen to pizza but there's one more left that really takes us to present and inevitably what looks like probably the future we're now on to the last page of the book of pizza the journey brings us to today the 2020s pizza shops are going back back to their Roots the original processes the old school processes they're Milling their own flour they might even be making their own cheese potentially even fermenting their dough with natural wild yeast Pizza has seen so many things so many people so many places it's all over the world now it's evolved de evolved and evolved again in a way we have all the kinds of pizza we could ever want that existed both before and now in one single era so in a way you could make the decision yourself when do you think the best time for pizza was I think you know what it's come full circle I think it's today don't forget to subscribe love you bye