🍕 Pick Your Pizza Style
Each style has its own dough specs — hydration, flour, oven temperature, timing. Pick the one you want and open the calculator pre-filled with the right starting point.
Neapolitan
Thin centre, puffy cornicione, leopard-spotted char. Wood-fired in 60-90 seconds.
New York
Large, foldable slice. Bread flour plus a bit of oil keeps it chewy and flexible.
Detroit
Rectangular pan pizza, high hydration, crispy cheese edge (frico) around the perimeter.
Chicago Deep-Dish
Two-inch deep pan, buttery cornmeal crust, cheese first, chunky tomato on top.
Vito's Double
Three-stage ferment on a Neapolitan base. Extra airy, extra digestible.
Read the full style comparison guide →
How to choose your pizza style
Pizza styles differ in hydration, flour, oven temperature, and timing. The right choice depends on what equipment you have and what kind of crust you want.
Which style for which oven?
Your oven is the biggest constraint. A standard home oven tops out around 260-290°C, which rules out true Neapolitan but works well for New York, Detroit, and Chicago styles. A pizza steel or stone helps. If you have a dedicated pizza oven (Ooni, Roccbox, Gozney) reaching 450°C+, you unlock Neapolitan and Vito's Double — the high heat is what produces the leopard-spotted char and 60-90 second bake time those styles require.
Detroit-style is interesting because it's adapted for home kitchens — the rectangular blue-steel pan stores enough heat that an ordinary 260°C home oven can produce the characteristic frico cheese edge.
Common questions
What is the easiest pizza style for beginners?
New York-style is the most forgiving. Hydration sits at a manageable 60-65%, the bake temperature is reachable in any home oven (315-370°C with a pizza steel), and the dough is sturdy enough that small mistakes in shaping or topping don't ruin the result. Neapolitan is harder because the dough is wetter and the technique demands very high heat to work properly.
Can I make Neapolitan pizza in a home oven?
Not authentically — Neapolitan needs 450-485°C and a 60-90 second bake to develop its characteristic puffy cornicione and leopard char. A home oven at 270°C will produce a respectable thin pizza but not a true Neapolitan. If you want close-to-authentic Neapolitan from a home oven, look at New York or Vito's Double styles instead — they're designed to taste similar at lower temperatures.
What's the difference between Neapolitan and New York pizza?
Neapolitan uses Tipo 00 flour, 60-65% hydration, and bakes at 450°C+ for 60-90 seconds. The crust is thin in the centre with a puffy, often charred edge. New York uses bread flour with a small amount of oil, similar hydration, but bakes at 315-370°C for 5-7 minutes. The result is foldable, chewy, and slightly crisper on the bottom. Both descend from Italian immigrant traditions but evolved differently because of available equipment and ingredients.
What hydration should I use for my style?
The calculator sets a sensible default per style: 58% for Neapolitan, 63% for New York, 72% for Detroit, 62% for Chicago, 68% for Vito's Double. Higher hydration gives a more open, airy crumb but is harder to handle. The slider lets you adjust within the safe range for each style. Read the hydration guide for more detail on what changes when you go up or down.