I grew up south of Boston, just two towns and five miles from the northwest border of South Shore Bar Pizza territory (a region that stretches along the coast from Boston toward Cape Cod), and yet, I had never heard of this style until about 10 years ago. If you're also unfamiliar with this hyper-local style of pizza, here's a rundown: It's a medium-thick pan pizza with a crisp crust, usually sold in bars or taverns (or “cafés” as many pizzas are of South Shore bars, despite serving alcoholic and non-caffeinated drinks).
Now that you know what it is, you should know that this style has extremely devoted fans. Like, extremely devoted – barely three years old South Shore Bar Pizza Social Club The Facebook Group has over 50,000 members, and the @ssbarpizza Instagram account (with nearly 7,000 followers) updates its ranking of the best bar pizza joints almost constantly. With so many stores to choose from, the style is very variable and most fans with ties to the area tend to be very loyal to whichever place they grew up. Once you try South Shore bar pizza, you too may become a believer.
That's what happened to me. After visiting some of the 90-plus shops that serve bar pizza on the South Shore, I'm now a huge fan and—since I don't live this way myself—I knew I had to figure out how to make it at home. .
Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne
What defines South Shore bar pizza?
With so many South Shore bar pizza shops, there is a wide variation in style and good combinations, but here are the commonalities. First and foremost, bar pizza is always baked in a round rimmed steel pan. (Many pizza joints have been using the same pans for decades, their patina and smoothness increasing each year.) The pan is greased (butter, shortening, oil, etc.) and then the dense, not stretched or rolled dough is pressed, to the ends.
Specifically, the dough is filled with sauce and grated cheese (the cheese of choice is cheddar rather than mozzarella, or a combination of the two) from end to end; many of the best spots also apply the sauce-cheese combo over the rim so it runs down toward the bottom of the pan. In the oven, this mixture turns into a caramelized, almost charred feature known as “lacy” or “lacy” edges. It's a bit like a “crown” with dreadlocks in one Detroit style pizza, but darker and crispier than crispy, as it is an amalgamation of cheese and sauce. (In some spots, a laced edge is standard practice; in others, you have to ask for it.) Laced or not, the pizza almost doesn't have an open, raised crust edge because the pie is covered in evenly from edge to edge.
Because the dough on most bar pizzas is high in fat—oil, butter, crust, or some combination thereof—the baked crust is soft and slightly spongy on the inside, with a subtle crisp, almost cookie-like crunch on the outside. .
Finally, most pizza bars are small; usually baked in 10” pans, they are meant to serve one person.
You'll notice I haven't talked about toppings here. Most joints offer the usual adventurous selection of vegetables and meats, cured or otherwise, but some are known for more unusual combinations of toppings. Perhaps most iconic is the Boston Baked Beans, Onions and Sausage, which is a specialty of Randolph's Lynwood Cafe in Massachusetts. Other unique South Coast toppings include hamburg, which is just chunks of ground beef (with cheddar cheese, it's eaten like a cheeseburger pizza) and linguica, a garlic-cured pork sausage that's a favorite of many expats Portuguese people. area.
Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne
Making South Shore Bar Pizza at Home
Each joint has its own method, so there's no one way to make South Shore bar pizza, but after a lot of testing, I was able to create a home version that hit all the best of the best spots I had, starting my journey with the recipe that Todd Mead generously distributed at Everything South Shore Bar Pizza.
The dough. As I mentioned above, the dough is relatively high in fat, which is partly responsible for the crunchy texture of the bottom crust. To get that buttery, cookie flavor and texture, we settled on a 50-50 butter and olive oil mix (using a butter and oil mix and not just butter, as some recipes do, keeps the crust from being too crunchy. ). To make the dough, I used a simple and quick food processing method that worked perfectly for the relatively modest amount of dough. The dough undergoes a long cold fermentation, something that helps develop the flavor in the dough and make it relaxed enough to press easily in the pan. It is ready to use the next day and up to 48 hours later, which builds some flexibility into the recipe.
Baking pan. At home, I thought it would be simpler to make several larger pies, rather than small personal pizzas. I developed the recipe using two 12″ round pans – I love it THESE — but since people new to the pizza bar might not want to invest in special pans at first, there's also an option to bake in a 9″ x 13″ Rectangle Cake Pan.. While rectangular South Shore bar pies aren't really a thing, they're no less delicious despite their unorthodox shape—so delicious, in fact, that you might be inspired to buy a matching round pan for your next bake.
Grease the pan before adding the batter is the other secret to achieving the perfect final slightly browned crust. While many recipes simply call for oiling the pan, using a solid fat is more effective, both because it sticks to the pan better and because it gives a fresher result. If you have a vegetable cutter handy, you can use that; I use coconut oil. (Unless you want to give your bar pizza a tropical flavor, be sure to use neutral-flavored refined coconut oil.)
Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne
Sauce. The South Shore bar pizza sauce is simple: crushed canned tomatoes, some oregano and red pepper flakes, salt and a little sugar, mixed together until smooth.
Cheeses. The cheese on many pizza bars is a mix of sharp white cheddar and mild, aged mozzarella. The cheddar gives the pizza a distinctive buttery flavor while intensifying the flaky edges. I like to add a sprinkling of Parmesan, although it's not traditional.
Baking. To achieve that crisp, lacy bottom crust, nearly charred edges and a nicely browned top, bar pizzas need to be cooked hot and fast. At home, this is best done in one baking steel OR STONE (steel is preferred if you have one, as it is a better conductor of heat), in an oven heated to the highest temperature possible – up to 550˚F, oven and pans permitting. You'll need to bake the pies one at a time until each one is bubbly and browned on top and laced at the edges, which takes about 10 minutes. Then remove the pie from the oven, carefully loosen it from the edges of the pan and turn it on the steel or stone for a few minutes to brown and brown the bottom completely.
While the first pie is baking, you can prepare the second. And while it's brewing, you should gather your friends around the kitchen counter, crack open a few beers, and dig right in. This is one pizza you and your guests won't want to wait for.
Cover photo by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne.
