You’re sitting around the living room with your buddies, ready to dig into the boxes of delivery pizza that just arrived fresh and steaming at your front door. When just about everyone starts to chow down on the topping- and cheese-laden slices, the attention slowly turns to the quiet person sitting on the edge of the couch.
One of your buddies brought his new girlfriend to the party, and she’s doing the unthinkable: blotting the grease from the top of her slice. “You’re taking away the best part,” one of your friends says, bringing a flush of color to her face as she sets her greasy napkin aside and pretends like she had been swatting at imaginary flies that were hovering over the pizza.
While you and your friends might have a few moments poking fun, you know deep down there is a question that has been burning inside of you ever since you first saw someone bunch up a paper napkin and go to town on de-greasing a pizza: Is it really worth it?
The cheese on your pizza will be greasy because it contains fat. As it cooks, the cheese will ooze out, revealing fat. This is especially problematic if you choose low-fat cheeses. You can also try to choose a cheese like grated Parmesan.
Does Blotting Pizza Make It Healthier?
We’re starting to get to the heart of the pizza grease blotting controversy now. If you’re going to deny yourself a little extra pizza grease, and you’re willing to put in the work to do the job, you’re probably wondering if it’s even doing anything.
In short, it sure is. While that grease floating on top of your slice might not look like much, it could be adding about 2 pounds a year to your waistline.
The Controversy of Blotting Pizza
It’s tough to find a true pizza lover who will admit they blot that slice of dough. Maybe you’re a New Yorker who folds a slice and lets the pizza grease drip down between your fingers. Or perhaps you tend to go for the Chicago deep dish, which requires shoveling sometimes grease-filled forkfuls of pizza into your mouth. Whatever your style of pizza, it can be tough to admit blotting pizza grease could be a healthy alternative to your monthly, weekly or daily pizza fix. (We’re not judging how often you eat pizza. Because, really, is every meal too often?)
If you’ve ever seen the 2004 film Along Came Polly, you might recall the scene where Ben Stiller and Philip Seymour Hoffman are in the New York pizza shop. When Hoffman sees Stiller blotting his pizza, he grabs the slice and lets the grease drip onto his own pizza, even giving it a little squeeze as not to waste a single bit.
That’s how serious some pizza lovers are about pizza grease:
- They can’t stand the sight of someone wasting the grease by letting a napkin absorb it.
- They’d rather consume the extra calories in someone else’s greasy slice than see it get tossed into the trash and forgotten — never to be tasted among the melted cheese, homemade crust or delectable sauce.
Like Hoffman’s character, some pizza connoisseurs might scoff at the very suggestion of blotting the grease off the top. Isn’t that grease part of the magic of delicious pizza making? How can you separate the grease from the pizza and still call it pizza?
To those people, we hear where you’re coming from. We understand that the very concept of saving a few calories on pizza is nothing short of blasphemy. But we also see the quietly raised hands of pizza lovers around the world who want to keep eating the pizza they love, but without the guilt of knowing they could be eating something healthier.
Those who commit to a healthy lifestyle, after all, shouldn’t feel guilty in the occasional splurge of a pizza slice. We all need to know the joy of something as tasty as pizza. And if we can help our fellow dieting man enjoy one slice without feeling too guilty, then we’re going to do it.
Should I oil my pizza pan?
FAQ
How do you make pizza less greasy?
What causes a pizza to be greasy?
Why is there so much oil in pizza?
Is authentic pizza greasy?
Why is my pizza oily?
If you add cheese to the crust, the pizza becomes oily overall. The excessive oil comes from the oiling we do. Or maybe the oil you put on the dough before baking was a bit more than needed. What we sometimes do is make our pizza a bit oily.
What are the reasons to avoid taking oily and spicy food?
Oil is a source of fat, and fat consumption must be controlled, as it is a high-calorie food, which in excess can trigger weight gain and non-transmissible chronic diseases related to weight gain. And highly seasoned foods can impair the proper functioning of the stomach.
Why is my pizza greasy If I blot it?
When you blot the toppings, you absorb some grease and oil. Your pizza will be less greasy if you do this. Cheese is one of the main culprits when it comes to greasy pizza. Cheese is high in fat, and when it melts, that fat seeps out. Making matters worse, some cheeses (like Mozzarella) are more prone to oozing than others.
Why is my pizza soggy?
The pizza will cook from the inside-out rather than from the outside-in, which will result in a soggy crust. You might even end up with the opposite effect and dry it out, which will give the pizza an unappealing, cardboard-like texture without addressing the greasiness.