Dough
60–65%
Hydration
Workable but not wet. High-gluten bread flour gives the chew and stretch; the cold ferment builds flavor without overproofing.
Style guide · New York
New York.
Italian immigrants brought Naples to lower Manhattan in the early 1900s. The New York slice that emerged is bigger, sturdier, and built for eating standing up — folded in half, dripping a little, often at 1 AM.
01 · History
From Lombardi's coal oven to every corner pizzeria.
Gennaro Lombardi opened the first licensed pizzeria in the US in 1905 at 53 1/2 Spring Street. The oven was coal-fired — hotter and dirtier than Naples's wood — and the pies it made were bigger, sturdier, and built for selling whole or by the slice to factory workers.
Through the mid-20th century the style evolved: high-gluten bread flour replaced 00, slow cold fermentation built deeper flavor and made dough easier to handle, and the 18-inch pie cut into 8 sectors became the canonical shape.
The slice has its own physics. A thin underbelly built for the fold; a corner cornicione that handles the grip; a layer of low-moisture mozzarella that melts to a lacy sheen rather than pooling into watery pockets.
By the rules
High-gluten bread flour (King Arthur Sir Lancelot or All Trumps). 24–72 hour cold ferment. Low-moisture mozzarella, cooked tomato sauce, hand-stretched on a peel. Baked at 550°F on a steel or stone for 7–10 minutes.
02 · Defining traits
Per pie
350g
Dough ball
Stretched to a 16–18" pie. Thin in the middle to hold the fold, with a corner cornicione you can grip without grease running down your wrist.
Bake
8 min
At 550°F
Pizza steel on the top third rack, broiler on at the start, switch to bake mode for the last 4 minutes. Bottom should be brown but bendy.
03 · Classic recipes
The everyman
Plain cheese
Cooked tomato sauce, low-moisture mozzarella, a finishing dust of pecorino. The slice you eat on the sidewalk for $4 — and the hardest one to make great at home.
Cooked sauceLow-mo mozzPecorino
Open the Plain cheese recipe→
The icon
Pepperoni
Cup-and-char pepperoni (Hormel Old Smokehouse or Ezzo's), placed under and over the cheese so the cups fill with rendered fat. Sauce stays cooked, no surprises.
Cup-and-char pepLow-mo mozzCooked sauce
Open the Pepperoni recipe→
04 · Make it
One click into the calculator
Make a New York dough.
Opens the dough calculator with New York pre-selected. Pick a pie count and a 24, 48, or 72-hour cold ferment; we'll handle the high-gluten flour ratios and the day-by-day timing.
Open the dough calculator→
Pair with
The topping calculator opens with NY plain or NY pepperoni preconfigured — the two slices every NY pizzeria sells by the dozen.
Open the topping calculator→
Equipment
Three questions on budget, space, and how often you bake — we'll recommend a curated equipment build to get you started.
Open the equipment quiz→