Not Mozzarella, Not Cheddar: This Is The Cheese You Need For Detroit-Style Pizza

Detroit-style pizza is a unique variety all its own with its rectangular shape cut into squares. It's baked in a deep steel pan and is oftentimes served with a stripe of sauce on top. The bread is much like a light and airy focaccia, and the most coveted parts are the caramelized, lacy cheese edges that are crunchy and deeply flavorful. If you're not from the Detroit area, one detail you might not know is that the cheese on top isn't mozzarella.

It's called brick cheese, which is a mild white cheese with plenty of fat and creaminess to it. Brick cheese does admittedly resemble mozzarella and is oftentimes sourced directly from Wisconsin. It makes for an ideal melting cheese, perfectly blanketing the surface of a Detroit-style pie. The edges of the pie are formed when the cheese melts between the crust and the pan, creating that cheese crisp which is the hallmark of every good Detroit slice. Granted, it's a niche type of cheese which makes it hard to find at most grocery stores. If you're outside of the Detroit or Wisconsin area, you may need to hunt it down at a specialty cheese shop.

The problem with regionally-specific ingredients is that it can be hard to replicate authentic recipes at home. Fortunately, mozzarella is a perfectly good substitute and people commonly use it to make Detroit-style pizza. In fact, the Detroit-style pizza chain Jet's Pizza uses mozzarella on its pizzas rather than brick cheese. And yes, mozzarella will still create those savory cheese edges. It even works for a Chicago-style pan pizza, in the case of hometown favorite, Pequod's (though take it from a former pizzamaker, a young, low-moisture white cheddar edge works some magic too).

You don't have to feel like you're making concessions when it comes to using mozzarella for a homemade pizza since the result will be negligible enough that you likely won't even notice. Plus, well, it's pizza, and everyone loves pizza, right? If you happen to be a home pizzamaker who enjoys Detroit-style pies, definitely snag some brick cheese if you see it in the deli case. Your pizza will cover that official final touch that makes it the authentic thing. Plus, if you have any left over brick cheese makes for some really great beer cheese dip.