St. Louis–Style

St. Louis crust is unleavened — no yeast at all. That means no rise, no proofing, no waiting. The dough is rolled thin, baked crisp, and cut into squares (tavern-cut). It’s traditionally paired with Provel cheese, a processed blend of cheddar, Swiss, and provolone that melts into a gooey, almost fondue-like layer.

For the home cook, this is one of the easiest crusts to start with. You can mix the dough, roll it out, and bake it in under 30 minutes. If you’re new to making pizza from scratch, a no-yeast dough works perfectly here.

Tavern-Style (Chicago Thin Crust)

When people say “Chicago pizza,” everyone pictures the deep-dish. But ask anyone actually living in Chicago what they eat on a Tuesday night, and the answer is usually tavern-style — a thin, cracker-crisp round cut into squares. The dough uses a small amount of yeast but is rolled aggressively thin and baked until it shatters. Our tavern-style pizza guide walks you through the full technique.

Neapolitan

The original. Neapolitan crust is soft, pliable, and slightly charred — with a puffy cornicione (that’s the raised edge) and a thin, almost soupy center. Traditional Neapolitan rules — codified by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN) — are strict: 00 flour, hand-stretched only, wood-fired oven at 900°F+, baked in 60–90 seconds.

Can you make it at home? Sort of. You won’t hit 900°F in a standard oven, but a pizza steel preheated at your oven’s max with the broiler on gets you close. The dough itself is beautifully simple — just flour, water, salt, and yeast. Check our 7 Neapolitan pizza mistakes guide before your first attempt so you skip the learning-curve disasters.

New Haven–Style (Apizza)

New Haven apizza is Neapolitan’s charred, slightly unhinged cousin. It’s baked in coal-fired ovens at extreme heat, producing a crust that’s thinner, crispier, and more aggressively blistered. The edges are almost burnt (on purpose). Traditionally served without mozzarella — the classic “plain” apizza is just tomato sauce, garlic, pecorino, and olive oil. Our full New Haven apizza breakdown covers the history and home method.

Roman (Pizza al Taglio)

Roman al taglio (“by the cut”) is a rectangular, high-hydration dough baked on sheet pans. It’s crisp on the bottom but airy and open-crumbed inside — somewhere between thin and medium on the spectrum. As Serious Eats explains in their al taglio deep-dive, the key is a long cold ferment, which builds flavor and creates those gorgeous irregular bubbles. We cover the home technique in our Roman-style pizza al taglio guide.

New York–Style

Big, foldable, slightly chewy with a crisp undercarriage. New York–style crust is the gold standard for a reason — it works with basically any topping combination and it’s very forgiving for home bakers. The secret is high-gluten bread flour, which gives the crust its signature chew and structure. America’s Test Kitchen has noted that the high protein content in bread flour (12–14%) is what develops the gluten network responsible for that signature fold-without-snap quality. A touch of olive oil and sugar in the dough adds that pizzeria-style flavor. Our NY-style pizza guide has the full recipe and technique.

Hand-Tossed (American Pizzeria)

This is the everyman crust — the one you’ll find at most independent pizzerias across the US. It’s hand-stretched (not rolled), which preserves air bubbles in the rim for a puffier edge. Thicker than New York, thinner than Sicilian, and endlessly customizable. If you’re just starting out, our ultimate pizza dough guide covers this style in detail.

Sicilian

Sicilian pizza is square, thick, and pillowy — baked in a well-oiled sheet pan that creates a crispy, almost focaccia-like bottom crust. The dough gets a long rise, which produces an airy, open crumb inside. Traditionally, the sauce goes on top of the cheese. Our Sicilian pizza at home guide walks through the pan prep, dough handling, and bake.

Detroit-Style

Detroit-style is Sicilian’s cheesier, more aggressive sibling. The dough is pressed into a rectangular steel pan (originally repurposed automotive parts trays), topped edge-to-edge with brick cheese that melts down the sides and caramelizes against the pan into a frico crust. Sauce goes on top in racing stripes. It’s spectacular.

For the home version, a cast iron skillet — like a Lodge 12-inch — works as a substitute for the traditional blue steel pan. Our Detroit-style pizza guide covers the full method, including the cheese placement trick that makes or breaks this style.

Grandma-Style

Grandma pizza is a Long Island tradition — a thinner, denser version of Sicilian baked in a home-size sheet pan with olive oil, thin-sliced mozzarella, and crushed tomatoes on top. It skips the long rise of Sicilian, making it faster and more forgiving. Perfect for a sheet pan pizza night. We break down the style in our Grandma pizza explainer.

Chicago Deep-Dish

Deep-dish crust is pressed into a high-sided, well-buttered round pan and baked until golden and flaky. The dough often contains cornmeal or semolina, which — as Food52 has explored in their deep-dish coverage — gives it a slight crunch and a yellow tint. Layering is inverted: cheese goes directly on the dough, then fillings, then crushed tomato sauce on top. The whole thing bakes for 25–35 minutes. Our Chicago deep-dish recipe has the full layering order and pan prep.

Stuffed Crust

Stuffed crust wraps the outer edge of the pizza around a filling — usually mozzarella string cheese, though cream cheese and garlic butter versions exist. Pizza Hut popularized it in the ’90s, but the home version is actually straightforward: stretch your dough slightly larger than your pan, lay string cheese around the perimeter, fold the edge over, and pinch to seal. It works with any base crust style, but a medium-thickness hand-tossed dough is easiest to handle.

Cauliflower Crust

The most popular low-carb crust option — and the one with the most room for error. As Bon Appétit has demonstrated in their testing, the key is squeezing every last drop of moisture out of the riced cauliflower before mixing it with egg and cheese. Skip this step and you’ll get a soggy, sad disc. Do it right and you get a surprisingly crisp, holdable base. Check our 5 cauliflower crust mistakes guide before your first attempt.

Gluten-Free Crust

Modern gluten-free flour blends (rice flour + tapioca starch + xanthan gum) produce surprisingly decent crusts — crisp, lightly chewy, and capable of holding toppings. They won’t stretch like wheat dough, so you’ll press them into shape rather than toss them. Our best gluten-free pizza crust recipe covers the technique and the flour ratio that actually works.