From the frying pan to a waffle iron, Professional chef and culinary instructor Frank Proto tests seven different methods to find the best way to reheat your leftover pizza for the perfect crispy crust and melty cheese.
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00:00 I'm Frank Proto, professional chef and color instructor,
00:02 and today I'm gonna show you how to get
00:03 last night's pizza hot and crispy.
00:06 This is how to reheat pizza 101.
00:08 Even though I do enjoy a cold slice of pizza
00:12 once in a while, the dough gets tough,
00:15 the cheese congeals, so I'm gonna show you
00:17 a handful of methods to bring that crust back to crisp
00:20 and that cheese back to melty.
00:22 One of the most common methods is the microwave.
00:27 Using a microwave is not my favorite method
00:29 to reheat pizza, but it gets the job done.
00:31 I've heard a trick that if you put a glass of water
00:33 in the microwave with the pizza,
00:35 it steams it and makes the cheese really melty.
00:38 It's hot, it's sizzly, the cheese looks like it's melted,
00:41 but at the end of the day, it feels a little rubbery
00:43 and flappy to me.
00:44 It's definitely hot, but it is not crisp.
00:47 There's some moisture on the plate.
00:49 That moisture, I feel like, has made this kind of mushy
00:52 and floppy.
00:53 Just to see if there's a difference,
00:54 I'm gonna take another slice and microwave it
00:57 without the water in the microwave.
00:59 It looks a little bit better.
01:00 Looks like the cheese got a little caramelized.
01:03 The cheese definitely got overcooked
01:05 and got a little chewy.
01:06 On Frank's pizza scale, I give it a one out of five.
01:09 I do not have an air fryer at home,
01:14 but I've heard it's a great way to reheat pizza.
01:16 This is literally the first time I'm ever using one,
01:19 so we're gonna see how it does.
01:21 If you line the basket with foil, it's easier cleanup.
01:25 Air fryers are like mini convection ovens.
01:28 They blow hot air around the product,
01:30 crisping it from all sides.
01:33 Pepperoni's crispy.
01:34 Crust has some crisp to it.
01:35 I like that.
01:36 It is a little floppy still,
01:38 so it doesn't feel like the bottom crust is crispy,
01:40 but the top crust definitely got crispy
01:42 and the cheese looks like it got melty.
01:44 Not bad, not bad at all.
01:48 I'm gonna give this a three out of five
01:49 on the Frank pizza scale.
01:51 Good job, air fryer, good job.
01:53 [gentle music]
01:55 This is not the method I do at home,
01:57 but I've heard it's really effective.
01:59 We're gonna use a nonstick pan.
02:01 First step, a little bit of oil in your pan.
02:04 I'm gonna go with like a medium heat.
02:06 I just rub it in there,
02:07 get some of that oil on the bottom.
02:08 The trick here is that we wait for the crust
02:11 to start crisping up,
02:12 and then we add a little water and then put the lid on
02:15 so the cheese melts.
02:17 Be sure you don't soak the pizza with the water.
02:18 We just wanna get enough to cause some steam.
02:21 Okay, the cheese looks sufficiently melted.
02:23 We got a little crispiness on the bottom.
02:25 Looking at it right now,
02:26 the top is still soft and squishy.
02:29 The crust did not get crisp on top.
02:31 The bottom sounds nice and crispy.
02:33 The cheese is a little melty,
02:35 but I think it's still a little on the firm side.
02:37 It's got some real crisp on the bottom.
02:41 The cheese is melty, even though I didn't think it was.
02:44 My only problem is is that the top of the crust
02:46 is kinda squishy and not really that great.
02:48 On a scale of one to five,
02:50 I give this a four on the Frank Pizza Meter.
02:53 Now, this next method is a little ambitious.
02:58 You're gonna need the right tools and a little bit of time.
03:00 The next method is using a cast iron skillet.
03:02 The key to getting your pizza crispy on the bottom
03:04 and melty on top of the cast iron
03:06 is to preheat the oven and preheat your pan in that oven.
03:10 Once you put your pizza in the pan,
03:11 it starts the crisping right away.
03:14 Cover it with a piece of foil.
03:16 With this method, we're gonna ensure
03:18 that we get a crispy bottom
03:19 and the top doesn't get too brown.
03:21 I'm gonna bake the pizza in the oven for about 10 minutes,
03:23 and we'll take it out and see how it looks.
03:26 All right, on first look, it looks pretty good.
03:29 Little bit of floppiness going on,
03:32 but it feels kinda crisp, so not so bad.
03:34 The top looks melty.
03:36 The pepperoni is nice and hot.
03:38 It's got some really good crunch to it.
03:41 Here's the thing, though.
03:42 I have to get my cast iron out.
03:44 I have to preheat the oven, and it takes way too long.
03:47 On the Frank Pizza scale,
03:48 I give the cast iron method a three.
03:50 [upbeat music]
03:53 Using the oven is a classic method to reheat pizza.
03:56 I preheated my oven to 375.
03:58 I have a sheet tray with parchment.
04:00 You can also use foil if you have that.
04:02 The parchment or the foil stops the cheese
04:04 from burning onto the tray.
04:06 It's also easy cleanup.
04:08 The pizza's been in the oven for about seven minutes.
04:10 The crust is a little soft,
04:11 has a little crispiness to it.
04:13 It seems to be holding up.
04:14 It's not really flopping over too much.
04:16 The cheese looks melted.
04:18 The pepperoni looks like it's reheated really well.
04:21 It has a little crunch on the bottom.
04:23 The cheese is nice and melty and soft.
04:25 On the Frank Pizza scale,
04:26 I give the oven method a four out of five.
04:28 This method is the waffle iron.
04:33 Now, this sounds ridiculous to me.
04:36 We're gonna give it a shot, see how it turns out.
04:39 I'm gonna do two slices, and based on my research,
04:42 they said to put a little oil on the base
04:44 in our preheated waffle iron.
04:47 We're gonna put these two together like a sandwich
04:49 so that they don't burn onto the waffle iron.
04:52 The pizza's been in the waffle iron for about seven minutes,
04:54 and if you look, you can see some sizzling.
04:56 Let's see what we got here.
04:58 Definitely crispy on both sides.
05:00 Let's open it up and look.
05:02 We got a little cheese pull there.
05:04 That ain't bad.
05:05 No syrup, no sausage.
05:06 I'm giving it a bite.
05:07 It's got some good rigidity there.
05:11 The cheese is melty.
05:12 The crust is crispy.
05:13 I don't think that's bad at all.
05:15 On a scale of one to five, I give the waffle iron a four.
05:19 This method to reheat pizza is the toaster oven.
05:25 This has been preheating for a few minutes.
05:27 Let's pop it in there, and we'll let the pizza
05:29 do its thing for about 10 minutes.
05:32 All right, I'm gonna tell you,
05:34 I'm looking at this, and I'm already happy.
05:36 The crust has some crispiness to it,
05:38 and that's what's exciting me.
05:39 Based on the look of this,
05:41 I think I know what the rating's gonna be,
05:43 but we're gonna wait 'til I taste it
05:44 to give it the true results.
05:46 The cheese is melty.
05:48 The pepperoni got a little crispy.
05:50 The edges and the crust are crispy.
05:51 The bottom's crispy.
05:53 This is definitely a five out of five
05:55 on the Frank Pizza scale.
05:56 We went through a lot of methods of reheating pizza today.
06:00 There were some that were good.
06:01 There were some that were bad,
06:02 but at the end of the day, you still have hot pizza,
06:05 and that ain't half bad.
06:06 (upbeat music)