What is the Maximum Number of Toppings You Should Put on Pizza? (2024)

FAQs

What is the Maximum Number of Toppings You Should Put on Pizza? ›

We've found that more than 5 toppings will lead to the pizza cooking incorrectly. The bottom will still cook in the same amount of time, but the top will take much longer, leading to a high likelihood that the bottom will burn.

Loading thin pizza with too many toppings.

Keep in mind that the more toppings you add, the more it slows the cooking down. This can lead to a pizza that's unevenly cooked, with an overcooked or burnt crust and undercooked toppings on thinner-crust pizzas.

As a general, often-broken rule of thumb, I recommend choosing three to five toppings for each pizza you create. In my style of pizzas, mozzarella doesn't count as a topping; it goes on every pizza. Other cheeses like goat cheese, feta, or smoked gouda are accent cheeses that count as toppings.

Toppings should go on the pizza after the cheese. This is because toppings put under the cheese will become soggy and won't sear appropriately under the heat. Precooking most pizza toppings will remove moisture and keep them dry. Many people like to put sauce and cheese on their pizzas first.

Finally, if you want to put all four toppings on a pizza, then there is only one way to do that. So, if you can have ANY number of toppings on the pizza, then the total number of combinations possible is 4+6+4+1 = 15. There are 15 different pizza topping combinations you can make with just four toppings!

We've found that more than 5 toppings will lead to the pizza cooking incorrectly. The bottom will still cook in the same amount of time, but the top will take much longer, leading to a high likelihood that the bottom will burn.

Vincenzo: “An important detail when making the preferment is the temperature of the water you add. For this, I use the rule of 55. You take the number 55 as a starting point and subtract the temperature of the flour and the room temperature. The number that remains is the desired water temperature.

Here's the reasoning behind that rule: Most medium pizzas are cut into eight slices unless otherwise requested. Therefore, each slice comprises 1/8 of the pizza. Since the average hungry person eats three slices of pizza, it follows that you must simply multiply the number of guests by 3/8.

The 2 pizza rule is a guideline for deciding how many attendees should be invited to a meeting. According to the rule, every meeting should be small enough that attendees could be fed with two large pizzas.

How do you stack pizza toppings? ›

Cheese always goes belowthe toppings

You've got your dough as the foundation. Then your sauce. The cheese is the next solid layer. Then your toppings (after all, they're called top-pings and not bottom-ings), and then finally your garnishes like basil, pepper, fresh mozzarella, etc, after the pizza is cooked.

And, not surprisingly, these numbers sum to a power of 2, so there are 64 pizzas that can be made with up to 6 toppings.

It's also a good idea to keep cheese, sauce, and other “melty” ingredients below the uppermost layer of toppings since they might otherwise prevent other ingredients from cooking through completely.