- If there’s a day to enjoy a nice slice, it’s today!
Happy national pizza day! If you didn’t know that’s today, well, it is — February 9 is the day to celebrate everyone’s favorite flat-packed pie.
Pizza is popular around the world and for a good reason. It’s relatively easy to make, convenient to eat on the go, and just straight-up delicious.
To show our appreciation for pizza and everything it’s done for us, let’s take a look at some fun and unusual pizza facts you may not have known about.
1. Pizza Used to Be Completely Different
Flatbread topped with oil, vegetables, and meat has existed pretty much as long as humans have known how to cook. However, the food called pizza originated in Italy in the 16th century.
Some of the earliest pizza recipes come from Bartolomeo Scappi’s “Opera dell’arte del cucinare, written in 1570. You probably wouldn’t recognize Scappi’s pies as pizza, though.
After all, tomatoes had just barely made their way to Italy and the locals considered them poisonous, so there was no tomato sauce. Scappi’s pizza is closer to a sweet dessert pie than the cheese-laden treat we know today.
2. The Most Popular Pizza Topping is Pepperoni
Well, this sure is no surprise. Year after year, pepperoni tops the polls every year as the single most popular pizza topping.
It’s not just Americans that love pepperoni. The British, too, enjoy some thin sausage slices on their pies.
Behind pepperoni, sausage is the second most popular topping, followed by mushrooms and extra cheese. Surprisingly, the most disliked topping isn’t pineapple — it’s anchovies.
3. Americans Eat 350 Slices of Pizza — Per Second
America really loves pizza. That’s evident in the ridiculous amount of pizza we eat per second.
On average, Americans consume about 350 pizza slices with every passing second. Considering that the average pizza is generally divided into eight slices, that’s almost 44 pizzas disappearing into our gullets with each tick of the clock.
4. Norwegians Eat the Most Pizza in the World
Despite the hundreds of slices eaten every second in America, the U.S. consumes only the second most pizza in the world. At the top place, Norway reigns supreme.
However, there’s a small twist. Americans eat the most fresh pizza, but Norway inches ahead when we take frozen pizza consumption into account.
The Grandiosa brand of frozen pizza is so stupidly popular in Norway that about a fifth of Norwegians consider it the country’s unofficial national dish.
5. The World’s Largest Pizza is the Size of Three Basketball Courts
The world record for the largest pizza was actually broken very recently. On January 19, 2023, YouTuber Airrack received the official Guinness recognition for the biggest pie in the world.
This pizza pie was 13,957 square feet in area — nearly equal to three NBA basketball courts. Baking it required 13,600 pounds of dough, 4,500 pounds of marinara sauce, 8,800 pounds of cheese, and about 630,500 slices of pepperoni.
It’s a further testament to pepperoni’s popularity.
6. The Most Expensive Pizza Costs $12,000
A lot of people love pizza because it’s fairly affordable, but not all pizza is cheap. The world’s most expensive pizza costs a whopping $12,000.
This pie — developed by Italian master pizza chef Renato Viola — is less than eight inches in diameter. It’s topped with three kinds of caviar, prawns, lobster, mantis shrimp, and organic buffalo mozzarella.
With the meal, you get to enjoy high-quality, expensive cognac and champagne.
7. Pizza Can Predict Economic Turmoil
If you bought the monstrously expensive $12,000 pizza, you can probably expect some economic hardship. But for decades, economists have been able to forecasts market downturns by observing the Pizza Principle.
This principle states that the price of a slice of pizza in New York always roughly equals the cost of a subway ticket. This has been a remarkably accurate measurement since the 1960s, and a rise in either cost has generally predicted hard times.
In recent years, however, the Pizza Principle has started becoming less and less accurate due to unprecedented economic turmoil. Thanks, COVID.
8. Pizza Tossing is a Recognized Sport
Tossing the perfect pizza crust is more than just cooking — it’s an art. And it’s also a sport.
The World Pizza Championships have been organized annually since 1991. Categories in the contest include, among others, making pizza at speed, freestyle pizza toss acrobatics, and achieving the largest dough stretch.
9. Italy Has a Law Defining ‘Real’ Pizza
Since it originated in Italy, it only makes sense that Italians are proud of their pizza-making heritage. In fact, they’re so protective of it that what counts as authentic pizza is codified in Italian law.
It’s illegal to call a pie “authentic Italian pizza” unless its preparation method, ingredients, and toppings adhere to the strict guidelines set in the law. Additionally, frozen pizza can never be called authentic, even if it was originally prepared according to the law.
Sorry, Norway.
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