The Burnt Pizza Toppings That Had Reddit Divided

On the subreddit r/Pizza, user u/FriendlyOrdinary6281 posted an image of a pizza they’d ordered. The pizza looks fine enough, until you notice that most of the pepperonis topping the pizza are in varying states of being burnt. Some are lightly edged with dark rims, while others seemed to be curled into little black cups. While some may have understandably called to complain, others tried to persuade the user that burnt pepperonis are good, despite their appearance.

According to one user, the charring process gives the pepperoni “10x” the flavor, alongside the indication that it was a sign that the pepperoni was real instead of artificial. “Did you taste it? You mean it’s too burnt for your vision?” said u/al_polanski. “It really adds a ton of flavor with this type of pepperoni. It’s like a good sear on a burger.”

According to J. Kenji Lopez-Alt (via Serious Eats), cup-shaped pepperoni has its benefits. The “cup shape” prevents grease from spilling and pooling all across the top of the pizza, while the edges provide a crispy, bacon-like taste. Lopez-Alt explains that this “curling” could be from either the thickness of the pepperoni slices to the types of casings of the pepperoni sticks. 

But if you don’t happen to like burnt pepperoni (or burnt pizza, for that matter), there’s one burnt pizza “hack” you can use to remedy it.