A new formula for perfectly proportioned pizza could eliminate the case of soggy pizza bottoms by home cooks.
The ratio, which was calculated by mathematician Dr. Eugenia Cheng, tackles the problem of burnt crusts and undercooked middles.
The formula uses a ratio of topping to base – If you keep the same amount of dough and topping, the ratio of topping to base in an average bite changes with the size of your pizza.
So in a nutshell, you’ll get more topping per bite in a smaller pizza, but a more even spread of bites in a larger pizza.
To ensure maximum flavour, you need to bear in mind that it’s not just about how thick you like your pizza, it’s also about the balancing flavours between the toppings and the type of dough.
Here comes the maths part:
Writing d for the constant volume of dough and t for the constant volume of topping, the ratio of topping to base in a median bite is:
Dr. Cheng has calculated that, in relative terms, the average bite taken from an 11 inch pizza has 10% more topping than the average from a 14 inch pizza.
In this formula, the size of the pizza’s crust is proportional to the thickness of the pizza – the larger the pizza, the thinner the base and so, the smaller the crust. This is represented by the formula:
Cheng determined the value ?=15 experimentally, by making several pizzas of different sizes.
Here’s what this looks like for a 14” and 11” pizza:
“I am always looking for more ways to bring food and maths together, as they’re two of my favourite things, but most people prefer food” said Dr. Cheng.
“I like showing that maths is everywhere in the world around us, and that we can use maths to give a logical explanation for something we’ve discovered by “gut” feeling, like that smaller pizzas are at more risk of having a soggy bottom!”
