Pizza Tasting Vocabulary: Words Every Pizza Lover Should Know

Describing pizza accurately requires a vocabulary that goes beyond good and cheesy. Pisa Bite Club compiles the essential tasting terms every serious pizza lover should use.

One. Cornicione
The raised, puffy outer edge of a Neapolitan pizza. A well-developed cornicione should have an airy, irregular crumb structure visible when you bite through it. The term comes directly from Italian pizza tradition.

Two. Leoparding
The dark spotted pattern of char on the underside or cornicione of a properly fired pizza. Named for its resemblance to leopard spots. Leoparding indicates properly high oven temperature and good dough hydration.

Three. Umami
The fifth taste sensation beyond sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. In pizza, umami comes from tomatoes, aged cheeses, cured meats, and mushrooms. A pizza rich in umami has a deeply satisfying, savory quality.

Four. Hydration
The ratio of water to flour in the dough, expressed as a percentage. A 65% hydration dough contains 65g of water per 100g of flour. Higher hydration creates a lighter, more open crumb but requires more skill to handle.

Five. Oven Spring
The rapid expansion of dough in the first moments of baking as trapped gases expand from heat. Good oven spring creates a light, puffy crust. Insufficient oven spring produces a dense, flat result.

Six. Pull
The stretchiness of melted cheese on a hot pizza. Perfect pull means the cheese stretches into long strands when a slice is lifted. Under-melted cheese breaks without pulling. Over-baked cheese hardens and doesn't pull at all.