At least a dozen bars and restaurants in and around Scranton, Pennsylvania, serve Old Forge pizza. (Old Forge is a Lackawanna County borough.) A favorite coal-miners’ snack from the mid-twentieth century, it is a rectangular pie with a thick crust vaguely reminiscent of Sicilian pizza. It comes single or double-crusted, red or white, and with usual and very unusual toppings, including eggs and breakfast meats for morning pizza. Even standard-ingredient Old Forge pizza is more American in character than Mediterranean: sunny tomato sauce, cheese that tastes like a mild blend of Italian and American varieties, and a uniquely puffed-up crust that develops because the pie is made in a pan well-greased with peanut oil. Polish pizza is a subset of Old Forge, made with onion and kielbasa and cooked with so much oil in the pan that the crust develops a deep-fried crunch.
Old Forge pizza, a Pennsylvania favorite.