How effective is dabbing a pizza slice with a napkin?

May 22, 2009 11:25 AM

How effective is dabbing pizza with a napkin in terms of reducing total grease content?

I realize there are a number of variables here, but in general I was curious how effective dabbing pizza with napkin is. I often eat pizza and seldom dab, but I watch people do a bit of dabbing and sometimes they act as if they suddenly reduced 75% of the fat content in the slice. How much fat am I removing by doin' the dab?

posted by 1001 questions to food & drink (18 comments total)

You are certainly removing some fat, but as far as %, that's tough to say. If you figure there are 10 grams of fat in a slice, and maybe you suck up 2 grams of fat with the napkin, that's 20% Very scientific, I know.
posted by charlesv at 11:30 AM on May 22

It depends on the topping.
posted by fire&wings at 11:33 AM on May 22

One slice of pizza seems to have around 4-19 grams of fat. Assuming the napkin soaks up only fat, you could actually weigh the thing before and after and figure it out. An ounce is about 28 grams.
posted by exogenous at 11:34 AM on May 22 [1 favorite]

I doubt it does much to reduce the overall fat content. I've occasionally done it when I get a slice with standing pools of oil/liquid grease, and it's more about preventing the oil slick from running down onto my hands while I'm eating.
posted by zombiedance at 11:34 AM on May 22

sometimes they act as if they suddenly reduced 75% of the fat content in the slice

I do this sometimes, and it's not so much that I think I "reduced 75% of the fat content" (I don't know how someone "acts" like they're doing this) -- it's that I actually find the pizza more appealing without so much excess grease. Since the grease can't be that great for me, I figure it's win-win. I would do it even if I knew it just reduced the fat content by 1%.
posted by Jaltcoh at 11:34 AM on May 22 [3 favorites]

It's time for an experiment!

Weigh a dry napking, dab, let dry, re-weight. The weight gain on the napkin will be the MAX g of fat that were dabbed off the pizza. Of course, it's an overestimate because red tomato-sauce particles will add to the weight.

If someone actually does this, let me know!
posted by KateHasQuestions at 11:50 AM on May 22 [1 favorite]

A bit of Googling has turned up this from a website called medicinenet.com, which I can neither verify as being true or untrue. The gist -

Perhaps the most famous fat-cutting technique with fast foods is "the pizza blot," using a napkin or paper towel to blot excess fat from the surface of a slice of pizza. The same technique can also be applied to fried foods and greasy burgers.

Although this method might save a few fat grams if there is visible grease, Moore says the problem is that you don't always know exactly what you're blotting off. It may just be moisture from the toppings on the pizza or the hamburger, and if the food has been sitting around for a while most of the fat has already been absorbed.

A more effective strategy would be to skip the fatty pizza toppings such as pepperoni or sausage and opt for a plain or veggie slice, which guarantees you at least 100 saved calories. By opting for mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers, onions, or other vegetables as toppings, Moore says you'll also feel fuller longer because the vegetables provide fiber and other nutritional benefits.

This corroborates a vague memory I have of seeing a similar question on either a TV show or a column I read in the paper which stated that doing stuff like this is nominal solution and to have any effect on your overall health, cut the damn pizza and eat something healthy.

And I say this with a Take N Bake pizza sitting in the fridge for dinner tonight. NOT-PIZZAIST!
posted by Ufez Jones at 11:52 AM on May 22 [2 favorites]

I found lots of references to a "Georgia-Pacific Health Smart Institute" study that claimed it reduced the fat content by about 14%. Georgia-Pacific, of course, is a major manufacturer of paper products, including paper towels, so take that with a grain of salt, especially given that I couldn't find the details of the actual study.

Anyway, for a typical pepperoni pizza there are more calories from carbohydrates than fat. Ordering thin crust makes a much bigger difference than blotting.
posted by jedicus at 11:56 AM on May 22

napkin* re-weigh*, and I should really pre-view, because exogenous had the same idea.
posted by KateHasQuestions at 12:02 PM on May 22

Food Detectives did this one, and I seem to recall that they thought that it did, in fact, get rid of a significant amount of fat but only on cheap pizzas using lower-quality cheese.
posted by JoanArkham at 12:03 PM on May 22 [1 favorite]

I think that there was an episode of "Food Detectives" on the Food Network where they tested this out. They found that you could reduce the calories significantly by dabbing the pizza with the napkin. Unfortunately, I can't find any kind of reference on the Food Network site.
posted by jefeweiss at 12:05 PM on May 22

I do this when necessary, and it has nothing to do with fat; it has to do with grease not dripping all over the fucking place, and is fairly effective (more effective, that is, than not dabbing).
posted by coolguymichael at 12:13 PM on May 22

JoanArkham: "Food Detectives did this one, and I seem to recall that they thought that it did, in fact, get rid of a significant amount of fat but only on cheap pizzas using lower-quality cheese."

Let that be a lesson to me, always preview!
posted by jefeweiss at 12:14 PM on May 22

I'd be curious to see the results of an actual study on the matter. You can see how much fat/oil cooks out of the cheese with a simple experiment... take some shredded cheese and throw it on a small saucer. Put the saucer in the microwave and nuke it on a low heat (to avoid burning it) The cheese "sweats" and soon you'll have a pool of melted cheese with a slick of fat on top. It's a significant amount.
posted by JFitzpatrick at 1:43 PM on May 22

I've always felt that dabbing pizza with a napkin or paper towel was rather disgusting. And I've known folks who thought that NOT dabbing off that visible fat was rather disgusting. You can't account for taste, but I've always assumed the decision was more important for aesthetics than nutrition.
posted by meinvt at 6:23 PM on May 22

Just a quick note that grease as we commonly think of it isn't always grease--it's often olive oil. I can't remember if it's the Greeks or the Italians that drizzle olive oil on pies before cooking . . . Obviously olive oil isn't nearly as bad for you as pure grease/fat.
posted by eggman at 10:51 PM on May 22

I agree with others that most who do this (myself included) aren't doing it with any expectation of reducing the fat content, but because we don't want Pizza grease to drip all over our hands, clothing, etc.
posted by katyggls at 11:49 PM on May 23

I do this to help cool the pizza off for the kids. It actually helps, since the oil tends to retain the heat from the oven. You just have to do it gently enough so that the cheese doesn't stick to the napkin.
posted by dancinglamb at 1:52 PM on May 25