Pizzerias do not size dough balls by guesswork. They use a thickness factor — ounces of dough per square inch of finished pizza — which means the same crust can be reproduced at any diameter. It is the single most useful number in pizza making.
How thickness factor works
Multiply the area of the pizza by the thickness factor and you have the dough weight. A 14-inch round is 153.9 square inches, and at a factor of 0.10 that is 15.39 ounces, or 436 grams.
The reason this is better than a fixed dough weight is that area goes with the square of the diameter. An 18-inch pizza has 65 percent more area than a 14, so a dough ball sized for the 14 stretched to 18 comes out noticeably thinner.
Set the factor once for the crust you like and every size follows from it. This is how a chain gets consistency across sizes.
What the numbers mean
Around 0.085 is cracker-thin — a bar pie or a very thin Roman style. It has almost no rim and cannot carry heavy toppings.
Around 0.10 is a standard New York slice: thin in the middle, a defined cornicione at the edge, foldable.
0.12 to 0.13 is a thicker hand-tossed. Above 0.13 you are into pan pizza, Sicilian and Detroit style, where the dough is pressed into an oiled pan rather than stretched.
Deep dish runs higher still, often 0.15 and above, and the geometry of the pan matters as much as the factor.
Hydration for pizza is lower than for bread
Most pizza doughs run 58 to 65 percent hydration, which is stiffer than a typical bread dough. The reason is handling: a slack dough cannot be stretched thin without tearing, and it sticks to the peel.
Neapolitan dough sits around 58 to 62 and is worked quickly. New York style is often 62 to 65 with a little oil, which makes it more extensible and more forgiving.
Pan styles can go higher, up to 70 or more, because the dough is pressed rather than stretched and the pan supports it.
Cold fermentation changes the yeast, not the weight
A long cold ferment — 24 to 72 hours in the fridge — develops flavour that a same-day dough cannot match. It does not change the dough ball weight at all.
What it changes is the yeast quantity. A dough for a three-day cold ferment needs far less yeast than a two-hour rise, sometimes a tenth as much, or it over-proves in the fridge.
The calculator uses 0.5 percent instant yeast, which suits a same-day or overnight dough. For a long cold ferment, drop it to 0.1 or 0.2 percent.
Weigh every ball
Dividing a batch by eye gives balls that vary by 10 percent or more, and that variation shows up directly as pizzas of different thickness.
Weigh each one as you divide. It takes seconds and it is the difference between consistent pizza and pizza that is sometimes right.
Ball them tightly, seam side down, and let them relax before stretching — a ball taken straight from the fridge fights back and tears.