Pizza Project - Day 5

And on the fifth day there was a Green Mill.

A fair candidate in the toppings department, there's little doubt this crust will be different.  Green Mill made it into the experiment mainly because they have restaurants in this area and I've never eaten at one.  I didn't want to shun them again, and was out of good options at the grocery store, so it made the cut.

Reading the back of the box I was surprised to see Green Mill is a St. Paul, Minnesota based restaurant chain.  It had started as a pub in the 1930s.  I didn't realize it had started so close by.  But this isn't a restaurant experiment, so on to the pizza.

Before each of the frozen pizza pictures I did a little clean up.  After taking the pizza's out of the wrapper I redistributed the toppings to even things out.  This one needed a lot of clean-up, mainly because it contains small bits of bacon that had slid to one edge of the pizza.  19 slices of pepperoni here, and on to the other stats.

Price: $5.99 (the range was $5 to $9.99)
Calories: 460 for 1/3 of a pizza (345 for two sizes of a pizza cut 8 ways).
Cooking Temp: 425 F. That converts to about 218.3 C.
Cooking Time: The instructions call for 9 to 13 minutes.  I went with 11, midway in the range).

And the outcome was delicious.

I'm not sure how much of the very tastiness of this pizza can be attributed to bacon, but it was a fine pizza.  Stopping at two slices could be a challenge, good thing the experiment called for me to eat four.  Thin pizza with a crispy crust goes down like crackers at a cocktail party.  All of the sauces paired well with this pizza too- but they were an extra bonus, the pizza was fine all alone.

The last pizza is up next!

Pizza Project - Day 4

Day four brings the letter F to the oven, and a side note on the varying calorie count in the pizzas.

Today's pizza is a Freschetta.  Another hesitation at adding this one to the experiment, mainly for superficial reasons- the box.

Nothing really wrong with it.  It just looks mass market, mass produced.  I know, frozen pizza could be the poster child for mass market, mass produced.  I also was a bit turned off by the "Naturally Rising Crust", I was looking to replace a hand-tossed style crust.  This one is also a straight pepperoni pie unlike the meat combos considered so far.  Not much of a story on that point, there simply wasn't a meat combo option available from Freschetta at the store.

Distinctly different from the DiGiorno pizza, this cover isn't loaded with trademarks.  The "Signature Pepperoni Pizza" name adds a bit, saying this isn't just any pepperoni pizza.  For those looking for a health angle to nudge this box into the shopping basket there is the "!00% real cheese" and "Preservative Free Crust"-- not exactly differentiators as almost every pizza in the store says these things too.

The pre-baked goods show the cover photo doesn't lie (how could it, see the little peek-inside window cut through the cardboard?)

19 pepperoni slices in neat little rows.  Makes it easy to imagine this pie sliding down an assembly line, the lower left corner leading the way as 5 rows of pizza slices are mechanically dispensed onto the sauce and cheese.  Looks like the overall topping application alignment was a little off- everything seems shifted towards to the top right corner.

A bit about the stats before we get to the baked-up goods.

Price: $5.99 (the range was $5 to $9.99)
Calories: 340 for 1/6 of a pizza (510 for two sizes of a pizza cut 8 ways).
Cooking Temp: 400 F. That converts to about 204.4 C.
Cooking Time: The instructions call for 20 to 24 minutes.  I went with 22, midway in the range with a nudge up for the rising crust).

On to the finished product.

I mentioned before how the pizza's vary their serving size and end up around 340 calories on each box- seems like it might be a strategy to keep an even playing field.  If there was a wide variance customers who are counting calories may be tempted  to make a "low cal" choice. 

But I wonder if that thinking is realistic. When the cooking is done, is the calorie counting consumer really going to cut this pizza six ways and take one slice, versus cutting another pizza 4 ways and taking a quarter of the pizza to arrive at the calorie count on the box?  At this house all pizzas get cut into 8 slices and a "serving" is two or three slices. 

So how was it?  Poofy, as advertised. It went good with the sauces mentioned in a previous post.  Overall the Freschetta is very similar to the DiGiorno.  With the D box bringing more toppings and seasonings I would've expected the prices to be reversed (the D box was $5, this a penny shy of $6). 

A note on leftovers, that risen crust made it impossible to fit four remainder slices into the container I had been putting the left over pizza into, but that's OK- at 510 calories for two slices that's enough for lunch.

Tomorrow the pizza slims down for the letter G.

Pizza Project - Day 3

When I started this project I neglected to consider (at least) one thing.  There isn't a whole lot to say about frozen pizza.

Today is Day 3, rhymes with Day D, which is convenient because today's pizza is a DiGiorno.

 I hesitated to include a D box in the experiment, I've had them before so it isn't a "new" pizza.  But I was swayed by the box with it's rippled awning look, jaunty "pizzeria!" stenciled across the top clearly implying (to me anyway) this was different from other DiGiorno pizzas.  The final clincher was the picture of the pizza- this looks like a crust thickness comparable to the pizza I'm replacing.

But how would it perform?  Lets get to cold hard facts.

See what I did there?  Frozen pizza, cold hard facts. Ha!  A bit of a surprise here- what I initially thought was sausage is is actually genoa salami cut into strips.  Seeing the pizza now, you can clearly see this shown on the cover photo.  Maybe it is just one of those things where it's obvious after its been pointed out.  Regardless, this is the first time I've seen salami on a pizza cut this way.  Note also the pepperoni count is down to 12 from the 16 found on both the Connie's and the Bellatoria.

The stats might help explain the pepperoni reduction.
Price: $5 (the range was $5 to $9.99)
Calories: 380 for 1/4 of a pizza (two sizes of a pizza cut 8 ways).
Cooking Temp: 375 F. That converts to about 190.5 C.
Cooking Time: The instructions call for 20 to 21 minutes.  I went with 20, a bit of a silly range.

As I took it out of the oven the pizza's appearance isn't the first thing I noticed.

The first the I noticed was the smell.  This pizza has a strong aroma, unexpectedly strong.  That might be the salami at work. The crust has also transformed into a typical DiGiorno rising crust, thick and best described as poofy.  Not what I expected from the picture, but if I had actually read the box I wouldn't have been surprised- it says "crispy outside, soft & airy inside..".

But if I had looked at the text on the box closely I may not have chosen this pizza on the basis they have trade marked the phrase "the crust!" and "the sauce!"  Seriously?  I wouldn't have expected a company could trade mark such generic phrases.  The've also trademarked the word-phrase "pizzeria!" and "pizzeria style crust - created with care".

So how was it?  A bit overwhelming.  I enjoyed the leftovers more than the fresh baked pizza.  Maybe it was just an off evening.  It was filling, and at $5 it's a volume/price leader.

Tomorrow we're off to the letter F.

Pizza Project - Day 2

Day 2 of the pizza project and the candidate is a Connie's Pizza.

The concept of the pizza project is to eat half a pizza after cooking each day, and to eat the leftovers the next day.  The idea was inspired by a grocery store being sold, causing me to loose the primary supplier of what had become my favorite frozen pizza.  The acquiring store carries many varieties of pizzas so after acquiring a basketful the experiment began.  

Day 2 and with the Connie's frozen pizza out of box a thought occurred to me, all frozen pizzas look a lot alike.  Then again, they may feel the same about us.

Just glancing at it there seems to be less pepperoni than on the Bellatoria from yesterday.  There were 16 slices on the Bella, but the Connie comes in at 16 slices too.  The sausage bits are about the same size, quantity there is harder to judge.

Before we see it cooked, here's the stats:

Price: $6.99 (the range was $5 to $9.99)

Calories: 340 for 1/5 of a pizza (adjusted to two sizes of a pizza cut 8 ways that works out to 425 calories.  Maybe I'll address the caloric differences another day).

Cooking Temp: 400 F. That converts to about 204.4 C.  

Cooking Time: The instructions call for 16 to 20 minutes.  I went with 18, another judgement call.

And on to the finished product!

Here's the subjective part.  How was it? I didn't have any particular expectations given it looks the same as the Bella, but was pleasantly surprised.  This was a good pizza!  It went well with all the sauces as well.  The left overs were tasty too.

A quick bit about the sauces.  I'm not talking pizza sauces here, I'm talking seasoning the pizza with these:

To keep things consistent, each pizza was cut into 8 slices. Four were set aside for the next day.  Of the remaining four, one was eaten straight and eaten first.  Rude to the chef to season your food before you even try it.  Each of the remaining three got a dash of one of the sauces. Cholula was found years ago and works well with any pizza.  Franks is a new comer to this household. And Tabasco is just a classic.  I'm not a big fan of spicy food that is just hot for the sake of being hot.  That is not what these sauces are about.  A few shakes of these on a slice just adds a different flavor.  More a taste gimmick than anything else, but there you go.

As I mentioned above Cholula complements any pizza I've had.  Works great with the Connie's too.  The Tabasco also fit nicely with the Connie's pizza. 

Tomorrow we move on the the letter D as the pizzas continue to go down in alphabetical order!

Pizza Project - Day 1

I decided to alphabetical in the Pizza A Day project.  The first candidate is a Bellatoria Ultra Thin Crust, Ultimate Combo.

I also decided to set some parameters for the experiment:
1) All the pizza's would have similar toppings, even if that led to a crust thickness variance (read on).

2) Each pizza would have three photos; Box Front (as above), as it appears out of the package, and as it appears after cooking.

3) Each pizza would be cut into 8 slices; 4 to be consumed immediately, 4 to cool and be refrigerated for the next day (usually for lunch, but on Tuesdays that doesn't work for my schedule, so I'll just figure something else out).

4) Of the first four slices eaten immediately, three would be with sauce (three different kinds) one plain.  Call it an experiment within an experiment; determine which sauce compliments each pizza the best.

5) The blog posts are posted a day later - this isn't live streaming of a pizza eating contest.

6) Blog posts will contain the cooking instructions and price paid for the pizza.  What's an experiment without some cold hard facts?


Enough Chatter, time for a couple more photos!

What were you expecting?  It's a frozen pizza.  Any editorial here?  Typical amount of pepperoni, all the pizza's are some sort of Pepperoni & Sausage combo.  I didn't want to over complicate things, figuring any frozen pizza brand should be able to nail this one.

On to the finished goods!

Now that's a pizza!  I think a few Italians just had a stroke.  Apologies.  Honestly though, given the amount of frozen pizza available in grocery stores on this side of the pond that is what the majority of the pizzas in America look like.  Your mileage may vary.

The stats!
Price: $8.99 (the range was $5 to $9.99)
Calories: 340 for 1/4 of a pizza (a serving = 2 slices when cut into 8 wedges as most would tend to do)
Cooking Temp: 425 F.  It didn't occur to me until just now but I bet ovens in the UK (umm, probably the rest of the PLANET) use Celsius, don't they? That converts to 218.33 C.
Cooking Time: The instructions are 10 to 15 minutes.  I went with 12 minutes.  Judgement call.

So how was it?  Fine, as the lead off candidate I don't have any reference points other than comparing it to the go-to pizza I'm replacing, and in that regard it isn't a tremendously fair comparison.  The pizza it is trying to replace has a thicker crust. For a thin body, this was a good pizza.

A few words on Crust Thickness.  So why even inject a thin pizza into the competition? I wanted to pick five and there was another candidate closer in the crust department but it was only available as either a plain cheese pizza or a Canadian Bacon with Pineapple combo.  I figured those toppings being so radically different than all the other pizzas would throw things off more than a crust thickness variance.  Besides, the "right" crust thickness may have made it into someone's doctoral thesis, with dubious conclusions, so lets skip over that debate, shall we?  

Final Thoughts: It went good with each of the sauces.  On the high end of the price scale, I didn't even realize that until I looked up the photo of the receipt I had saved with the pizza pics and my reaction was surprise- I didn't realize that this one was a pricey pie, relatively speaking (insanely cheap when you consider it could be the core of a meal for two).

More on the sauces in a later entry.

Pizza Project - The Concept

I live in a suburb that had four grocery stores, each a different company.  Each also carried slightly different brands of all the various food items.  When the longest standing one was sold to one of the other companies, it signaled the demise of our primary source for what had become our favorite frozen pizza.

Browsing the pizza cases of the acquiring store, I was a bit overwhelmed with the options- was there one here that would replace my favorite? And if it was here, how would I find it?  Gotta try them all!  OK, maybe not all- but a bunch.  But that could take a while...unless...

With my wife out of town for a few days I decided to do a pizza experiment.  I'd eat half a frozen pizza every night and the left overs the next day.  A different pizza each day.  Maybe one of these would  be a stand out.

The candidates have been selected (constrained by the number of days available before the spousal-unit returns home).  Let the experiment begin!

Bananas?  Yes, but (this) man does not live on pizza alone. Oh, not what you meant? Understood.  Stay tuned for the reviews.