Great frozen pizza?

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Originally posted by porkbeaks

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Originally posted by Nick_Escalantes

I just bought a 3-pack of Aliki Margherita pizza from BJ's. It says it is wood-fired brick oven cooked. The box looks very appealing. I'm looking forward to breaking into one of these bad boys in the next few days. I will post a review. Has anybody tried these?

Description from website: "Grandma Aliki’s Famous Pizza Sauce, White Cheddar, Mozzarella & Romano Cheese, with a garnish of Tomatoes, Basil and Garlic on a Wood-Fired, Brick Oven Style Crust."

Well, good luck with that, but I'd bet that the word "style" probably means they're not cooked in a wood fired brick oven and I never heard of using cheddar cheese on a Margherita pizza. pb

Can anyone who has one these pizzas look at the list of ingredients and see if the words "liquid smoke flavor added" or similar are there? Greeks seem to like cheddar cheese on their frozen pizza; see the Betzios line. I'm also interested in how good they are, but they still will be frozen pizza and not wood fired brick oven pizzeria pizza.

I'll have to agree with David. The Palermo thin crust pizza is pretty good. I've got one in the freezer right now.

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Originally posted by David_NYC

My favorite is the Palermo's Thin Crust Pizzas, 17 oz size. They look just like the Tombstone pizzas in the freezer case, so are easy to overlook.

Palermo Villa, Inc. (their corporate name) in Milwaukee makes a variety of pizzas under their own name, and also contract manufacture. Palermo's Thin Crust Pizza is definitely a winner, but some of the store brand products are only so-so. For store brand products, you will know if it is a Palermo product if it has USDA Est. #1487A on a meat pie, such as pepperoni. Stores they produce for include Price Chopper and Walgreens. Their website has a directory to find products sold under their own name.

I haven't tried Palmeros yet....but we have a new store which serves them at bargain prices, so I will have to update after I try them next week.

Ever try Reggio's frozen pizza? Just saw it at my Safeway. Any comments?

Thx

I still have a place in my heart for Ellios pizza (or the shoprite brand) and I like the stouffer's french bread. If I get frozen pizza those are the ones I go for

Is this oxymoron titled thread still going on? Frozen only when alone, lazy and in a pinch last minute decision for me. Otherwise always fresh at a good restaurant or made from scratch at home.

I have noticed more and more not frozen but unfrozen take home and bake ala Papa Murphy's. Costco does it and Super Target just started doing it. Others as well.

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Originally posted by namret

Ever try Reggio's frozen pizza? Just saw it at my Safeway. Any comments?

Thx

Is Reggio's a 'deep dish' style pizza from Chicago? I think that I tried one recently. It's claim is that it has an "All Butter Crust".
I picked one up at Aldi and it was okay. The crust had a flaky, almost pastry feel to it, which I sort off expected. I read the box and there was yeast listed as an ingredient. The sausage looked like little pellets that you feed animals at the petting zoo.

What is unique about this pizza is that it is built backwards. The chese is on the bottom, sausage on top of that, and it is all covered with sauce. At first, the feeling of the cheese on top of the crust had a chewy 'mouth feel' as if it was not cooked enough.
It wasn't until I reheated the leftovers that the cheese and crust difference looked, tasted and felt better.

Davydd wrote: ===I have noticed more and more not frozen but unfrozen take home and bake ala Papa Murphy's. Costco does it and Super Target just started doing it. Others as well.===

Old Chicago is getting into that game too. There is a large sized, thin crusted, pepperoni pizza that is in the cold deli section. The price of the pie is not cheap. You can almost get a fresh pie nearby for the same price.

Refridgerated pizza from the deli may be the next thing to be coming up. Remember, there was a time (and maybe still is) that pizza from the cold case was worse than the pizza from the freezer.

mark

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Originally posted by chicagostyledog

Home Run Inn pizzas come in several varieties, frozen and take & bake(good for 7 days). Their wonderful products are distributed in 14 states. For the closest distributor near you, visit www.homeruninn.com

My favorite from this brand was the sausage mushroom, which they no longer make, so now I get the Italian Plum tomato. It's got nice layer of cheese hiding under the sauce & tastes great with crushed red pepper sprinkled on top.

I still like the Tombstone either plain, or pepperoni. I don't know why, but I'm addicted to them. Stouffer's French bread pizzas are good too. For the price of DiGornio or Frechetta, you can get a pie from a real pizzeria. Okay, maybe a buck more, but still.....

Everytime I see a new brand of frozen pie,I try one...searching for one that tastes even remotely like a pizzaria pie...never found a commercial brand that came close...no self rising pie, no brick oven pie...just can't be duplicated in our home ovens...Get a good pizzareia pie...freeze and save it yourself...closer...but still not there!!!!

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Originally posted by doggydaddy

What I have here is a pizza from Zuppardi's Pizza in West Haven, Ct. They've been around since 1934, just like the other guys.
They make a to-go frozen pie with either it being plain or one topping for $5.00. This is their sausage pie with an excellent sausage that is made on the premises. This pizza is an incredible bargain.

Just saw this thread was back alive and was all set to give the answer that doggydaddy beat me to.

I can definitively state that Zuppardi's is considered to be the finest frozen pizza made (it's me doing the considering, of course...) Not only is Zuppardi's the acme of frozen pies but it schools 99% of restaurant pizze with one hand tied behind its back and blindfolded, and still has to run around the block to work up a sweat after the beat-down.

The good news is if you aren't near West Haven but are near Wilmington, Vermont, you can pick up an equally-good, similarly-priced frozen pie at Tony Zuppardi's Apizza. Tony, btw, is the great-grandson of the West Haven store's founder.

As for the rest of the world, just give up trying. Seriously, there is no equal.

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It tastes like New Haven exploding in your mouth

Dude, you are so not getting that job as my pizza salesman. :)

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Originally posted by caratzas

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Originally posted by doggydaddy

What I have here is a pizza from Zuppardi's Pizza in West Haven, Ct. They've been around since 1934, just like the other guys.
They make a to-go frozen pie with either it being plain or one topping for $5.00. This is their sausage pie with an excellent sausage that is made on the premises. This pizza is an incredible bargain.

Just saw this thread was back alive and was all set to give the answer that doggydaddy beat me to.

I can definitively state that Zuppardi's is considered to be the finest frozen pizza made (it's me doing the considering, of course...) Not only is Zuppardi's the acme of frozen pies but it schools 99% of restaurant pizze with one hand tied behind its back and blindfolded, and still has to run around the block to work up a sweat after the beat-down.

The good news is if you aren't near West Haven but are near Wilmington, Vermont, you can pick up an equally-good, similarly-priced frozen pie at Tony Zuppardi's Apizza. Tony, btw, is the great-grandson of the West Haven store's founder.

As for the rest of the world, just give up trying. Seriously, there is no equal.

How does it rate above DiGiorno's?

If I must have frozen pizza that's actually "pizza," I choose Home Run Inn. I like the one with grilled vegetables best, but it is hard to find around here (Twin Cities).

That said, I confess that I usually buy Stouffer's French Bread Pizza when I want a quick pizza-type snack. I know -- it isn't true pizza. I prefer the traditional version, not the low-calorie version, which is too spicy for my taste. I usually get the "supreme" type, though my favorite variety is the mushroom/pepperoni. I can't find that here in Minnesota, but can get at Bi-Lo, when I visit my father in South Carolina.

Although I usually eat a Red Baron or Tombstone when I come in from the bar and don't feel like cooking, I find cheap is sometimes better. I'm not a fan of those fruity pesto/organic/PC pizzas. Go cheap and doctor it yourself. Try cheddar cheese on there. Some bacon orphaned in your fridge? Throw it on. A little hot sauce or crushed red, you're in bidness.

My ab fave was bought from a high school tennis team as a fundraiser. I wish I could remember the brand. I remember it had bacon grease rubbed on the crust to help it brown and for some reason it would warp and fold up on itself when you cooked it. But boy, was it good. . . .and that third arm I later grew has been useful.

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Originally posted by NYPIzzaNutHow does it rate above DiGiorno's?

Well, Zuppardi's doesn't deliver so in that sense it's a tie.

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Originally posted by gostillerz

I still like the Tombstone either plain, or pepperoni. I don't know why, but I'm addicted to them. Stouffer's French bread pizzas are good too. For the price of DiGornio or Frechetta, you can get a pie from a real pizzeria. Okay, maybe a buck more, but still.....

I agree. Tombstone Extra Cheese with some olive oil, oreganno, and crushed red pepper will always satisfy my appetite. Thankfully there's a real pizza place a half mile from my house and they serve the best in town for when I want real pizza.

I'm continually disappointed by frozen pizza crusts, thick or thin. I have to be pretty lazy, sick, or stuck at home to resort to frozen pizzas.

Totinno's when on sale 10 for 10 bucks is the best

Totino's is my favorite of the "bargain" frozen pizzas and I like to keep a couple in the freezer for the occasional quick snack or weekend lunch. The flaky/crumbly crust seems to be pretty unique.

Brad

I may have already said this but, not really pizza but... Red Baron makes a Mexican pizza that is pretty tasty, if you add some extra cheddar and nacho sliced pickled jalapenos. It's more like a big nacho kinda thing. I usually get em on sale for $3.
Joe

We enjoy Freschetta and Digorno's, especially since I can get a real deal on the Digorno's at BJ's packed three to a box. I like California Pizza Kitchen, but have not been able to find it very reasonably priced around here. We used to visit their restaurant at the King of Prussia mall often when I worked in that neck of the woods.

California Pizza Kitchen Crisp Thin Crust White Pizza.

I remember Celentano's made a toaster pizza...back in the 80's. It was cool!!

Just tried my first Reggio's frozen from Safeway.

HORRIBLE!!!!!!! You have to be joking!
Chicago style is crap? Damn!

^^Never heard of Reggio's, but I would try Uno's for frozen Chicago style. You have to follow the directions to the letter though, ESPECIALLY you have to put the cardboard thing they give you under it before you cut it, to catch the juice. Maybe that's just for the Spinoccoli, but that's what works best for me.

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Originally posted by tusti

I'll have to agree with David. The Palermo thin crust pizza is pretty good. I've got one in the freezer right now.

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Originally posted by David_NYC

My favorite is the Palermo's Thin Crust Pizzas, 17 oz size. They look just like the Tombstone pizzas in the freezer case, so are easy to overlook.

Palermo Villa, Inc. (their corporate name) in Milwaukee makes a variety of pizzas under their own name, and also contract manufacture. Palermo's Thin Crust Pizza is definitely a winner, but some of the store brand products are only so-so. For store brand products, you will know if it is a Palermo product if it has USDA Est. #1487A on a meat pie, such as pepperoni. Stores they produce for include Price Chopper and Walgreens. Their website has a directory to find products sold under their own name.

I've bought Palermo frozen pizza's at my Costco. Very good.

I haven't read over the 6 pages of posts, but what about lunch counter pizza? You know, the type that you bought by the slice at the 5&10 cent stores or department store snack bar. It was probably frozen or partially frozen. I worked for a family that had lunch concessions and snack bar operations in stores. They had a frozen pizza that was pretty much generic. When I first started in '74, we delivered food service 16" frozen crusts in boxes,Kraft 5 star fully prepared pizza sauce in #10 cans, and bags of pre-grated whole milk mozzerella. The lunch counter folks would assemble the pizzas,bake them in a table-top stone oven and turn out slices under infrared lights sold by the slice. They got the idea to speed up the process and save bucks on cheese by flash freezing commissary prepared crusts ready to bake. Everything was the same except the now cheaper cheese was deposited by a contraption that shook it evenly over the pizza through a screen saving them a bundle. When I think of Pizza, I think NY style, but the generic,frozen snack bar pizza always had a second place for my taste buds.

Dawn,
While this thread was about frozen retail brands of pizza sold by grocers, your post on lunch counter pizza is very imformative. I didn't know they were also using frozen pizza back in the day.

Last night I took a plain cheese Tombstone and fried some Hawaiian Portugeuse sausage thinly sliced and sprinkled some sauteed mushrooms & onions on top. I put the veggies on sparingly as I have found with trial and error that if you overload it the pizza becomes mushy. It was d-lish. BKK

WalMartSuperstores makes a decent in-store produced Pizza. It's not frozen but just pick one up and cook yourself. And the price is good also. For frozen, we like Tombstone but doctored up a bit.

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Originally posted by Big Kahuna Kooks

...Portugeuse sausage thinly sliced ... It was d-lish. BKK

Oh, I'd never thought of trying that! That is totally Hawaiian. More Hawaiian that what typically passes for Hawaiian in pizza shops.

I think I have 4-5 Redondo's left in the freezer, I'll sacrifice my weekend breakfast sausage for a pizza experiment.

Mahalo, BKK!!!