I’ve previously tried a Connie’s, an “all natural” line out of Chicago. Today I spotted one with “uncured pepperoni” so I thought I would give that a world.
In any increasingly (pseudo) health-conscious world, “uncured” meats are all the rage. What exactly are uncured meats? You see the label on bacon and other pork products these days, mostly.
“Uncured” means no preservatives, no additives, no added MSG, and more importantly, no sodium nitrates or sodium nitrites, which seem to cause problems for some people.
A peculiarity here is that according to the USDA, for a pork product to be called “bacon”, it must come from cured pork bellies. Apparently saying “Uncured bacon,” skirts the rule.
Sodium nitrates (salt peter) an sodium nitrites (pink salt) are two very common additives to cured meat; the former preserves the food, the latter provides a rosy color that Americans associate with “healthy meat.”
Uncooked, Out of the Box
Herein lies the problem: the rest of the ingredients in most “uncured” meats (including Connie’s pepperoni) are the very components one uses to cure meats: celery powder, spices, and so on.
So it’s one of those tricky labeling things – akin to the the flaps over “all natural”, “gluten free” and so on.
But this website doesn’t exist for finger pointing (unless we get into a whole discussion about “American Kobe” beef, but rather to sample wares available to the public and tell said public what the author of this missive thinks about said ware.
And Connie’s Thin Crust Sausage and Uncured Pepperoni is largely OK. Flavorful sauce, pork products are nice, enough cheese, but for some reason, I can never get their crusts to crisp up in the oven – let your pie sit for 5-10 minutes after removing it from the heat, and it will be crisp enough for most pizza lovers, if a thin crispy crust in one of your preferences.
I like the pork sausage, fairly mild, I couldn’t make out any discernable difference between this pepperoni and any other.
Another reason this one caught my eye today? It was on sale, for less than $6, and frozen pizzas are creeping up lately. You may recall I paid $10 for a frozen pizza a couple weeks ago.
That’s a tough slice to swallow, for me.
Frozen Pizza Reviews