Burgers, Dogs, & Pizza, Oh My!

Posts Tagged ‘home cooking pizza’

I’ve written about Home Run Inn frozen pizzas previously;  it’s the best-selling pie in the greater Chicagoland area.

Today I sampled one of their individual-sized pies (what?  Extra large is “individual-sized” for me!)  These are generally at the grocery for around $3.69 each, of three for $10.   They weigh 8.75 ounces, when their “regular” size pizza clocks in at 31 ounces.  Sometimes I like to buy weight/value, and even at three for $10, the individual pies are “less value” (price per ounce)  than HRI’s “regular” size.

The “Classic” line Sausage and Pepperoni features uncured pepperoni.  Uncured deli meats are all the range these days, appealing to that portion of the population looking for ‘healthy alternatives’, or at least convincing themselves that they are.

The rest of the pie’s ingredients are fairly straight forward, to wit:

Crust: Wheat flour, water, corn oil, yeast, salt
Mozzarella Cheese: Pasteurized part-skim milk, cheese cultures, salt, enzymes
Sauce: Tomato puree, water, oregano, salt, black pepper
Sausage: Pork, salt, spices, flavoring

It’s a great Italian sausage, one of the best available in frozen pizzas, in my opinion.

Home Run Inn claims their frozen pies are made exactly like the ones in their pizzerias, and you’ll get no argument from me on that.   If you’ve been paying attention to previous posts, you’ll know that HRI is one of my very favorite frozen pies, hands down.  The individual sized, btw, can be prepared in either a conventional or microwave oven.

They aren’t distributed nationwide, but you can order online, and have them shipped directly to you.  I recommend that you do.  Frequently.

By the way? If you’re paying attention to the whole “GMO” thing, Home Run Inn passes the test as not being a user or affiliate of GMO ingredients, according to the droid app “Buycott”.

Uncooked pie:

If the frozen pizza industry has “class” or “segment” descriptions (like ‘value line’, ‘premium line’, ‘gourmet’), I’m not aware of it.  Of course there are all manners of self-descriptive phrases used for marketing, whether it’s “pizzeria style” or “rising crust”.  “Classic” has come to mean, by and large, I believe, the look, shape, feel, and taste of a company’s original product line (i.e., “Classic Coke”, which of course, is now “regular” Coke, but not labeled as such, as “New Coke” vanished shortly after its introduction.

I digress.

Today we are talking about “Classic” frozen pizza from Palermo’s, a Milwaukee-based manufacturer which was spawned out of an eatery and bakery  started by Italian immigrants Gaspare “Jack” and Zina Fallucca in 1964.  They sold the restaurant in 1979 to focus their business acumen on the frozen pizza business, and now sell millions of frozen pies from a 250,000 sf manufacturing facility in Milwaukee.

According to a Milwaukee Journal article, the company cranks out frozen pies utilizing over 300 recipes, and generating revenue in excess of $150 million annually.  In addition to product under its own brand name, the majority of those recipes are utilized by Palermo to make private label pizzas; that is, pies manufactured, branded, and sold by grocery companies. Other articles seem to indicate Palermo invented the self-rising crust style of frozen pizza.

If the designations I started talking about in the beginning of the article existed, Palermo’s “Classics” would fall into the ‘value’ segment, or the very low end of the price scale.   Competitors, in my opinion, would be brands like Totino’s, Jeno’s, and generics of the same ilk.   Frozen pizzas the you can get for less than $2 each make up this category.

The Palermo’s in this tasting round were on sale  at six for $10, averaged 12.5 ounces, resulting in a per ounce price of around 12 cents.  That’s very inexpensive.   The pies in this line come in a variety of configurations,  plain cheese, pepperoni, sausage, combination, deluxe, sausage/mushroom, supreme, and bacon cheeseburger.

The latter style, I’ve never partaken of in any form or fashion, so that’s the first one I opened.  Instructions call for 9-11 minutes at 450, and I found that time range to be more than adequate, for these pies are sporting a very thin crust.

The ingredient list is fairly straight forward, and one finds the usual ingredients (and their additives) listed on the package, with one curious note:   one ingredient is dried potatoes, which clocks in after the ‘cooked beef hamburger topping’ and before the corn and soy proteins on the list.   Another curiosity?  “Grill Flavor”, which is listed before the bacon topping in the ingredient order, so that must mean that the bacon is merely a whisper of an ingredient.

Last on the list is “may contain smoke flavoring” as a component of the bacon topping, and to me, that’s no surprise, as to my palate, the smoke flavor was the most prominent feature of the Bacon Cheeseburger pizza.

Of course, at this price point, the amount of toppings and cheese are scant.   Would I buy them again?  At this price, probably, but I’d be more inclined to use them as a “base” and load them up with my own toppings and cheese.

And although they can’t be microwaved, they would provide an expensive, quick hot snack for your kids, providing you also served them healthier options from time to time.

Locator.

Bacon Cheeseburger Pie

Unbaked Pie

Seems to me (and I could be wrong, usually am) that Newman’s own product launches have picked up since the founder’s passing.  No matter, just an observation.  Today I took a look at their “All Natural Ingredient” “Uncured Pepperoni” “Thin and Crispy” pie.

At $6.99 at my local Safeway, for a 13.2 oz pizza, Newman’s Own comes in at a little over 53 cents an ounce, not that great a value for frozen pizzas.

The instructions said to bake directly on the shelf at 425 for 10-12 minutes, and I complied.  It’s a new oven, so the temp is accurate, and right at 10 minutes, it was a little on the done side.

The crust is definitely ‘thin and crispy’, but that’s my own personal preference, so that was fine with me.   The sauce and cheese were relatively mild, with a hint of heat.   The pepperoni cupped, which is generally an indication of a higher fat content, but as I am not an expert in these matters, “non-cupping” may well come from preservatives, I simply don’t know.

Did I like it?  You bet.  Would I pick it up again?  Yes, but I will look for sales events.

Baked pie

Picked up the massive 42 ounces sausage pizza at Safeway the other nite.  At 7.99, a real “cost per ounce” bargain.  This is a medium crust pizza, with ample toppings.  The sausage bits are larger than most frozen pies, and because this pizza is not frozen, it bakes faster than a frozen pie.

I added pepperoni, olives,  and extra cheese on half, which of course, drove my investment way up.   But Mrs. BDB eschews cooked pepperoni, and I try and defer to her tastes on occasion, tho she doesn’t care much for pizza in general.

Other posts on Signature Cafe items on the site.