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New Frozen pizza.
I've been cooking DiGiorno "supreme" rising crust pizza for years. We've got a 50 year old electric oven with an only approximate thermostat. I've got a shallow pan of ceramic oven tiles on the bottom rack to try to even out the temperature (less direct IR from the heating element).

I usually cooked it on a cookie sheet on the top rack (sometimes in a pizza pan with holes) until about 5 minutes before the maximum recommended time, pull it out, add a layer of pepperoni and mozzarella, and then put it back in the oven to finish.

Even with all that I was never happy with the way it cooked - the edges were usually over-done and crunchy before the center was hot and fully cooked.

So, for a while I was putting aluminum foil on the edge (like on a pie crust) to slow the browning. That worked much better, but the center still cooked very slowly and it wasn't always easy to pull off the foil before it got welded to the cheese on the edge.

The last year or so, I've been using a pizza stone. But that makes it nearly impossible to use Al foil on the edge. Pre-Heating the stone to ~50F above the baking temperature seemed to cook the center crust better, but it seemed to cook the bottom too quickly (crunchy bottom and still kinda uncooked above). And the stone is nearly black with burnt cheese and stuff, and it smokes, so J hates it. Maybe there's some magic temperature window that works better.

I just found this. I'll probably try it on my next attempt. It apparently risks smoking too, but it's worth a shot.

What are your frozen pizza tricks, or do you just say, "Screw it, I'm calling Luigi's"? :-)

Cheers,
Scott.
New Can't help you much here . . .
. . I only eat a few slices of pizza a year, when I can steal it from the boxes in a client's conference room. Stolen pizza really does taste better.
New tried DiGiorno 3 times in 10 years 2 kids vomitted I had severe heartburn
have you tried a different brand or made your own? (since you are adding stuff anyway)
always look out for number one and don't step in number two
New Yeah, we've tried others occasionally.
DiGiorno has been the best we've tried of the rising-crust kinds. (J doesn't like crispy crusts.) Sorry you folks had bad luck with it.

I've tried "fresh" pizza dough from the store, and making my own. It makes it easier to get the crust evenly cooked, but it's much messier and we haven't been happy with the results yet (it's either too thick and doughy or too thin and crispy).

Basically, fresh would need a lot more practice. ;-)

Thanks.

Cheers,
Scott.
New Haver you tried the broiler to finish it?
See there? It's in the directions you linked. Guy knows what he's talking about.
--

Drew
Expand Edited by drook Aug. 21, 2016, 03:57:08 PM EDT
New :-) I'll see how it goes and report back in a week or so...
New I've had a lot of people recommend these to me.
There's a new place near me that cooks their frozen pizzas (hand made by another vendor about 15 miles away who freezes them and then they get delivered by truck to the the new place). They turn out well.

https://www.amazon.com/Presto-03430-Pizzazz-Plus-Rotating/dp/B00005IBXJ
New We had one of those, too.
I only tried it a few times and could never get good results with it. I think we gave it away.

Thanks.

Cheers,
Scott.
New Design never made sense to me
It spends more time cooling off than heating up. And the diameter is strictly limited so you couldn't even do the ones that I get at Aldi anyway.
--

Drew
New LRPD:" I don't think these were sliced from anything." :)
Alex

"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."

-- Isaac Asimov
New Directly on the rack worked pretty well.
I removed the pizza stone, cooked it ~ 20 minutes, added more pepperoni and mozzarella cheese, cooked it another 5 minutes or so, then added 2-3 minutes with the broiler element. It turned out pretty well, but the crust was a little too crunchy on the bottom. The toppings were just about perfect though and the cheese was nicely melted and just starting to brown.

I didn't need to rotate the pizza (the oven tiles on the bottom shelf seem to make things even enough).

I'll need to experiment with the temperature and time some more, but Brian Dahlen (in the link above) knows what he's talking about. It's very close!

Cheers,
Scott.
     Frozen pizza. - (Another Scott) - (10)
         Can't help you much here . . . - (Andrew Grygus)
         tried DiGiorno 3 times in 10 years 2 kids vomitted I had severe heartburn - (boxley) - (1)
             Yeah, we've tried others occasionally. - (Another Scott)
         Haver you tried the broiler to finish it? - (drook) - (1)
             :-) I'll see how it goes and report back in a week or so... -NT - (Another Scott)
         I've had a lot of people recommend these to me. - (mmoffitt) - (2)
             We had one of those, too. - (Another Scott) - (1)
                 Design never made sense to me - (drook)
         LRPD:" I don't think these were sliced from anything." :) -NT - (a6l6e6x)
         Directly on the rack worked pretty well. - (Another Scott)

But don't get all fretty-pants on us.
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