I'm quite fond of Target's Archer Farms brand pizzas. The Canadian Bacon & Gruyere is quite tasty.

I love good pizza. Vito & Nick's, 83rd & Pulaski ONLY is the BESt thin crust.....................
I live north of the city, "pizza wasteland". I've tried a bunch of places, all garbage.
I have found and enjoy Home Run Inn, Signature, Plum Tomato & Cheese. To that I add whatever: sausage, onion etc.
Cook it on a bread stone.
Pretty darn good.

I also like frozen pizza but can you tell me how to make pizza base at home coz i have never made base at my home.

I have no idea what pizza base is.

dough -> crust?

I have never made pizza crust at home. There are many recipies out there, or frozen crusts at the store.
Give them a try. Good Luck!

You can buy fresh pizza dough ready to go at Trader Joe's. I do this all the time, making one sausage on white for the ole man and one bbq chicken pizza on whole wheat for me. Much better than frozen. I cook them twice as long as the recipe calls for so they're nice and crispy.

There is a thread on making pizza crust here.

Memory is everything....sometimes things aren't as good as we remember.
I made Appian Way a few years ago (not frozen, I know) , but it was horrible. Then I got Kraft Pizza Set from Canada, and it was EXACTLY as I remembered(when it was available in the US in the 70's).
For frozen, growing up in Chicago in the 70's, there was John's Original, Celeste(BIG size), even Chef Boyardee was available in Michigan. John's was the big one for us. The sausage tasted basically like pork and black pepper---and it was GOOD!
Anyway, I've been ordering like a CASE of ELIO'S from online grocery shops. It is the closest to what I remember John's and others to be like. OF COURSE it's not fresh, but it IS comforting.

cito wrote:

AngrySarah wrote:

But they changed it and the sausage is more like rabbit turd/Domino's type.

That is also what happened to Tombstone pizzas.

Thirty years ago when Tombstone was still a small Wisconsin company, their sausage was spicier with a gravel-like texture. Every self-respecting neighborhood bar in Chicago served them, baked in the small electric toaster oven that Tombstone provided. Tombstone pizza achieved cult-like status at that time, and then it was introduced to supermarkets.

Several years after that, the company was purchased by Kraft, and the rest is history--

Tombstone, after years of bastardization, has the "original" sausage back out now. It's as close as you can get to the original 30 years ago. A little thicker than I remember, but......

Another thought....
Jewel's Chef's Kitchen, Market Day, and White Hen Pantry Frozen Pizza seem to be the same, with their thin, hole-filled crust, and non-acidic tomato/pizza sauce.
I love Chef's Kitchen, EXCELLENT basic pizza (much more so than Jack's or Tony's). I just wish these smaller great companies would stop selling out to the corporate bigwigs. I wouldn't.....

PizzaHolic67 wrote:Tombstone, after years of bastardization, has the "original" sausage back out now. It's as close as you can get to the original 30 years ago. A little thicker than I remember, but......

I'll admit that the new "original" is closer to the old "original" than the first Kraft incarnation, but it still is vastly different than the " old original original" ( Ouch, My head hurts from writing that sentence ! )

I would like to thank "Gleam" for the heads-up on Pep's Pizza. I was at the Kenosha Woodman's last week and they did have 3 or 4 varieties of Pep's. I purchased the sausage version, along with the sausage and mushroom variety.

My impression is that these pizzas are virtually identical to the old-school Tombstones, although possibly with slightly less cheese. This is a curious fact, because the pizza's weight comes in at 22-24 ounces----Same as before.

The sausage was spot-on, spicy gravelly texture.

Last week, they were $3.79 each, or 3/ $ 11.00--- I would be curious to hear other people's opinion of Pep's, I thought they were quite good.

I've tried 3 or 4 of the suggestions from this thread. So far, they're all pretty awful. The Tombstone "original" recipe or whatever sure isn't what I used to get. The crust on most of these pies is terrible; hard, tasteless. I'm thinking about buying a couple of Little Caesars peperoni pizzas and freezing them, to see how they turn out reheated. So far I'd have to say a LC peperoni pizza is better than any of these premade frozen varieties that I have tried. And that's not saying much.

I was disappointed to learn this evening that Sunset Foods no longer carries frozen Malnati's pizzas. I live as close to the Libertyville Malnati's as to the Libertyville Sunset, so I can still get them as easily; it was just nice to be able to pick them up on a Sunset run.

I bought a frozen deep-dish Gino's East pizza to nurse myself through the grief.

If anybody is interested, the new issue of Cook's Country has a recipe to make your own frozen pizza. It looks interesting - the dough is so soft its almost pourable and they mix half-and-half, I think, in with the cheese to keep it creamy.

MikeLM wrote:Try an "Amy's" brand frozen pizza. There have been some very favorable reviews of this nationally-distributed pie; Whole Foods carries a variety of them.

Amy's is by far my favorite frozen pizza. Some of their varieties are merely OK, but some are wonderful, especially the 3 Cheese (mozz, parm, goat) with Cornmeal Crust. Adding a bit of oregano and hot pepper flakes after baking makes it that much better.

The Jewel Chef's Kitchen pizzas used to be the best... they went downhill... they got better, but they're not what they used to be.

The best one I have found lately is Leonardi's... only found by me at Joe Caputo's in Palatine (don't know about the other locations). Good crust, nice amount of cheese, good sauce, and excellent sausage.

ucjames wrote:
I love the Market Day pizzas (my personal favorite frozen pizza, bar none), but I've been eating them for close to 20 years now and I realize that for someone who didn't start eating them at an early age, they generally do not hold the same allure.

That is exactly what I was going to post. I feel as though there is no other frozen pizza that can compare.

This is something of a digression from the "frozen pizza" topic, but if we can temporarily expand it to "store-bought":

Yesterday for the first time we tried Pillsbury's thin-crust pizza dough. I rolled it out on a baking sheet, topped it with sauce, pepperoni, and Italian sausage, and cooked it for 15 minutes. We were very happy with the results. We'd tried Pillsbury's other (thicker crust) pizza dough, and didn't care much for it. But this new product, the ready-to-bake thin-crust dough, was a very pleasant surprise.

I should note that the instructions say to spread the dough on a lightly greased baking sheet. I put a sheet of aluminum foil on a backing sheet and spread some oil around on the foil with my fingers. I remembered seeing something on a recent TV show (the Bobby Flay - Lou Malnati throwdown, perhaps) about the importance of putting some oil under the crust so it will brown. It turned out looking and tasting great.

The roll of Pillsbury's thin-crust pizza dough was $3.99. Not having done the math yet, I presume a homemade dough would be cheaper, if only materials were taken into consideration, but if you counted time too - this was a good way to make a quick pizza at home.

Cogito (and others) try the Home Run inn signature cheese and plum tomato, as has been mentioned a few times here.

Way better than any other frozen pizza I've had.

We have one in the freezer all the time. I don't really need to doctor them up, but sometimes I'll put some of the GWiv-recipe chili oil I made on a piece or three....

home run pizza, plum tomato & cheese is the best frozen pizza. Add sausage & a little chopped onion. Use a bread stone. EXCEPT FOR A FRESH
Vito & Nicks, 83rd & Pulaski THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!

amyliz wrote:If anybody is interested, the new issue of Cook's Country has a recipe to make your own frozen pizza. It looks interesting - the dough is so soft its almost pourable and they mix half-and-half, I think, in with the cheese to keep it creamy.

Would homemade pizza need the kind of adjustments noted above to withstand freezing? How about after baking?

I ask because I make a lot of pizza (in terms of both frequency and quantity) and just recently I've recently frozen half of one in hopes of re-heating quickly sometime when the need outweighs my patience. I suppose I will know soon enough...

Update: So it seemed to work just fine. Cheese was not too dried out, something I thought might happen. Crust was a bit dry and crispy, but it was flavorful to begin with (a rich crust with semolina) so I was ultimately very pleased and would do it again.

Well, I've tried a couple more of your suggestions. First was a Home Run Inn Classic sausage pizza. It wasn't too bad, better than average I would say. Not sure if this is the same one that some of you were recommending, it didn't say anything about plum tomatoes, etc. Then I finally was able to locate some Doreen's frozen pizzas at Super Tony's. I must say, this pizza is clearly much better than most. I would have to rate it up near the top. I had a peperoni, and a sausage. I preferred the peperoni, their sausage was kind of bland and rubbery. I am looking forward to trying some of Doreen's other varieties.

The "Cheese Plum Tomato" Home Run Inn is part of the signature series. I've never had it -- I just go for the regular sausage that you had. I'm not a fan of Home Run Inn's dine-in pizzas, but their frozen pizzas are pretty much the best, I've found. One thing I do that's different from the instructions (which generally say to cook from frozen) is to thaw it and bake it at 450 until it looks done. I don't bother with a pizza stone--just cook it straight on the rack. I actually find my crusts to come out crispier this way.

I have had a few of the Doreen's from Strack. While I like them, I think the sauce is a tad (okay a ton) heavy on oregano. Once I get past the initial shock from the first bite all is good.

The Home Run In Plum Tomato pizza is a topping. Basically a cheese pizza with crushed plum tomatoes all over the top. It is far better than any of their regular pizzas (except th Grilled Veggie one I had years ago from Cub Foods but have never seen it again).

Jamie

As rare as I make a frozen pizza, I tend to prefer California Pizza Kitchen or Home Run Inn. When I can find it, I like the individual Totino's sausage pizza. There's just something about those sausage crumbles that makes the pizza. However, my favorite of all time has to be Bravissimo which I haven't seen in stores for at least a decade. Frozen Pizza Gods, you must've had a plan at the time but why did you take Bravissimo from me and failed to offer a worthy replacement...

Over the weekend, I sampled Home Run's Meat Lover's (Pepperoni, Sausage, Bacon) Frozen Pizza. It was...er...for lack of a better term, a real home run.

However, my favorite of all time has to be Bravissimo which I haven't seen in stores for at least a decade.

Gosh, yes, I used to love their spinach version.

Quote:
However, my favorite of all time has to be Bravissimo which I haven't seen in stores for at least a decade.

Gosh, yes, I used to love their spinach version.

However, my favorite of all time has to be Bravissimo which I haven't seen in stores for at least a decade.

Gosh, yes, I used to love their spinach version.

I haven't looked for them in a while but they used to carry them at Whole Foods.

missvjw wrote:The Jewel Chef's Kitchen pizzas used to be the best... they went downhill... they got better, but they're not what they used to be.

The best one I have found lately is Leonardi's... only found by me at Joe Caputo's in Palatine (don't know about the other locations). Good crust, nice amount of cheese, good sauce, and excellent sausage.

dang... these used to be my favorite. i always wondered why i liked them so much compared to jacks and tonys. apparently they are just a better grade of frozen pizza. the chef's kitchen sausage pizza was my favorite.