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Sit down with a few dozen freshly-baked pies, and you quickly get a sense of what makes a great frozen pizza vs what's just mushy stuff on bread. A panel of intrepid tasters chomped their way through the excellent, the average, and the downright nauseating, assessing crust, sauce, cheese, toppings and overall appeal in search of the best frozen pizza in all the land. Our findings are divvied into cheese pizzas, topped and specialty pies, ranked from worst to best in every category. Did your favorite make it into the upper crust? Read on.
(Note - in response to some of the comments - none of the pizzas were burnt. We just all happen to like the edges of our cheese a little bit browned. Why didn't we use a pizza stone/pizza oven? Simple -- the vast majority of people cooking pizza at home are going to just use a rack or cookie sheet in their oven, and we wanted to approximate the results. And why didn't we include some brands? Our standard rule of thumb is that if we can't easily find it in our local supermarket, we're not going to include it. We don't want to frustrate all the folks who won't be able to get it in their part of the country.
But that's where the blog comments come in. We may not have access to all these pies, but we love finding out what you all are thinking, and we take your suggestions to heart. Stay tuned, 'cause we'll probably do a Part II within the next couple of months.)
Get the Results of the Frozen Pizza Taste Test
Our friend Casey Fishman reported from the scene:
Nowadays, you can find just about any style of frozen pizza crafted according to your personal preferences. On assignment with the
After blind taste testing 52 varieties, I was left to make decisions without any distraction of persuasive marketing attempts and judge purely on taste. All packaging aside, the winners were not those with the highest dollar signs. In fact, the fancy Frontera Barbeque Chicken Pizza was certainly towards the bottom of my list. The famed
So, what's good about frozen pizza? Aside from conjuring up fond memories of grammar school, the preparation is virtually fool proof. Feel free to ignore the directions on the back of the box. Heat the oven to somewhere around 350 degrees and remove once the cheese is melted.
The lesson I learned from this experiment was that my pizza palate has progressed considerably since second grade. My taste buds now demand more than the frozen pizza served up by lunch ladies with hair nets. Luckily, as a New Yorker, I can roll downstairs and pick up a slice from my local pizzeria. To the rest of the world, California Pizza Kitchen in your grocer's freezer is not a bad alternative!
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3-12-2008 @11:54AM beanspants said... wow, you burned up all those pizzas (yeah, i read your i like browned crust hedge) and managed to make them look disgusting yet again. What an awful test for those of us who don't like burned pizza.
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3-13-2008 @9:41AM totoro said... That AOL slideshow interface is simply awful, Slashfood.
Your taste test sounds like a great idea, but navigating thru it was painful-please just put it on a regular blog page or something.
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3-12-2008 @4:26PM Daniel said... To the Kraft guy I don't understand why you are upset about the whole Schwann's thing. You guys had just as many pizzas up there with the Digiorno and California Pizza Kitchen lines. Your Digiorno's rising crust received the highest ranked pizza for the multi-topped pizza by barely beating out Pelle Fresco's Rocket Pizza. Speaking of, has anyone ever tried this pizza before? It says all natural, is this true?
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3-14-2008 @9:06AM JB said... I agree with Robert #13--I have tried them all and JACK'S are the best---of course you have to add a few goodies to bring out the best in any frozen pizza--JACK'S has the BEST tasting cheese
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3-14-2008 @11:07PM lisa said... You failed to mention Freshetta Sauce Stuffed Crust Pizza. This is the best flavored crust pizza ...
we can no longer find it here :(
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3-17-2008 @1:34AM frank said... Your cook is wacked because he is on crack. Read the instructions, my pizza never looks like that. Did you pay him mininum wage or what. The ultimate digornio and the Digornio rising crust supreme is the best, that is correct. the california pizzas are also on the top. But if you can spare the expense go for the stuff crust Digornio.
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3-17-2008 @1:33AM frank said... Learn how to cook them first. Pay the person to cook them; That way he's not trying to kill you and his bad attiude does not show in the pictures. but your assesment is correct digonio supreme and ultimate are the best. California pizzas are also pretty good too.
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3-18-2008 @2:09AM Joe B said... I have to agree with the vocal Totino's pizza contingent. I feasted on those for a large part of my teenage and college years, and I still try to stock one or two in the freezer for a pinch. They're best cooked on a cookie sheet so they don't get *too* crispy, and a single pizza is the perfect size for a hungry guy's appetite. Lots of cheese and meat taste. They're great!
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3-18-2008 @2:20AM auramac said... Looks like playdough class. Frozen pizza sucks- Mystic Pizza is good as long as they put enough cheese on it- keep a small can or jar around just in case. Best munchies pizza is Ellio's 9-pack smothered with oregeno, red pepper, and a dash of olive oil, baked directly on the rack. Incredibly tasty. Just accept it as it is and eat the whole damn box. It's the Best!
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3-18-2008 @1:43PM Itsme said... You forgot Mystic pizza....Tree Traven. I would never eat a pizza that looks like some of the ones in those pictures...yuck!!!
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3-20-2008 @3:52PM Sage said... Johnny447 who were they bias towards? I see the Pelle Fresco Pizza up there and the only stores I have seen it in are Dean & Deluca in Manhattan and Kings Supermarket in New Jersey. They were the second best pizza in the multi-topped pizzas and they're not a big company. How were they able to compete? Maybe their product is just better and Totino's is garbage.
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4-01-2008 @2:17PM CAROLYNE said... YOU ALL SHOULD TRY REGGIO'S PIZZA,,BEST FROZEN PIZZA EVER...ONLY ONE I LIKE.ONLY ONE FAMILY LOVES TOO,,THE OTHERS TASTE LIKE CARDBOARD OR CARDBOARD WITH INFLATABLE CRUST..
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4-01-2008 @2:27PM Brendan said... wat the hell, are all the people who took part in this experiment a bunch old geezers u all have no taste buds, secondly, how the heck can no one be willing to eat lunchables or the other tiny lunch made pizzas those all delious, if your gonna do a experiment at least try it.
Also you really need to watch when your cooking some of those frozen pizzas the pics u used were of horribly cooked pizza half the time, i eat tonys and dijorns all the time and they never turn out as bad as you made them look.
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4-01-2008 @2:27PM Rich Panek said... This is a typical garbage aol test. It gets your attention, but gives you no science or intelligent opinion.
It made people sad? Nobody wanted to test two items?
There should be honest and straight forward opinions. This entire generation nowadays all try to emulate E channel or VH1. I am funnier on accident than the crap people put out these days. It is sad lately. Definitely the (ME) generation.
Do the pies have appeal?
Edible?
Fresh?
Crust?
Sauce?
Cheese?
Then a 1-10 scale.
Thats what it could have been. And I do agree with using them plain or on a cookie sheet cooking method as that is the majority method.
See ya later!
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4-01-2008 @2:44PM Kitty G. said... Rich - you didn't see that it WAS divided into crust (1-5), cheese (1-5), sauce (1-5), overall appeal (1-5)?
Each and every pie was broken down like that.
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4-01-2008 @3:05PM Ariana said... First off, half of them it looks like you burnt. Secondly, the ones I have personaly tried off of the list, my tastes are at complete opposites of yours. I am wondering if your test group has ever even had a good homemade pizza to compare any of these to.
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4-01-2008 @3:13PM marianne said... primo tastes like pizzeria. fresh tasting cheese and tomatoes
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4-01-2008 @3:27PM kr15 said... For the love of God who cooked those pizza's. Seriously I have NEVER seen Bagel Bites that looked like that, what did the cook do drop them then scrape the cheese along the ground before picking them up. It's no wonder you guys test were whack, the cook seriously needs to be shot. The Instructions on HOW TO COOK them are on the back. Please learn to read and then try the test again.
PS It looks like you guys purposely dropped, stepped on, kicked, rolled across the floor and picked apart every single pizza.
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4-01-2008 @3:26PM Kris said... For the love of God who cooked those pizza's. Seriously I have NEVER seen Bagel Bites that looked like that, what did the cook do drop them then scrape the cheese along the ground before picking them up. It's no wonder you guys test were whack, the cook seriously needs to be shot. The Instructions on HOW TO COOK them are on the back. Please learn to read and then try the test again.
PS It looks like you guys purposely dropped, stepped on, kicked, rolled across the floor and picked apart every single pizza.
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4-01-2008 @3:45PM Ed said... What about Tree Tavern Pizza, with a little EVOO its far better then any of them.
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