I always find it convenient to have a standby frozen pizza sitting in the freezer for those hectic days when taking time out to prepare a full scale meal is just out of the question. Our family prefers the raised crust pizzas as much as the flat crust varieties. The rising crusts are obviously more filling and generally preferred as it will generally require only one pizza to satisfy everyone’s appetite.
I usually opt for the Digiorno or Fruscetta brands of thick crust pizzas. These brands carry several varieties and usually come across as average to our family. It is quite the daunting task for any frozen pizza company to create a decent pie comparable to the real thing ordered from the local pizzeria. These freeze and bake pizzas do a decent job of keeping everyone fed on a busy weeknight and we typically opt for the carry out pizza on the weekends. The Meijer grocery stores happen to carry their own self rising crust pizza that is their answer to the Digiorno brand. The other day I purchased a Meijer three meat self rising crust pizza as it was on sale. I was curious how it would measure up to the competition.
Preparation
As with any self rising crust pizza the process is generally the same. The pizza is removed from cardboard bottom and plastic covering and inserted into the oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit. The directions implicitly state that the oven is not to be preheated. The directions call for a bake time of twenty minutes but disclose that the time could go all the way up to twenty seven minutes. The pizza is also considered done when the edges turn golden brown or the cheese is adequately melted. The pizza is then pulled from the oven and should rest about five minutes on cooling rack. Our pizza took the full twenty seven minutes when baking in our electric oven. The final appearance actually looked pleasing to the eyes as the pie was loaded with pepperoni on top with decent amounts of ground beef and Italian sausage below the cheese.
Taste
Once the pizza was finally cool enough to pickup, our family gave it a go. The pizza had a nice crispy crust on the outside and had a definite crunch. The three meats were all decent enough as the pepperoni was definitely spicy. The Italian sausage and ground beef tastes were tough to detect given the spiciness of the pepperoni. The cheese was surprisingly pleasing as it melted just right on the pizza. The real disappointment to this pizza was the sauce and the inner diameter of this pizza. The sauce was maintained an overly sweet and runny consistency that managed to escape on to everyone’s fingers every time someone took a bite at the table. The inner crust was rather soggy and lifeless making this pizza extremely difficult to slice or even pick up. I have detected these problems with Digiorno but the Meijer brand was much worse.
Price
The cost of this self rising pizza crust was only $4.99. I have seen this pizza go on sale on numerous occasions for as low as $3.99. The price is in line with the competition though I think the quality is lacking as I find it very difficult to get past the poor quality of the sauce. For the same price I would definitely prefer the DiGiorno brand.
Overall Opinion
The Meijer brand self rising crust pizza fares no better than average. If this three meat pizza carried a decent sauce and the crust held firm, I would have rated this much better. For now I will stick with the thinner crust pizzas that hold firm and have better tasting sauces.
