Homemade Pizza vs Frozen Pizza – Who wins?

Frozen vs Real Pizza on the grill

We conducted an experiment in which I was 100% prepared to be defeated – we put a homemade, freshly made pepperoni pizza up against a frozen SHAKESPEARE’S pizza.  Now, if you are anywhere near Columbia, MO then you know what kind of battle we throwing ourselves into.  Shakespeare’s pizza is lauded with praise by Mizzou grads, we absolutely adore it.  It’s delicious pizza – there’s no denying it.  The crust is thick and soft, the sauce is tremendous blend of flavors, and the cheese – (I’m salivating as I’m writing) is never ending.  So, make sure you understand – I. LOVE. SHAKESPEARE’S. PIZZA.

We decided to grill a homemade pizza and a Shakespeare’s and see who would come out ahead.  The pizza I made was thin crust- maybe that was slightly unfair, but it just happened to be the crust I had.  I made a homemade tomato sauce, and topped it with cheese and pepperoni. That’s it.  Nothing too terribly special.  A lot like the classic pepperoni pizza we have shown you before.

We grilled both pizzas until the cheese was melted.  The difference between the two was astounding.  The crust on the Shakespeare’s pizza was crunchy.  And by crunchy, I mean, I may have actually cut the inside of my mouth while chewing.  It was crazy crunchy.  But not burnt – very bizarre.  My thinner crust pizza was crunchy, but a normal crunchy.  Not the scary, I wonder if I will regret eating this for 3 days kind of crunchy.  And the cheese on my homemade pizza actually took in some of the smoke flavor.

So, official outcome:  I love Shakespeare’s.  And if I have a frozen Shakespeare’s pizza, I’m going to eat it, and I’m going to be happy about it.  But if we decide to grill a pizza, and I have the choice between grilling a homemade pizza or a frozen pizza, I’ll pick fresh every day of the week.

Maybe we need to redo the experiment using 2 different actual frozen pizzas. Or maybe I’m just looking for another excuse to grill pizzas.  It’s hard to say…

2 thoughts on “Homemade Pizza vs Frozen Pizza – Who wins?

  1. Kevin. Thanks for the time you spent with the cor Jesu dads and the passion with which you delivered the talk. After doing a shoulder and now chicken after your talk, I realized that I have never done these meats right EVER in my life until now. 15 hours (wrapped) on the shoulder and today the chicken with pecan and apple. Thank you so much for passing on the craft. I am going to try a buffalo injection with coconut milk and Tabasco and ill let you know how that turns out.

    I remember Haberbergers from seven holy founders. Must be a connection there!
    Niall

    1. Thanks so much for reaching out. I had a BLAST at Cor Jesu talking with all of you dads. What a great audience, fun evening, tons of great questions and feedback. SO happy to hear you’ve had positive results! And yes, those Haberberger’s are my cousins!

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