- 7 hours ago
In this video, Food writer Andee Gosnell (Associate Editor at Food & Wine) and pizza chef Ryan O’Hara (owner of Pizza Grace) put the freezer aisle to the ultimate test, tasting and ranking the most popular frozen cheese pizzas to find out which ones are actually worth it. From classics like DiGiorno, Tombstone, Screamin’ Sicilian, Red Baron, and Newman’s Own to other fan favorites, they break down each pie in detail—analyzing crust texture, sauce flavor, and cheese quality, while even explaining pro pizza terms like “leoparding.”
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00I like this one. Look at the size of it.
00:03I like the use of fresh mozzarella here. That could be a good sign.
00:05This is what I think good pizza looks like in a video game.
00:07This is potentially top five.
00:09I'm a food writer.
00:10And I'm a pizza restaurateur.
00:11And today we're here to taste and rank
00:13most popular frozen cheese pizzas.
00:15All right, I've got the first pizza here.
00:17Let's dive in.
00:17This one looks like a pretty standard frozen pizza.
00:21Kind of what you would expect.
00:23The first thing that I automatically pick up on is the shreds of cheddar.
00:27Decent undercarriage, but fairly dense. Not a lot of air in the dough.
00:31So almost like cardboard consistency, it feels like.
00:34When we're looking at something like frozen pizza,
00:36we're factoring in a couple of different categories.
00:38We're looking at things like value, the flavor profile.
00:41What kind of structure does it have? What kind of texture does it have?
00:44And also factoring in accessibility.
00:46It's really important to us that people can actually go out and purchase the products that we recommend.
00:51Hmm. Okay.
00:53First thing I automatically get is the crust dryness.
00:56It's a little cracker-like.
00:58I guess maybe it's somewhere between like tavern and New York style maybe.
01:02You also get this rush of tomato paste.
01:05There's not a lot of sauce. This is a fairly dry pizza.
01:07It could maybe use a little more sauce.
01:09If I'm like tired and exhausted at 8pm and I need dinner, this is going to do the trick.
01:13I'm excited to talk to Andy and see what her thoughts are.
01:15To me, I think for frozen pizza, there is like an element of like predictability that you want.
01:20And I kind of enjoyed the predictability of this one.
01:22Yeah, I think if you're getting a frozen cheese pizza, like this is probably about what you expect.
01:27Oh, okay.
01:29Tombstone five cheese.
01:30So I definitely noticed because of the cheddar.
01:32I was like, this has to be like either just good old fashioned American four or five cheese pizza.
01:37This feeds, yeah, this probably feeds a couple people or it feeds a few kids.
01:40It feels pretty hard to me for the value for the price.
01:43Probably, yeah, best value.
01:45All right, let's try the next one.
01:47This one looks great.
01:48I'm impressed with the crust.
01:49It's got some nice rise to it.
01:51What I really like on the crust is this bubbling brown on the end, which is kind of got some
01:55like leoparding.
01:56Leoparding is a sign of the slower fermentation.
01:59Basically, the sugars get more concentrated and then they kind of start to bubble up on here.
02:05This tomato sauce is a lot less sticky.
02:08It doesn't have that metallic tinny texture.
02:11It feels like maybe there's some spices in here, maybe some herbs, some dried herbs.
02:16What I really like about this one very specifically is the crust.
02:19I'm not going to be crazy and say like it looks homemade, but it's definitely a far step above what
02:25I think just people think of a standard frozen pizza.
02:27If you're wanting something a little thicker, something a little more substantial, but still like a fairly standard flavor profile.
02:32Yeah, I think this is a solid option.
02:33Ho, ho, ho.
02:34All right.
02:35Freschetta, naturally rising.
02:38Okay.
02:38Four cheese.
02:39Okay.
02:39Yeah.
02:40For me, when I think of pizza, it's like how many am I feeding?
02:43How much can you feed?
02:44For the lowest amount.
02:46Right.
02:46Yeah.
02:47If you're wanting to feed, feed a few people, but also, yeah, maybe it's a little bit of a step
02:50up.
02:51This is a good option.
02:54I like would dub this like cartoon pizza.
02:56Like this is what I think good pizza looks like in a video game.
02:59It almost has like almost no crust.
03:02Hmm.
03:03There's something like so wonderfully nostalgic about something that tastes like school pizza.
03:07This one has too much sauce.
03:09To me, overwhelms the other elements.
03:10It's very, very basic.
03:12The tomato sauce was so prominent.
03:15Mm-hmm.
03:15In a not a great way.
03:16It doesn't top the list for me.
03:18No.
03:19Oh, man.
03:20It's not delivery.
03:22Man, that's crazy.
03:24Sorry, DiGiorno fans.
03:25I feel like when people think frozen pizza, they think of this one.
03:28Yeah, DiGiorno is like the name you think of.
03:30There is like kind of a beauty in like bowling alley pizza or like art.
03:33Like there is a nostalgic note, which I think can hit for a lot of people.
03:37But for me, like that overwhelming tomato sauce flavor just kind of like wasn't my vibe.
03:41Yeah, agree.
03:44It's a lot smaller than the other pizzas.
03:46What's that word for in the circle?
03:48Diameter.
03:49There you go.
03:50I got a C in math.
03:51This is a pizza for mice.
03:53It's so tiny.
03:55Flavor's not bad on this one.
03:56Pretty good flavor.
03:57I like the sauce.
03:58Feels fairly well balanced.
03:59Not a big fan of the marinara sauce on this one.
04:02Sort of one note as far as the texture goes.
04:04It's very bready in flavor, but not bready in height.
04:07And that's confusing me.
04:08And I don't really think I like it that much.
04:11I thought this was a personal pizza.
04:12Maybe you doctor it up with a little dipping sauce or throwing on your own toppings.
04:17As far as redeemable qualities go, at least if it's not that great,
04:20but it's big enough to feed a whole family, there's always that.
04:23Let's check it out.
04:23Let's see what we got.
04:24Whole Foods.
04:25Whole Foods.
04:26That feels surprising to me.
04:27I would have assumed like Whole Foods would be one of the better options.
04:31Yeah, this one feels fairly nondescript and yeah.
04:35Am I crazy or does it just say serving suggestion and then doesn't say a serving suggestion?
04:40One.
04:40This serves one.
04:44So for frozen pizza, we're typically looking at your standard cheese as being a low moisture mozzarella.
04:50For this, I could actually see rounds of mozzarella, which is I think pretty unique.
04:54I like the use of fresh mozzarella here.
04:56That could be a good sign.
04:59I think this is the best cheese I've had so far on any of the pizzas we've tried.
05:03I'm not saying it's because of the whole rounds of mozzarella, but I think it is.
05:07The crust is not my favorite, but not offensively so.
05:10The tomato sauce is actually a really nice supporting character in this.
05:13Yeah.
05:13I think the cheese is a major plus though.
05:15This is the winner as far as cheese goes so far.
05:17It's kind of up to me like no frills.
05:18Like maybe it's a little step up in quality.
05:21Those rounds like fresh out of the oven are also going to melt like the best and give you
05:25that dramatic like cheesy bowl moment.
05:28Okay.
05:29Packaging wise, big fan.
05:30The Screamin' Sicilian Bessie's Revenge cheese pizza.
05:35We've got Wisconsin whole milk, fresh mozzarella slices, as well as shredded mozzarella, Parmesan, Romano and cheddar cheeses.
05:41I think this one like feels not maybe the most like elevated, but definitely like one or two steps above.
05:47A step above your average.
05:49This is solid.
05:50This is potentially top five.
05:51Yes.
05:54We have some green.
05:55This one clearly has more herbs than I have seen on any of the other pizzas.
05:59So that's interesting.
06:00Who am I?
06:01The first thing that you get is almost like sour, like really, really too concentrated tomato.
06:08I'm getting a little oregano.
06:09I'm getting some parsley.
06:10Surprisingly, like the herb really isn't doing anything.
06:13Like I can't taste it at all.
06:14Like everything is just that just concentrated tomato paste flavor.
06:17To me, this is if you're looking for like more of a classic cheese pizza.
06:21This doesn't feel like it.
06:22There's a lot feel like there's kind of a lot going on with this.
06:25I have never heard of you.
06:26Urban Pie Pizza Company.
06:28Oh, wow.
06:29Okay. Well, that's why.
06:30You weren't lying.
06:32This is the most cheese I've ever seen.
06:34We've seen a lot of four and five cheese.
06:35We have never seen an eight cheese.
06:37Mozzarella, provolone, fontina, gouda, white cheddar, parmesan, romano, asiago.
06:42That's a lot going on.
06:43When you start doing too many different things that it kind of all gets sort of muddled and
06:46lost.
06:47And that's what I feel like here is just almost for me too much going on.
06:51I think it's fine.
06:51Probably not a top contender for me though.
06:55This looks like it may be four or five plus cheese with cheddar.
06:58You can kind of see like the distinct lines of where the actual shredded cheese shreds have
07:04fallen.
07:05And the reason for this a lot of time and this happens with all sort of prepackaged shredded
07:09cheeses is they have what's called anti-caking agents, which are basically things that are
07:14used to preserve and extend the shelf life.
07:16That's why for stuff like pasta or pizza, if you are making it at home, you do want to shred
07:21your own cheese because it's just going to melt a little better because it doesn't have
07:24those anti-caking agents.
07:27Very crunchy.
07:28A plus if you're looking for crunch, if you're looking for sort of a classic tavern style pizza.
07:32The cheese is actually nicely savory.
07:34Not just kind of sauce.
07:35It feels maybe slightly on the drier side and maybe could use a touch more.
07:38I would maybe like serve this to people, but maybe like people I didn't particularly care
07:42about that much.
07:43The cheese didn't really melt, which I don't, I don't love.
07:46What's the point if they don't coagulate together and like help each other out?
07:49This one falls flat for me.
07:50Let's see what it is.
07:52Mr. Red Baron.
07:53Red Baron.
07:54I feel like this is like a classic freezer section pizza.
07:57I'm not offended by this pizza, but I'm not excited about it either.
07:59If you buy a four cheese pizza and you're like, I want to see all four cheeses.
08:03You're going to see them.
08:04You're going to see them.
08:04You'll see them and they'll be like, this is as advertised.
08:07Not a finalist.
08:07Not a finalist.
08:11If it's too perfectly circular, that's how you know it's a frozen manufactured pizza.
08:17This has the best tomato sauce that I've tried by far.
08:20I feel like this is just a touch dry, but not bad.
08:22The sauce has some decent acidity to it.
08:24You know, maybe these were actual like plum tomatoes that were canned and turned into a sauce
08:28and not just like pumped out from a giant squeeze bottle.
08:31I think this is one of the better sauces.
08:32I think to me, this one tastes the most like an actual marinara instead of just like a smooth,
08:39like concentrated tomato paste.
08:40Okay.
08:41Who are you?
08:41Let's see what we got.
08:44Rayo's.
08:44I didn't just say that for the sauce.
08:45I was like, this is Rayo's.
08:47Rayo's, you can keep making pizza.
08:51This one actually got like almost some char to the bottom, which is interesting.
08:56Everything is very well balanced, right?
08:58The sauce isn't too overwhelmingly acidic.
09:00It's not too overwhelmingly sweet.
09:02It's also not like super concentrated in texture.
09:05It does have some movement and some flow in there.
09:07You know, sauce is cutting through and giving you flavor, cutting through some of the richness of the cheese.
09:12There's a little bit of like doughiness in there.
09:14There's also like a little bit of nice browning on the bottom.
09:17It's not like the crispiest bottom, but you just get some color on there, which is pretty nice.
09:21Don't kill me for saying this.
09:22I feel like this is the one that tasted the closest to if you got it from a restaurant, but
09:27then it was delivered to your house and you maybe left it on your porch for 35 minutes.
09:31But it still came from a restaurant.
09:33The tomato sauce wasn't tinny to me.
09:35It's a little nicely jammy.
09:37Yeah.
09:37You do get some robustness from the cheese, some saltiness, and the crust had a little bit of like chew
09:42and bite.
09:43Okay, Newman's own.
09:44Newman?
09:44I don't know if I've ever had Newman's.
09:45Why aren't you making dressings?
09:47So we've got thin and crispy crust, four cheese pizza, mozzarella, cheddar, Parmesan and Asiago.
09:54It's a pretty traditional blend.
09:55I generally didn't even know Newman's made pizza.
09:57I don't know if I've ever seen a Newman's own pizza, but this is, yeah, this is not bad. Solid.
10:01Solid.
10:04We have another cartoon pizza.
10:06The cheese is so evenly blanketed.
10:09It's going all the way to the edge of the crust and there's not a single ounce of shred.
10:15You can, there's no shape anymore.
10:17It's all just beautifully melted.
10:18There could be a couple of reasons for that.
10:19One, they could be using that low moisture mozzarella, but there also could be a case where they're using a
10:25thing called casein,
10:27which casein is a protein that's naturally found in whole milk dairy.
10:31But basically in long and short, it helps the meltability of a cheese.
10:35This is kind of making me think that maybe there's a lot of that protein in here and that's what's
10:39causing it to be super just like perfectly blanketed.
10:43You can kind of see it feels like undercooked.
10:45Yeah, that might be design flaw. That might be user error.
10:50As suspected, a lot of cheese, a lot of sauce.
10:53I don't love the flavor of the sauce.
10:55It's very savory.
10:56To me, it tastes like just kind of a low quality canned tomato.
10:58I had so much hope for you because you look so cute.
11:01Not my favorite, but if you're looking for soft, if you're looking for lots of cheese, lots of sauce, maybe
11:04that's your thing.
11:05For me, it's not.
11:06I liked my other cartoon pizza better.
11:08A lot of frozen pizza too, I really feel like falls on user discretion and user error.
11:13You obviously have these package instructions, right?
11:15Yeah.
11:16They include a time range.
11:17They don't include like what type of oven you have.
11:20Right.
11:20Maybe you have a hot spot.
11:21Maybe somebody decided not to put it on the center rack and they put it on the lower rack.
11:24I think for this, you know, some of that gummy mist, like I have a stone at home.
11:27I could just throw it on there and I'm sure it wouldn't hurt it even though it's not in the
11:31package directions.
11:33That's what we got.
11:33Home run in Chicago.
11:36From Chi-town.
11:37Home run in.
11:37Okay.
11:38So this is interesting.
11:39They've cut theirs in tavern style into the squares.
11:41Yeah.
11:42To me, what I'm getting here does not feel at all like a tavern style pizza.
11:46Right?
11:47I really like how the crust looks on this one.
11:50I feel like this is not like any pizza we've seen so far.
11:53To me, this almost looks like a homemade pizza.
11:55It's sort of imperfect.
11:56It doesn't have uniform cheese coverage.
11:58There's so much tomato sauce.
12:00I'm like, hello, like where are the cheese?
12:05This one is just kind of bland.
12:07All you're seeing and all I'm eating is just like tomato sauce.
12:10It's not like an atrocious tomato sauce.
12:12Feels like it needs more seasoning.
12:13Has what feels like no herbs at all.
12:15Where is the cheese?
12:17Like these are from the same pie.
12:19If I was going for a cheese pizza and that was the amount of cheese that I was getting on
12:23my...
12:23Yeah.
12:24You're going to start some fights with this.
12:26These are going to be the slices that go first.
12:28Yeah.
12:28Kind of middle of the road.
12:29It's decent.
12:29Yeah.
12:30It's not like really dramatic in one way or the other.
12:33Oh, I feel like I have to do the hand.
12:35We have Trader Giattos, which is not Trader Joe's.
12:39So sometimes Trader Joe's has certain like specialty products under like a different private label name.
12:45That looks a little more appealing than what we got here.
12:48It's organic.
12:49That's an added value.
12:51I think in terms of like the holy grail of Trader Joe's frozen products though, I feel like for me
12:56this isn't like at the top, top tier.
12:58I agree.
12:59But if you are like a Trader Joe's ride or die, die hard, there's nothing that him and I could
13:03say to Styro.
13:04You're still going to buy this.
13:08It's flat as a pancake.
13:10I can't quite make out what it is, but there's something sprinkled on the surface.
13:13If this is advertising feeding any more than like two to three adults, they're lying.
13:18Like, hmm.
13:20I don't like the texture of the crust on this one.
13:22It almost doesn't feel like pizza to me.
13:24It almost feels like a weird flatbread.
13:25I'm almost eating this pizza in like three distinct experiences.
13:29I have this dough and then the tomato sauce and then like this big air gap and then the cheese.
13:34Yeah, not my favorite.
13:35I feel like we've tried other standard versions of cheese pizza that are more distinguishable and better than this one.
13:42This is another, yeah, another that I would just put as a middle of the road, probably a value type
13:45pizza.
13:46Aha, yes.
13:48Okay.
13:49Market pantry.
13:50The reason that I know this is when Andy was a young, broke college student, I was a target fiend.
13:57And you know it's value when you don't get a box, you get a piece of cardboard, plastic wraps.
14:02For value pizzas, yeah, maybe not a bad option.
14:04This is for like movie night.
14:06I feel like when it's like we need something hot and fast.
14:09Good for kids, good for, you know, in a pinch, good for budgets.
14:13Good middle of the road.
14:16This one like is not melted entirely.
14:18You can still see sort of the individual pieces of shredded cheese on here.
14:22So it feels like it doesn't have a great meltability that could just speak to the quality of the cheese.
14:27The cheese is okay on this one.
14:29Yeah, to me, this is like what I think about.
14:31When I think about like classic frozen pizza, this is kind of it.
14:35A lot of char, a lot of crisps.
14:36It smells smoky.
14:38The, as far as cheese and sauce goes, fairly standard and nondescript to me.
14:41But yeah, it is interesting that this one turns out so crispy and crunchy and dark.
14:47Tony's.
14:47Tony's.
14:48And we're getting 25% more pizza here.
14:50Whatever that means.
14:51It's definitely not the worst like value type brand that we've had.
14:54No, not bad.
14:55Again, if you're looking for crispy, this might be the angle to go for.
15:00These are the largest pockets of cheddar that I've seen.
15:05Okay.
15:06I like this crust.
15:07I feel like the herbs were maybe more just for show.
15:09It doesn't feel like there's a lot in the sauce.
15:11Not cracker like and dry, but also not really like too bready and dense.
15:15Like you don't want your pizza to taste like a focaccia.
15:18Flavor wise, it's pretty straightforward.
15:19I like this one.
15:21Okay.
15:22I feel like these are the largest cheddar ribbons that we've seen.
15:27Let's see what we got.
15:28Sprouts.
15:29Okay.
15:30Sprout shoppers.
15:31We're a sprouts family.
15:33I feel like out of our grocery store brands, this one was probably on the higher end for
15:39me if I'm thinking about the ones that are like internal brands for grocery stores.
15:42I think you're probably right.
15:43Yeah.
15:45It's kind of a thick boy.
15:47I think this is like the thickest one we've seen.
15:51I like it.
15:51It's kind of heavy on the sauce.
15:53Strongest fresh cheese taste by far.
15:56Yeah.
15:56Nice cheesiness.
15:58Good, good crust.
15:58It's not like the biggest pizza by diameter, but because it's so tall and so bready, I
16:04feel like people would get full.
16:05I think as far as frozen pizzas go, this is as good as you're going to get most likely.
16:10I like the look of it.
16:11It feels like a little bit closer to like, I don't know, a real pizza you would get in
16:15like a restaurant.
16:18Redeemed.
16:19A different DiGiorno.
16:20Okay.
16:21Wow.
16:22Okay.
16:22So this is the DiGiorno rising crust.
16:24Yeah.
16:25And you can certainly see the difference in that.
16:26And I think that's, yeah, what's on the box feels pretty accurate to like what you're
16:29getting.
16:30They're not also topping with eight cheeses and herbs and like finishing oil.
16:34Yeah.
16:34It's just a standard four cheese.
16:35We focused on the crust.
16:37Yeah.
16:37Hey, if you're looking for that like thicker, you know, more bubbly crust, this is the one
16:41for you.
16:42And yeah.
16:44After 17 pizzas, these are our top five.
16:47So we've got DiGiorno rising crust, four cheese, freshetta naturally rising crust, four cheese,
16:54Newman's own thin and crispy four cheese pizza, Bessie's Revenge cheese pizza, the screaming
16:59Sicilian, and then the rails brick oven crust with the five cheese pizza.
17:04The DiGiorno rising crust, definitely my favorite.
17:06Similar to that one is, yeah, I think the freshetta was like sort of a similar style.
17:11And then if you're wanting something thin and crispy, I love the Newman's own.
17:13But yeah, of the 17, these are my favorites.
17:16The closest to like home-based nostalgia cheese pizza for me, with just a little bit of finesse,
17:22is this rising crust.
17:23I personally love the screaming Sicilian.
17:26I also just love, there's something about seeing like the rounds of real cheese that's
17:30so satisfying in here.
17:31I would definitely say for sauce lovers, the Reo's.
17:34Yeah, to me, yeah.
17:35Reo's is the winner on sauce.
17:37I feel like that's unsurprising in like a really good way.
17:40Like the people who are known for jarred pasta sauces and jarred sauces, they make a great pizza sauce.
17:45If we had to narrow it down to an overall number one, I think Andy and I both agree, it's
17:49the DiGiorno rising crust.
17:53Ryan, pizza restauranteur extraordinaire.
17:56Thank you for going on this journey with me.
17:58Thanks for watching.
17:59Want to see us rank more products?
18:01Give us a follow.
18:02Let us know in the comments what other products we should rank.
18:04and contact us your墜約束 gang.
18:04Here is a behinderIA, fast.
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