Galek

Recipes 

Has anyone ever tried using a food saver to vacuum seal a home made pizza and freeze it for future use? It would be really helpful on nights I dont want to cook.

I have been trying to think of a way it wont smear the sauce everywhere, or have the cheese stick to the plastic. Any suggestions as to how to go about it? Or has anyone tried it and know it is not really possible already?

Thanks for any and all help,

~Galek

Bokonon

Recipes 

Never tried it. I'd think you would want to at least partially cook the pizza first, at least maybe the crust

chainsawpancake

Recipes 

drink more beer

gregkeller

Recipes 

put sauce on uncooked crust, probably easiest if the crust is on one of those cardboard rounds like frozen pizzas come on. Then put it into the freezer for a while to freeze the sauce. Cheese should already be frozen, then sprinkle on top and vacuseal. I think that would work. never tried it before, but who knows, maybe.

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Lunchtime

Recipes 

^This

voltin

Recipes 

I have never done it but I do know that the industry use a process called Individually Quick Frozen, or IQF, when preparing frozen entrees and the such. Basically it boils down to freezing the individual components of a dish separately and then combining the ingredients together once they are all frozen, similar to the way gregkeller mentions.

This is why when you pull a frozen pizza out of the freezer you can still remove and replace the toppings. If you did not do this you would end up a pizza that resembled an ice disk. I have seen home-IQF done with Dry Ice, but that was only on small stuff like peas not a whole pizza.

If it was me I would probably form the dough, and stick it in the freezer to firm up a little bit, and then spread the sauce and add the cheese and then freeze it rock hard as fast as possible (we want to limit the number of ice crystals that are formed.) Then I would either spread the toppings on a cookie sheet and freeze them as fast as possible. As soon as everything is frozen solid, I would proportion the toppings and seal the whole thing in a zip-lock or foodsaver bag.

Now if you are just trying to save some time, rather than making something that you simply pop into the oven. I would recommend making up a big batch of dough, and then freezing individual dough disks. Then when you want to make a pizza, thaw the dough, spread the sauce, add the toppings and bake.

Hope that helps.

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Airplanedoc

Recipes 

I'm not 100% sure but isn't there a issue with freezing meat in sauces etc. I seem to remember that when freezing spaghetti/lasagna sauce and such you are not supposed to add the meat to the sauce mixture until use.

I don't know for a fact but aren't the meat and sauce on say a tombstone precooked then assembled into a pizza then frozen?

voltin

Recipes 

For the most part if something wants to be kept whole and not mushy it is usually frozen independently. When they make frozen entrees that contain sauce (say spaghetti), they will freeze the sauce separately and then break it up into chunks that are added at packaging. That way you don't end up with an ice block. When it is re-heated and stirred it all gets combined.

Again this is just my understanding of the process, I am by no means an expert in this matter. I picked up most of this information from cooking shows, and the internet.

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My eBIAB Build | Texas Blues and Brews Festival

On Deck: Cotton Blossom Traditional Mead, Edwort's Apfelwine, Rice Wine
Primary: Rye Kentucky Common Berliner Weisse, Koko Brown Ale
Secondary: Peach Wine
Kegged: Nothing
On Tap: Irish Red Ale, Scottish 80/-

Hammy71

Recipes 

None of these suggestions mention the cardboard added to the crust to get that 'real' frozen pizza taste..... Sorry....couldn't resist.

steber

Recipes 

How long are you planning to save the pizza? I don't see the practicallity in freezing the pizza. It won't taste nearly as good the second time around. I usually ziplock my left overs and they last a few days just fine. I have a pizza oven that I use to reheat the slices.

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