Why does the sausage on frozen pizza look like rabbit....

[paulispumonti]

...dung...to be precise...you know, those little gray nuggets that may taste a lil bit like sausage.....why can't I find a frozen pizza with the real McCoy.....sliced Italian sausage or chunks of hand-formed ground sausage......some of the national/regional pizza delivery chains are as guilty of the same sin....Is it that difficult?????????

[adamshoe]

pauli: I know exactly what you speak of and it is most asuuredly NOT crumbled loose sausage. It looks like kitty kibble and is all uniform in size. Bulk sausage that you (or anyone) fries up in a skillet does not come out looking like weird, extruded meat-like pellets. Don't even wanna know what they put in that stuff! adam

[c oliver]

But don't you think that they just have a machine that spits out the little pellets? Doesn't mean it's great food but that explains the looks of it.

[FoodFuser]

One may obtain their desired pelletoid extrusion of pork and texturized soy protein in any form that you wish, with the proper machine.

The toughest part of the engineering is to get the extruder nozzle to snap shut as quickly as does as rabbit's a$$hole, thus yielding a quasi-fusiform pellet that has become the industry standard.

http://wb7.itrademarket.com/pdimage/5...

[Crispy skin]

It's just sausage without the outer casing.

[Das Ubergeek]

In some cases (hi there, Red Baron!) it's so crammed with fillers and extenders that it can't legally be called sausage anymore and is instead "seasoned pizza topping".

[danhole]

"seasoned pizza topping". That's a bit scary. I will have to read those boxes more carefully, although we rarely have frozen pizza.

[mrbigshotno.1]

2/3rd's of America doesn't know what good pizza is anyway. All they want (and know) are these abominations put out by the chains. Just as long as they have their "stuffed crust meat lovers supreme tuscan six cheese pineapple special with $2 off coupon" and a pile of greasy chicken wings, they are happy. That is what the chains provide for the American Idol hour. The chains don't sell food, they push "product".

[Caralien]

One thing I noticed about non-national chain frozen pizzas (including some store brands), is that those are the ones most likely to have raw chunks of sausage. You may also want to look into the freshly prepared (but unbaked) pizzas at local grocers; these are usually enormous, but can be frozen for future use.

The take-away/delivery pizza we've ordered over the past 5 years has been from locally-owned shops, with real sausage (and cheese).

[Veggo]

Pizza joints are known for sleight of hand and trickery...Maybe if you order a pie w/ wabbit drops, they might trick you with sausage chunks...But don't push it on the pepperoni, they have learned how to slice it thinner than gold leaf.

[FoodFuser]

The only way to get a decent frozen pizza with sausage on top is to buy the pizza WITHOUT sausage, and add your own that you've prepped from a good sausage link.

Tombstone and Red Baron and Dogiorno are three flagship brands. Below them there is the land of the pizzas whose "cheese" is really caseinated hydrogenated oil.

Tombstone's "sausage":
http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/Products/ProductInfoDisplay.aspx?SiteId=1&Product=7192103017

Red Baron raises it a notch, but still not quite there, with the few percentage points of TVP:
http://www.zeer.com/Food-Products/Red-Baron-Sausage-Frozen-Pizza/000061732

Digiorno can't even legally call it sausage, so it is "Cooked Seasoned Pizza Topping" as in
https://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/st...

Solution for the rabitt pellet dilemma:

Buy the best plain cheese frozen pizza that pleases you. Then keep frozen slices of your favorite italian sausage that you have precooked, and or pepperoni, sliced, in a ziploc in the freezer. This allows you to assemble your own pie with the factory doing the work of crust and sauce construction. I nuke the meats with paper towels to remove some extra fat. I also add grated cheese, and liberal dried oregano, basil, an granulated garlic.

[alkapal]

those toppings would come under the category of "friable" rabbit poop. >>"Look for friable fiber filled rabbit poop. No, you are not seeing if you can fry it like an egg. Look for an easy to crumble, or friable, piece of poop. This is a sign of rabbit poop that is high in fiber."<<
http://www.ehow.com/how_4392559_ident...

[Das Ubergeek]

Most everywhere else besides the immediate New York area (and pizzerias trying to be New York), including just about every frozen pizza on the market, uses bulk sausage -- same meat but not in casings.

I used to call it "rabbit pellet" sausage too growing up in New Jersey, and it was reason enough to skip a pizzeria... real sausage pizza to me has slices of link sausage.

I had no idea until I moved away that sausage could be sold in bulk, like hamburger meat -- even in NJ when we wanted bulk sausage we bought links and cut off the casings.

In any case, I still prefer it sliced and make my own pizzas that way but have accepted that rabbit pellet sausage pizza is going to be a feature of my life since I don't live in a particularly pizza-enabled city.

[c oliver]

I make my own bulk Italian sausage. When I make pizza I brown it first in large *crumbles* and then top the pizza. I never considered that I couldn't buy it in both forms. I'd never consider buying links when I wanted bulk. Different strokes.

[danhole]

I would have never thought about buying links instead of bulk myself, until my daughter did the links out of the casing, and it was better. Have some in the freezer right now waiting to be uncased for something!

[c oliver]

It could be better because of the brand but the sausage I make can be put in casings or not. It's the same sausage regardless so it can't taste better one way or the other.

[danhole]

It probably is a brand thing, although I would take homemade sausage above all others, any day! My grandma used to make sausage and it was the best ever!

[c oliver]

It's the easiest thing you could ever make. If you have a KA stand mixer and the meat grinder, you'll have sausage in the blink of an eye.

[Caralien]

We don't have a meat grinder (yet), but home-made sausage is really easy. Best made at least a few hours in advance, or overnight, to let the flavours meld.

Now I'm craving pizza.

[c oliver]

I make it in 6# batches and freeze in 8 and 16 oz. packages. Just nothing else compares.

[danhole]

I have a sunbeam stand mixer but no attachments are available for it, and I don't have meat grinder. But I know that is some good stuff!

[c oliver]

I don't bake so I bought the KA for non-baking purposes, i.e., grinding meat and making pasta. So worth it for me.

[Caralien]

Had sausage pizzette at Teresa's tonight. I think this thread tainted me. The sausage could have been much much better.

[c oliver]

We're definitely *tainted*. Started making our own ground beef a few months ago and will no longer order one in a restaurant. Just TOO different.

[Fritter]

I couldn't count the amount of venison and other ground meat I have run through my KA. Works like a charm. For years we have called the sausage at a lot of pizza places rabbit droppings. That stuff comes pre-cooked in a bag and it's a light gray color.
Nasty.

[danhole]

I have had a pizza with sausage, where the sausage was made on the premises and it did not look like rabbit droppings, and it tasted like really good sausage. You may have not ever owned a rabbit but the closest thing to look like the droppings is a nice peppercorn sauce!

Oh, and Monku is right - the pizza I mentioned is not cheap! Not outrageous, but not inexpensive either.

[alkapal]

dani, pauli is talking about frozen pizza.

[danhole]

But pauli also mentioned pizza delivery chains. Still I say until you have had a pet rabbit you don't know what you're talking about, and if they do look like pellets - don't eat them ;-)

[alkapal]

never had a pet rabbit, but have seen rabbit pellets from wild rabbits in the yard.
this may help others: http://www.ehow.com/how_4392559_identify-rabbit-poop.html
http://images.google.com/images?clien...

and if "sausage" looks like that, you can be sure that i ain't gonna eat it.

~~~~
ps, yes, you are correctomundo, i see pauli mentioned the chains too. i'm picturing papa johns for some reason ;-).

[danhole]

Thanks alkapal for validating my info. We had a rabbit and I know what it looks like, and I wouldn't touch a pizza that had sausage that looked like that! See what I mean about it looking more like peppercorns? Try serving a peppercorn sauce when you have a pet rabbit - all kinds of suspicious looks! Been there, done that.

[alkapal]

what do you mean "looks like" rabbit dung? ;-). rabbit dung is easy to get -- esp. with the breeding rate of rabbits.

[monku]

It's not cost effective.