Frozen pizza is practically a staple of modern life, but are you making it the right way? This customer says there’s a chance you’ve been making the same mistake she has.
Joanna (@joannasjoyfuljourney) recently took to TikTok after taking another look at the baking instructions and determining that she hasn’t exactly been following them. And she wanted to know whether she was alone in this.
“Why does every pizza box say to put the pizza directly on the oven rack?” she asks in a video that’s been viewed over 268,800 times. “Is there something I’m missing?”
Joanna’s concerns seemed to revolve around how one can toss the pizza onto the oven rack when “it’s a frozen brick,” while she was uncertain how to pull it out after it finished baking.
“I don’t have one of those giant pizza shovels. So I use a pizza tray like a normal person,” she says. “Am I alone in this? Am I the crazy one?”
Is there a right way to bake frozen pizza?
Ultimately, what’s best for your frozen pizza depends on a number of factors, taking into consideration the pizza itself, your oven, and your personal taste. If you bake a pizza directly on the rack, you’re likely to get a crispier crust. Otherwise, condensation can form between the pizza and the baking sheet and keep things a little chewier.
“Putting it on the rack makes the crust crispy, like it’s intended to be.” one viewer commented on Joanna’s video.
“Don’t invite me over for pizza if your putting it on a pan in the oven.” another added.
But convenience might be a factor as well. Some viewers expressed (valid) concerns that baking pizza without a pan could cause a bit of a mess.
“I too use a tray,” one user wrote. “I don’t trust the pizza not to drip cheese and oil all in my oven.”
“I listened to the box and now I have cheese permanently imbedded on the bottom of my oven,” another admitted.
One viewer suggested putting the baking pan at the bottom of the oven to catch any drips, which is one possible solution. Another said they bake on aluminum foil and have had good results.
@joannasjoyfuljourney I tried to follow the actual instructions and it was a true disaster #food #pizza #cooking ♬ original sound – Joanna
But one thing people seemed to agree upon is that simply worrying about how to remove the pizza from the oven shouldn’t be too much of a cause for concern. Using an oven mitts, tongs, a fork, a cutting board, and even taking the rack out entirely to let the pizza cool on the stovetop were all suggestions made by Joanna’s viewers. And even if none of those options work, there’s still something just about everyone making frozen pizza has on hand.
“The pizza box is your giant pizza shovel,” wrote one commenter.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Joanna via TikTok comment.
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