To coincide with our report on Palermo's pizza today, here is some talk on how to best bake a frozen pizza with Palermo's Chris Dresselhuys.
OnMilwaukee.com: What's the best way to cook a frozen pizza at home? Give us all the tips.
Chris Dresselhuys: The best way to cook it is right on the rack, no baking sheet or anything like that under the pizza. It is meant to be cooked right on the rack. We do have some materials for sale here in the pizzeria and café -- we call it a pizza screen. It really is almost like the screen off a window. There's almost nothing there to prevent the heat from getting through it to the crust.
OMC: Top rack in the oven?
CD: I would say, middle rack, right on the rack, watch your baking instructions and follow them, but every oven is different. You may have it set at the right temperature, but in reality the oven is 10 degrees cooler than the temperature you set it at. So you really need to, at the end of the process, watch the pizza and make sure that it is to your liking. Typically, when the cheese is melted and the crust is golden brown, you're ready to go.
On a Palermo's Primo Thin, the edge of the crust will just start to curl up a little bit. On a rising crust pizza, a good golden color to the crust, the cheese being uniformly melted will all be good indicators that you're there.
OMC: Some people will take paper towel or napkins and blot the grease. Any thoughts on that?
CD: If you want the grease off of there, I encourage you to go ahead and do that, but that's generally going to happen with a meat pizza where the oils get released from the pepperoni or the sausage. That really should, in most cases, bake off. We find that not to be a problem with a lot of our pizzas because of the quality of the meat we use. There tends to be a little less grease in there. But, that also might be a good indication that it might need a few more minutes in there, because it (the grease) really should, for the most part, bake off.
A life-long and passionate community leader and Milwaukeean, Jeff Sherman is a co-founder of OnMilwaukee.
He grew up in Wauwatosa and graduated from Marquette University, as a Warrior. He holds an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University, and is the founding president of Young Professionals of Milwaukee (YPM)/Fuel Milwaukee.
Early in his career, Sherman was one of youngest members of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, and currently is involved in numerous civic and community groups - including board positions at The Wisconsin Center District, Wisconsin Club and Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. He's honored to have been named to The Business Journal's "30 under 30" and Milwaukee Magazine's "35 under 35" lists.
He owns a condo in Downtown and lives in greater Milwaukee with his wife Stephanie, his son, Jake, and daughter Pierce. He's a political, music, sports and news junkie and thinks, for what it's worth, that all new movies should be released in theaters, on demand, online and on DVD simultaneously.
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