Workplace debate - Homemade Sausage Pizza

A debate was started the other day when I mentioned cooking sausage before making pizza. Everyone in the room claimed it was an unneeded step as the sausage will cook in the oven.

I generally won't have sausage if ordering pizza. I find the hunks of sausage in most pizza places are far to big for my tastes.

These self-proclaimed pizza experts all grew up in the Chicago area, many having worked in a pizza place some time in their life. I grew up in Iowa and had never made a pizza until I lived on my own - although I have enjoyed many slices of pizza It never even occured to me to not cook it beforehand. Honestly, the thought of making pizza without cooking it makes my stomach turn - although I'm sure it is safe.

So - what do the LTHers prefer? Please provide your preference as well as the area where you were raised and pizza making experience. We've agreed to disagree and say its personal preference with a side of Dave's crazy.

I agree, most Chicago thin crust pizza starts with raw sausage. However, I don't have a convection oven that runs at 475 degrees, so I cook mine first to be on the safe side.

My experience is that it's always raw going into the oven. But that said, I don't make sausage pizza at home, because I'm not comfortable doing that myself, and I don't like the taste of the precooked sausage.

I use raw sausage on the pizza, but this limits how large the pieces of sausage can be.

It's like when Bob Dole was aked by MTV, "Boxers or Briefs?"

Answer: "Depends"

If I'm being ultra-lazy and using a premade crusticle such as Boboli, pita bread, english muffin, etc., then yes, I definitely pre-cook the sausage, mushrooms, and onions (the peppers I ALWAYS cook -- they're much better that way). This works especially well for pizza-on-the-grill during the summer, as the bottom gets toasty as the top melts, but you'd never cook pork sufficiently in that time.

If I'm starting with dough, raw sausage works fine, it cooks as the crust does.

On the rare occasions I make some kind of sausage pizza at home, I half-cook the sausage first.

this poll is missing one obvious choice... par/half cooking it.


this is what i do too... i don't think sausage can possibly be cooked in a matter of minutes in the oven, perhaps maybe unless it's a stuffed/deep dish that takes longer anyway. but if you cook it fully before it will be dry ..

I use raw and I make sure to break it into size-appropriate pieces that cook fully in the same amount of time it takes to cook the pizza. Since I'm usually making pretty thin pies, that doesn't amount to a whole lot of sausage, anyway.

=R=

Mike G wrote:On the rare occasions I make some kind of sausage pizza at home, I half-cook the sausage first.

Ditto. I know this is going to sound a bit odd, but I partially cook it by microwaving. It's the only case I could think of where I microwave meat.

In High School I worked as a pizza maker and it was always raw.
I have a convection oven and have no problems cooking the sausage if kept to small pieces. Todays pork is not the pork of yesterday but I do finish with my top broiler for a nice crusty top.-Dick

Mike G wrote:On the rare occasions I make some kind of sausage pizza at home, I half-cook the sausage first.

The correct answer is above.

If you break the sausage up so small that it cooks in 6 to 9 minutes on top of raw dough and pizza makings, the sausage too darn small for my tastes.

I make homemade sausage pizza regularly and have tried different methods. In using raw sausage I have had some deep dish pizzas come out with the sausage still raw, which suprised me because of the 30-40 min baking time.

For thin crust pizzas, I now break apart the raw sausage into chunks and then fry with some fennel seeds for 2-3 min over medium heat, definitely not overcooking it to the point of drying out. For deep dish/stuffed, I break it up, put it in a glass bowl and just microwave it for a couple minutes, and it seems to cook up perfectly in the pizza.

I just made a deep dish pizza tonight and I thought I gambled by using raw sausage. As it turned out, no gamble at all. I formed the sausage into relatively thin discs and scattered on top of all of the other ingredients. My 10" pizza cooked for approximately 40 minutes, but it was clear to me that the sausage was cooked through at 25 minutes, if not earlier (at 425 degrees).

I precook, mostly because I bulk buy 1.5lbs ground beef, 1.5lbs Hot italian sausage, cook up together with italian seasons and freezer it in portions so I always have access to meat for adding to pasta sauce or Pizza.

Pre cook, but for me it's an oil issue. I don't like all that grease sitting on the pizza.

nicinchic wrote:Pre cook, but for me it's an oil issue. I don't like all that grease sitting on the pizza.

This was a bit of an issue with me on the deep dish pizza pictured above, but when I've pre-cooked the sausage, I find it flavorless by the time the deep dish pizza is complete. I'm wondering how Malnati's avoids a huge pool of grease with all of the sausage they load on their pizzas.

I par-cook as well. I like my sausage nice and crispy and that would take way too long in even my 500 degree oven before the crust and everything else burned.

edit: didn't realize this was an almost 2 year thread bump

I like to pre cook it to avoid a pool of grease. Like to use it right away not precook and put in fridge as it does not taste fresh.

Precooked. I have a wood fired oven at home and a mobile wood fired oven. The bulk sausage gets packed in a big iron skillet and roasted in the big oven. Since the pizzas take less than 2 minutes I need to insure against anything under done.

PizzaPolice wrote:Precooked. I have a wood fired oven at home and a mobile wood fired oven. The bulk sausage gets packed in a big iron skillet and roasted in the big oven. Since the pizzas take less than 2 minutes I need to insure against anything under done.

Interesting. At what temperature do you typically cook pizzas in your wood-fired oven? I know Bill/SFNM and JeffB (among others) could probably comment, too.

=R=

Oven floor temps run around 750 to 800F+. The Top Dead Center ceiling height in my big oven is 19". It will hover around 1000F.

ronnie_suburban wrote:At what temperature do you typically cook pizzas in your wood-fired oven? I know Bill/SFNM and JeffB (among others) could probably comment, too.

I bake pies at ~900F. I alway partially cook the sausage, depending on thickness, fat content, ingredients, etc. When using sausage in casings, I usually slice thickly, place in a pan, and place the pan in the WFM for a minute or two until the sausage is mostly cooked. Sometimes I use the rendered fat to cook some mushrooms or sauté some onions in the WFM. Or I'll use the fat instead of olive oil to dress a baked pie.

Bill/SFNM wrote:I'll use the fat instead of olive oil to dress a baked pie.

Ah Humanity!

Hi,

I just want a clarification: the sausage used on pizza is Italian, right?

Regards,
Cathy2

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

I just want a clarification: the sausage used on pizza is Italian, right?

Regards,
Cathy2

I believe the answer is typically yes, but I know some of the deep dish pizza places in town use a sausage that is much lighter on fennel, and I believe most Italian sausages are heavier on fennel.

BR,

That is an interesting point about the fennel.

Around where Restaurant Depot is located on Division, there is (or was) a billboard advertising a company whose sausage is on most Chicago pizzas. I think it was Fabbri Sausage, who seems to deliver direct to commercial customers and not retail.

Thanks for the insight on how Italian sausage for pizza may differ.

Regards,
Cathy2

Cathy2 wrote:BR,

Around where Restaurant Depot is located on Division, there is (or was) a billboard advertising a company whose sausage is on most Chicago pizzas. I think it was Fabbri Sausage, who seems to deliver direct to commercial customers and not retail.

Thanks for the insight on how Italian sausage for pizza may differ.

Regards,
Cathy2

There's a retail store link on the Fabbri homepage with a story about how they got busted by the city for illegally selling without a retail license in the 60's but are all legal now. I personally like the Italian sausage from Bari on Grand Ave.