Frozen pizza straight in the oven with no preheat is the only way...

Been doing this for about 4 years now after my oven broke mid-pizza one Friday night. Had to throw it in cold and just wait. Crust came out way crispier and the cheese didn't slide off. My wife still thinks I'm nuts but I timed it once - takes exactly 4 minutes longer than preheating first and tastes way better. Anyone else tried skipping the preheat step?

3 comments

3 Comments

dylan_bell23d ago

Swallowed my pride and tried this about 6 months ago when I was too tired to wait for the beep. Never looked back. The crust gets this nice snap to it and the toppings actually stay put instead of sliding halfway off. My oven runs a little hot anyway so preheating always gave me burnt edges. Glad to hear I am not the only one who figured this out by accident.

victorb1723d ago

My 2007 Kenmore oven takes a solid 15 minutes just to hit 350, so I tried this once out of desperation. The bottom of the crust was basically raw and the pepperoni curled up into little bowls of grease. @dylan_bell I have to disagree with the snap theory - I think what you are describing is actually uneven cooking where the middle gets done before the edges. I did it a second time to be sure and both tries left me wishing I had preheated. I have a cheap oven thermometer inside and the difference is night and day. Cold start just does not distribute heat right in my experience.

riley_west21d ago

ah man victorb17 i feel you on that. i tried the cold start thing once with a frozen pizza and it came out all sad and soggy on the bottom too. the cheese was melted but the crust was like play doh. i think it really depends on your oven's quirks cause mine takes forever to even heat up so the first 10 minutes are just wasted time. i went back to preheating after that and never looked back.