Author Topic: Pizza Hut Priazzo? (Read 42737 times)

HungryFreak · « **on:** July 14, 2005, 10:20:10 AM »

Greetings, I just discovered this site and I plan on trying a recipe or two this weekend. I have always been frustrated that, although I could make some pretty good pizzas, I could never make one that tastes anything like what you get at the restaurants. I am glad to see some of the recipes here address that and can't wait to try them

Anyway, back in the late 1980's - early 90's, Pizza Hut had a pizza called the "Priazzo." It was a multi-layer pizza with crust, cheese, crust, sauce, cheese. I liked the "Priazzo Napoli," which adds tomato slices on the top layer. I don't believe they were cooked in a pan. The pizza, was BY FAR, my all time favorite commercial pizza. They had a distinctive flavor that is absent from any other Pizza Hut pizza then or since.

If anyone remembers these, and has any idea on how to reproduce them (everything, the crust, the cheese blend, the sauce), I would greatly appreciate it.

Ronzo · « **Reply #1 on:** August 15, 2005, 01:05:53 PM »

I vaguely recall this pie.

I don't remember the specifics though. Sorry.

jam4ar · « **Reply #2 on:** August 20, 2005, 05:21:53 PM »

Hello, I'm new here.... But I thought I'd share my knowledge..

The pizza you describe sounds much like one that pizza hut released around 01/02 called the insider. Thin Crust, 6 blend cheese, Thin crust, sauce, cheese, toppings, cheese.

If I recall correctly... the 6 blend was moz, cheddar, parm, provolone, monterey jack, and Romano.

I remember the one you cite too.. but I don't know what was in it..

that's about all I got..

huskerknox · « **Reply #3 on:** August 21, 2005, 12:15:52 PM »

Priazzo Milano was my personal favorite. I have always held out hope that Pizza Hut would bring the Priazzos back. I agree -- my all-time favorite pizza. I'll keep hoping, I guess!

thewood87 · « **Reply #4 on:** December 15, 2005, 08:45:38 PM »

I used to work at Pizza Hut when the Priazzo was still in service. Basically we took our thin crust dough and put it through the rollers and put that in a deep dish pizza pan. Then we put down pizza sauce, toppings and cheese. Next we rolled another thin crust and put this on top and pinched the two crusts together. Another slathering of sauce and a lot of cheese on top of this. The only other thing that we did was push a pin grid into the center of the pie to help get heat into the center to cook the toppings in between. This thing was my favorite pizza. They should bring it back.

The insider is way to thin. The priazzo was more like a Lou Manattis sp? with another crust on top with sauce and cheese on top of that.

Shane

Pete-zza · « **Reply #5 on:** December 15, 2005, 09:02:54 PM »

Shane,

Can you describe what the pin grid is and how it works? Thanks.

Peter

thewood87 · « **Reply #6 on:** December 15, 2005, 09:17:41 PM »

I will try! Basically it was a bunch of cast iron spikes about 1" apart and 2" deep in a spiral pattern held together by a metal frame. It was about 10" in diameter. I have been looking for something to use for this so I could try to duplicate that pie. I cooked a few priazzo's back in the day without the grid and the center would hardly be warm. If anyone has any suggestions on how to transfer the heat to the center I would greatly appreciate it.
Shane

Pete-zza · « **Reply #7 on:** December 15, 2005, 09:31:26 PM »

Shane,

Is this what you are talking about: http://www.amnow.com/pizzaSupplies/heatSinks.html? If so, Tom Lehmann, a pizza guru at the American Institute of Baking, isn't too crazy about using these devices. He suggests a longer bake at a lower oven temperature. Of course, with a Priazzo-type pizza that may not work.

Peter

thewood87 · « **Reply #8 on:** December 15, 2005, 09:38:47 PM »

Exactly! Wow are those things expensive.

I think that I will have to go with the longer baking time and lower temperatures. Thanks for the link, Pete, it has all of the cool stuff.
Shane

Pete-zza · « **Reply #9 on:** December 15, 2005, 09:56:35 PM »

Shane,

Apparently the heat sinks are used mostly for deep-dish and stuffed pizzas. So, it makes sense for the Priazzo. As you will note from this link they come in different sizes: http://www.twinsupply.com/proddetail.asp?prod=HS444. Even the small heat sinks are expensive, although not as bad as the larger ones.

IMO, American Metalcraft (AM) is a very good, broad-based supplier of pizza items of all kinds. Almost all restaurant supply companies carry some product from AM.

If you try to make the Priazzo-type pizza maybe you can tell or show us the results you get. All the better if someone can come up with an inexpensive device that replicates the AM heat sinks.

Peter

scott r · « **Reply #10 on:** December 16, 2005, 12:31:22 AM »

YES!!!!! the priazzo is was the best commercial pizza I have ever eaten. I loved it and was so sad when it dissipeared. I was always amazed at how much better those pies tasted than the other offerings from the Hut. Forgive me if it is covered elsewhere, but what was the cheese blend they used?
I would love to try to duplicate this pizza at home.

Does anyone have a thin crust recipe that is similar to the Pizza Hut thin crust ? I assume there is something here on the fourm that is similar, and I would love to know which one.

HungryFreak · « **Reply #11 on:** December 16, 2005, 09:01:46 AM »

Quote from: thewood87 on December 15, 2005, 08:45:38 PM

I used to work at Pizza Hut when the Priazzo was still in service. Basically we took our thin crust dough and put it through the rollers and put that in a deep dish pizza pan. Then we put down pizza sauce, toppings and cheese. Next we rolled another thin crust and put this on top and pinched the two crusts together. Another slathering of sauce and a lot of cheese on top of this. The only other thing that we did was push a pin grid into the center of the pie to help get heat into the center to cook the toppings in between. This thing was my favorite pizza. They should bring it back.

The insider is way to thin. The priazzo was more like a Lou Manattis sp? with another crust on top with sauce and cheese on top of that.

Shane

Thanks for the info. From what I remember though, at least with the Priazzo Napoli, there was not any sauce in the middle, only cheese (unless it was a very small amount).

Do you have any suggestions for dough recipe, sauce recipe, and percentages for the different cheeses?

TRex · « **Reply #12 on:** December 18, 2005, 10:46:10 AM »

Hello,
I found this site while searching for a recipe for a Priazzo crust recipe. I managed Pizza Huts during the rollout of Priazzo. Priazzo's dough was unique to Priazzo (at the time the dry ingredients except flour were prepackaged). The dough contained cornmeal, more oil, and the consistency was more like pie crust than pizza crust when cooked. It was run through the dough roller at a slightly thicker setting than Thin and Crispy.(A real operational pain in the butt

) The sauce and cheese blend were also unique to Priazzo. I believe the cheese blend was made of four cheeses. The largest percentage was Mozzarella and there was cheddar also. I cannot remember the other two. The cheese blend was prepackaged by Pizza Hut but there are several italian cheese blends that would probably work. The sauce had much less water than the other sauces much like lasagne sauce. In fact I believe the sauce, as long as the consistency is right, is not as important as the crust. The thermal spiders were developed for use in the conveyor ovens where the cook time was fixed. Longer cook times eliminate their need. Preheating the filling would help speed up the cook time and prevent the top from becoming too done. The cook pans were developed especially for Priazzo and had angled sides like pie pans and were thick aluminum.

I too believe Priazzo was Pizza Huts best product except for maybe the original Thin and Crispy Supreme. (The crust has to be right though). The trick to Priazzo is the crust which unfortunately we didn't make from individual ingredients. The secret's in the bag.

Maybe this will help some talented doughmeister clone it. Please share it if you do.

scott r · « **Reply #13 on:** December 18, 2005, 11:39:57 AM »

T Rex, this information will help us a lot! Thank you

groovy89 · « **Reply #14 on:** December 21, 2005, 04:27:11 PM »

My husband and I both worked at Pizza Hut once upon a time and were there when Priazzo was offered and would both would love for it to come back. Anyway, my suggestion would be to warm up the sauce ahead of time. The warm sauce will help melt the cheese. To keep the top crust from getting too done, cover it with foil for most of the cooking time and then remove it during the last 10-15 minutes of baking so the crust will brown (just keep an eye on it). It works with regular pie crust so it should work with this also. I am going to try making one tonight. I also am going to try and brush melted garlic spread on the top crust and sprinkle some parmesan cheese for a tasty topping. This will help it bake more evenly and turn more golden brown.

thewood87 · « **Reply #15 on:** December 21, 2005, 09:58:49 PM »

TRex,
I think you are right on the Thin and Crispy supreme. When I worked at the Hut we would always have a Scooby snack at the end of the night. It was a large Thin and Crispy Supreme. No Green Peppers, add Jalapenos. No Pork add extra beef and of course extra three cheese blend. Cook a little extra and Bam! I put on 25 lbs. in the year that I worked there in college.
Shane

Perk · « **Reply #16 on:** January 29, 2006, 01:08:17 PM »

I got to bump this thread up! Since I asked about it in another post.
I couldn't remember the name,
It is the ONLY pizza I liked from pizza hut after they changed the dough recipe about 20yrs back.

Pizza Hut should bring back this pizza but we all know they are in business to not serve good stuff.
Why on earth would they stop making this pizza? Also Why did they change their dough way back when? Aprox 20 yrs ago. Yea The dough is way different for what it originally was.

Urr!

Hi Gluten · « **Reply #17 on:** January 29, 2006, 02:11:37 PM »

No offense to any fans of PH, but this was the only thing they ever made that I would eat. I don't remember the names, but I liked the meat priazzo and the multi-cheese one (quattro fromagio?). It was kind of spin off a Chicago deep dish. Obviously not the same thing as "The Real Deal".

All chains are in the business to make money. Which is ok. Others are artists and follow their muse. Many, if not most fall somewhere in between and balance their artistic desires with commercial needs.

I miss it too!

leslauber · « **Reply #18 on:** May 30, 2006, 04:54:08 PM »

It was a couple of years after priazzo was discontinued that I found two heat sinks and a couple of the priazzo pans at a flea market for a couple of bucks each. I picked them up, then checked with some friends who had been PH employees and confirmed that these were, indeed, the very tools PH used. Apparently some local store surplused the material out to someone who eventually sold/gave it to the flea market.

bhize · « **Reply #19 on:** August 25, 2006, 04:55:07 PM »

When I started at PH and they were still making Priazzos at the time. The pans were a little over an inch deep, and they had a cutter pan edge, not a rolled edge. They had changed how they made them when I started. The way that they were made towards the end, was a layer of thin dough, sauce, toppings, cheese, another layer of thin dough, sauce and cheese. I don't remember if we used the three blend cheese, or moz, but think it wa the three blend (moz, monterey jack, cheddar). The pin was optional, but did make it cook better. The cooks hated cleaning the pins, and we think they were hidden in the trash and thrown out, because towards the end, we only had a few left... I have a medium pan and pin, and had a chance to have all of them that the store had, but at the time I said no, and the rest all went into the dumpster.

I wish I could go back and take all of them! They work great for Chicago style pizza.

They didn't even call them the Milano, etc any more, but the Meat Lover's, etc, which supposedly is where the Lover's line got it's start.