Pizza Hut (Back in the day)

[Aimless Ryan]

Unless I missed something, everything rpmfla has said in the last two or three posts is in line with my memories. I never paid attention to the oven temp back then, but I can't see it being anything but 450-500. I'm kinda surprised they had conveyor ovens in the 70s, though.

[Aimless Ryan]

The same oven and time was used for the Pan Pizzas.

And for the "traditional hand-tossed," too, which I guess didn't exist in the 70s.

[rpmfla]

Unless I missed something, everything rmpfla has said in the last two or three posts is in line with my memories. I never paid attention to the oven temp back then, but I can't see it being anything but 450-500. I'm kinda surprised they had conveyor ovens in the 70s, though.

A little known fact:

There are actually drawings in the Lascaux Caves resembling a primitive conveyor oven.  

I worked there during my undergrad years from '79-'84.

[rpmfla]

And for the "traditional hand-tossed," too, which I guess didn't exist in the 70s.

Hand-tossed started later...mid 80's I think.

[Chicago Bob]

Hand-tossed started later...mid 80's I think.

I remember that being a big deal...everyone wanted to try one...

[rpmfla]

You know, I haven't been inside a Pizza Hut in years! Occasionally people at my workplace will order a PH Pan pizza for lunch delivery and I will have a piece.

Since I make pizza regularly at home, I rarely eat it out, especially for dinner. I go to Peter Taylor's Woodfired Pizza and a new place called Pizza Squared:Detroit Style Pizza about once a month each, but thanks to a lot of work and research on this site, my home pizzas are better than what I can get out.

I am still working on this cracker style though.

[Chicago Bob]

You know, I haven't been inside a Pizza Hut in years! Occasionally people at my workplace will order a PH Pan pizza for lunch delivery and I will have a piece.

Since I make pizza regularly at home, I rarely eat it out, especially for dinner. I go to Peter Taylor's Woodfired Pizza and a new place called Pizza Squared:Detroit Style Pizza about once a month each, but thanks to a lot of work and research on this site, my home pizzas are better than what I can get out.

I am still working on this cracker style though.

I hear a lot of people say PH pan is pretty good...do you like it? Is the bottom always crispy/fried like or is it hit or miss?

[rpmfla]

I hear a lot of people say PH pan is pretty good...do you like it? Is the bottom always crispy/fried like or is it hit or miss?

As infrequently as I have had it in the last several years, I'd say hit or miss.

I have a nostalgic feeling about my years there long ago and I know we all tried to make quality food within the rigid parameters. My boss was very laid back and we were buddies, so the work environment was very stress free for me.

I read here that they switched over to using frozen dough...anybody know when that was?

[Pete-zza]

I found a Dec. 2009 PH document at http://www.docstoc.com/docs/32523904/Pizza-Hut-Ingredients-Aug-04 that shows, at page 2, the ingredients that go into a PH/Edge Thin 'N Crispy pizza, to wit: Water and a pre-mix that includes enriched and malted bleached flour, salt, yeast, sugar, soybean oil and sucralose. Pre-mixes are intended to be used at the store level, so it is not clear where the PH T&C pizza using the above ingredients is intended to be made. It could be outside of the U.S.

Peter

[rpmfla]

Unless I missed something, everything rpmfla has said in the last two or three posts is in line with my memories. I never paid attention to the oven temp back then, but I can't see it being anything but 450-500. I'm kinda surprised they had conveyor ovens in the 70s, though.

I think they had a standard deck oven (two stacked I think) when I started so it wasn't until the early/mid 80's that the conveyor replaced these. Sorry for the misinformation...it was a long time ago! Also, my first post here stated "during my college days back in the mid-70's"...I started college in '77 but I didn't start working at PH until about 1981. Embarrassingly (but enjoyably), I took a very long time to get through undergrad! (I got within one Art History course of graduating in the standard 4 years...and all the way to the final exam for that...and dropped out, only to then work at Pizza Hut for a few years before getting my act together and finishing my BFA).

[rpmfla]

I found a Dec. 2009 PH document at http://www.docstoc.com/docs/32523904/Pizza-Hut-Ingredients-Aug-04 that shows, at page 2, the ingredients that go into a PH/Edge Thin 'N Crispy pizza, to wit: Water and a pre-mix that includes enriched and malted bleached flour, salt, yeast, sugar, soybean oil and sucralose. Pre-mixes are intended to be used at the store level, so it is not clear where the PH T&C pizza using the above ingredients is intended to be made. It could be outside of the U.S.

Peter

Good find!

When I worked there long ago, I think there was a separate brown paper bag (I'd guess 20-25#) for the Pan and Thin styles of dough. Yes, I remember now, one bag had red lettering on it and the other had black or green lettering so it was harder to confuse the two.
The water was added to the Hobart using a pitcher with markings for Pan or Thin (much less water for the thin). Then I think there was a pouch containing the yeast (and maybe salt, sugar, and other dry additives) would go in and the mixer was turned on to stir the mix to dissolve. Then squirts of oil from a gallon bottle...a few pumps (maybe 1/4 cup each) for the Pan and maybe twice that for the Thin.

Then the flour bags were emptied into the Hobart. The Pan dough mixed longer and came out cohesive, while the Thin came out much less cohesive and was dumped into a bag/container to rise all day long next to the sheeter.

Sorry for the long post...just dragging memories out of my old brain.

[rpmfla]

Ok, enough reminiscing. Back to the present.

My latest try at the PH Thin N' Crispy dough used the following recipe.

200g Water
9g salt
500g flour
45g Oil
9g honey
1/4 t IDY

I was planning to cut this in half for 2 16" cracker crusts on a cutter pan, but I struggled rolling it out and ended up adding more dough to achieve the size I needed for the pan. I'd say I used maybe 600g of the dough for one 16" pan.

The result was good but too much like a crunchy pie crust and not crackery enough. I did a pre bake for 5 minutes at 500 and then while I prepared my topping the crust cooled on the counter for maybe 10 minutes. The bake time with ingredients was another 13 minutes. I think I could shorten the pre bake to 3-4 minutes and do the full bake at 13.

The star of this pizza was the toppings!

pesto
artichoke hearts
Tomato (sliced thinly)
Spinach
Shrimp
Feta cheese
Mozzarella (about 6oz.)
Salt and pepper to taste
Tabasco (also to taste)

Pics are of pizza after prebake with toppings and then after final bake.

[Chicago Bob]

Looks tasty, I like your topping combo but it is waay too much stuff for me on a T&C. Also probably the cause for your dissatisfaction with the crust...those are very moisture laden toppings. Do you have a baker's % formula that you worked off of on this dough? It's hard for me to comment without seeing that...

[rpmfla]

Looks tasty, I like your topping combo but it is waay too much stuff for me on a T&C. Also probably the cause for your dissatisfaction with the crust...those are very moisture laden toppings. Do you have a baker's % formula that you worked off of on this dough? It's hard for me to comment without seeing that...

I have a baker's % but not with me at work. From memory it was a 40% hydration dough. The oil was around 9%.

It does seem like a lot of toppings, but it didn't produce a lot of moisture and the slices were stiff enough that there was no droop when held up by the cornicione. Perhaps the pesto, placed down first like pizza sauce normally would be, kept the other ingredients from making the dough soggy (a lot of OO in pesto).

[Aimless Ryan]

You know, I haven't been inside a Pizza Hut in years!

My last time eating at Pizza Hut was on July 6, 2010, in Pacific, Missouri (near St. Louis), about 2,350 miles into my walk across the United States. It was hotter than hell that day (like almost every day that summer), so when I got into a town area, I went into Pizza Hut, mainly to cool down (but also in hopes that I might end up with some food). The waitress was very friendly and got me a big glass of ice water.

I needed to rock, so I played some songs on the jukebox. Since it was nearly the end of the lunch buffet and the place was empty aside from me, the waitress told me I could help myself to whatever was left at the buffet table.

So I did.

Thank you for reminding me about that. It's one of many precious memories that sometimes get misplaced after you do something like what I did.

[Aimless Ryan]

I hear a lot of people say PH pan is pretty good...do you like it? Is the bottom always crispy/fried like or is it hit or miss?

I think it sucks. It's always like that.

[Aimless Ryan]

I read here that they switched over to using frozen dough...anybody know when that was?

I think they started using frozen dough in about 1992, but only for personal pan pizzas; probably only in select units. The rest of the dough was made in-store then; even the pan dough for other sizes. (It just occurred to me that most delivery units don't even offer personal pan pizza. The only reason my store had personal pan pizzas was because we delivered a ton of them to the cafeteria at the Ohio State University hospital.)

I worked at another delivery unit shortly in 1994, and I really can't remember if that unit used any frozen dough.

[Mad_Ernie]

And for the "traditional hand-tossed," too, which I guess didn't exist in the 70s.

Back in the 70's, PH came out with an alternative crust to their original thin & crispy, some time during the Ford administration.   The alternative was called Thick & Chewy, and it was very similar to what the hand-tossed is today. 

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=219.0

My memory isn't what it used to be, but I seem to recall first seeing pan pizzas at PH around 1980, give or take a year.  The pan pizzas were so popular that PH pretty much did away with the Thick & Chewy crust, but later came back with the hand-tossed as an alternative (early 90's?) which is similar to, but not quite the same as, the thick & chewy crust (not as thick, for one thing).  As much as PH has played around with crust styles over more recent years, I can't keep track of them past the 90's. 

[ctimmer]

I worked at PH when they only had a thin crust pizza (early 70's). All pizzas were made in a cutter pan. We used Blodget ovens with a slate floor which was later converted to a steel floor to improve recovery. The temperature was set at 600F and with the steel floor you had to get in and out quickly.

The last time I had a PH pizza, I was reminded of the Domino's commercial where the customer was complaining about the crust tasting like cardboard, I wished this PH crust was a good as cardboard 

Curt

[mykall]

I worked at PH when they only had a thin crust pizza (early 70's). All pizzas were made in a cutter pan. We used Blodget ovens with a slate floor which was later converted to a steel floor to improve recovery. The temperature was set at 600F and with the steel floor you had to get in and out quickly.

The last time I had a PH pizza, I was reminded of the Domino's commercial where the customer was complaining about the crust tasting like cardboard, I wished this PH crust was a good as cardboard 

Curt

Before about '84-85 Pizza Hut fell into the "American Cracker" category along with many including Village Inn, and even Shakey's.  I really don't think this was a bad thing, but rather it just was what is was.
Many including myself would like to sample these pizzas again.  We all (those of us old enough that is...) were a part of this.  Things have definitely come  a long way but nostalgia is a VERY tough thing to beat.   If anything comes of this...Shakey's will revive itself as it's trying to do, and we'll see an revitalization of this nostalgic form of Pizza.............or not.   ONLY time will tell  !!