In article >,
"Bertie Doe" > wrote:

> I was surprised that Big Cheese (or any Pizza House) made their pizzas from
> scratch. I assumed they came in from the factories - frozen.

I worked at the BCP back in the 80's. Due to mismanagement and
questionable choice of people to play the role of Manager at some of the
StL franchise stores, Gateway Pizza went belly up, first taking out the
StL stores, then eventually the KCMO stores. A few BCP's still operate
in KS and OK, but I cannot say if they still do things the way they used
to.

The big chains today, PH, PJ, LC and others tend to commissary the prep
work. But that doesn't mean frozen. PJ bulks the pizza dough, and then
cold proofs them for at least 38 hours (if I recall correctly) and no
more than 84, but that is going by memory from an article a read a year
or two ago. I think I was told by a Pizza Hut mgr that their dough is
cold proofed, frost suspended (in other words, frozen) and then further
cold proofed. I need to check up on LC (they just opened a store near
me), but I think they make their crust in house from dry pre-mix. I
will admit that the BCP dough and sauce mix were both dry premix, but as
BCP was a small company, it was easy enough for me to the the
ingredients list on these from the higher ups, and that was how I was
able to scale and post the recipes.

Speaking of the commissary concept, I remember the old days when tBell
made their taco meat from ground meat and spice premix. You'd go into a
store and an employee was at a kettle, stirring the meat with a stirring
attachment mounted on a electric drill. I wonder if that might have had
some influence on Alton Brown's Grind-o-matic 5000 Pepper Mill?