Sausage Toppings

[MJK]

Morning everyone,

I continue to encounter a somewhat rare but enough complaint that I need get it remedied.
It’s mostly based on sausage quantity and positioning.

We use pre-cooked sausage, under the cheese. The cook weighs it then pinches it piece by piece onto the dough after it’s been sauced. I’ve always been taught to put it under the cheese rather than what many commercialized places seem to do and place it above the cheese. Part of the problem is if it’s small, it’s not easily seen through the thick layer of cheese after it’s cooked, but if it’s big and seen thru the cheese, then if you cut it into squares, you risk not getting every square with enough sausage.

We obviously favor the smaller pieces, but frequent. Currently, we do 6.25 ounces on an 18" , 16 = 5, 14 = 3.75 and 12 = 2.75.

Thoughts and comparisons to how everyone else does it? I couldn’t seem to find the exact topic on the search function which was a little surprising to me.

 

[Tom_Lehmann]

Many of the pizzerias that I’ve visited over the years put the sausage under the cheese to help protect it from burning or getting excessively dried out during the baking process, the main departure from this is when using raw sausage, in that case it is usually applied on top of the cheese. You mention pre-cooked sausage and then say that you pinch it into pieces at the time of application, am I to understand that you are pre-cooking your own sausage and then pinching it to size at the time of application? I’ve used commercial pre-cooked sausage crumbles for many years and I’ve just used them straight from the box without any additional pinching.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

 

[MJK]

Sorry, I meant to say it is NOT pre-cooked…it is raw. A vendor makes it according to our specifications. No crumbling issues that we’ve encountered. It’s pushed into the dough so that the bottom stone (blodgett) cooks it faster than being cushioned between the dough and cheese.

Mostly it seems like a visual problem and potentially using too little ounces compared to others, but if raw is typically put on top of the pizza, that could be the solution right there…I just always feared drying it out/burning it too fast.

According to old data, our ounces are in line with other establishments, so I’m curious if we are under portioning compared to others now or simply making each pinch too big (faster to create) when they should be smaller and more all over (but then the cheese can more easily cover it up).

Thanks again for any perspectives

 

[d9phoenix]

I put two toppings under the cheese also, a sliced spicy sausage and baby spinach. From time to time we get people calling and complaining that they did not get the topping they ordered. We just politely inform them that it is put under the cheese and it was put on the pizza.

Sometimes you just have to educate your customers to the way you do it. You can also add why you do it, to help them understand.

 

[Tom_Lehmann]

Sorry, I meant to say it is NOT pre-cooked…it is raw. A vendor makes it according to our specifications. No crumbling issues that we’ve encountered. It’s pushed into the dough so that the bottom stone (blodgett) cooks it faster than being cushioned between the dough and cheese.

Mostly it seems like a visual problem and potentially using too little ounces compared to others, but if raw is typically put on top of the pizza, that could be the solution right there…I just always feared drying it out/burning it too fast.

According to old data, our ounces are in line with other establishments, so I’m curious if we are under portioning compared to others now or simply making each pinch too big (faster to create) when they should be smaller and more all over (but then the cheese can more easily cover it up).

Thanks again for any perspectives

A common size for pinched sausage is about the size of the tip of your index finger, how does that compare to what you are using?
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

 

[Patriot_sPizza]

we cook traditional rope italian sausage, straightening it out, lengthwise on a full sheet pan & run it thru the conveyor…its then cooled & tossed into the freezer for a bit, then taken out & sliced on the hobart using the pelican head…placed on the pie & we use 1/4 of the cheese over all the toppings…

we’ve chopped it up by hand as well, but the hobart makes quick work of it…

 

[MJK]

A common size for pinched sausage is about the size of the tip of your index finger, how does that compare to what you are using?
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

Thanks again for the reply.

When we use the size of about an index finger, we run the risk of the cheese covering it and making it tough to see (again, we’re putting the raw sausage under the cheese so the fix might be to put it on top forcing the cook to make it visually attractive).

If we put it on top, should we push it down into the cheese or lay it on top? Again, for sausage, we’ve never attempted putting it on top as we’ve always been taught to put it underneath the cheese regardless of raw or pre-cooked.

Sometimes cooks get lazy and even though it’s weighed correctly, they put sizes of 1.5 to 2 of an index finger tip so some squares might only get one big piece making the overall pizza appear to have no sausage when it really does, it’s just clumped into big pieces. That is also why I’m hoping some other restaurants chime in on what quantity they use compared to ours to see if we are in the same ballpark or if we are under-portioning it…which I don’t believe we are.

I might be able to get an old picture for you by tomorrow of a customer complaint when it was weighed right but clumped together.

 

[Tom_Lehmann]

If you bury the raw sausage under the cheese, just be doubly sure that the sausage is getting completely cooked. This is not a problem in Chicago where baking times are very long (25 to 30-minutes for a thin crust, add an additional 10 to 15-minutes for a thick crust pizza), but where an air impingement oven is used it is possible to fast bake a pizza to the point where the sausage is not properly cooked if buried under the cheese. This is why some stores either put it on top of the cheese, or use only a light cheese covering on the sausage. Pre-cooked sausage doesn’t pose any of these issues.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

 

[MJK]

If you bury the raw sausage under the cheese, just be doubly sure that the sausage is getting completely cooked. This is not a problem in Chicago where baking times are very long (25 to 30-minutes for a thin crust, add an additional 10 to 15-minutes for a thick crust pizza), but where an air impingement oven is used it is possible to fast bake a pizza to the point where the sausage is not properly cooked if buried under the cheese. This is why some stores either put it on top of the cheese, or use only a light cheese covering on the sausage. Pre-cooked sausage doesn’t pose any of these issues.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

Yup, we are actually a chicago establishment using a Blodgett at 550 degrees.

When putting it on the dough, we were pressing it into the dough in most cases with a thumb in the center so the bottom stone cooked it pretty well, and thoroughly, over the course of the entire cooking time. Never had any issues with it being undercooked, if anything, it was getting closer to being overcooked. Tomorrow, we are going to attempt to put small index finger tip size raw sausage above the cheese and press it into the cheese slightly. Then monitor our cooking times to see if the entire pizza cooks well without the sausage getting burned/dried out.

Hopefully this gives a better visual perception and remedies the problem so nobody can complain.

Again, thanks for the response.

 

[Tom_Lehmann]

Who ever complains about not seeing the sausage on a Chicago style pizza? The only way I ever knew it was there was by the lumps under the cheese! Sounds like Chicago has more imports now that don’t fully understand a real Chicago style pizza. Next thing you know they’ll be asking for it to be crispy too…OMG!
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

 

[MJK]

Who ever complains about not seeing the sausage on a Chicago style pizza? The only way I ever knew it was there was by the lumps under the cheese! Sounds like Chicago has more imports now that don’t fully understand a real Chicago style pizza. Next thing you know they’ll be asking for it to be crispy too…OMG!
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

Hahaha, that’s the struggle we’re facing…trying to be true chicago pizza with a good cost structure, good appearance and still appealing to the masses because that’s where the money is. Have to find that happy medium.

We’ve actually used your dough calculator with much success too…so thank you for putting that on your website.

 

[Joe]

You can also buy bulk raw italian sausage and cook it in your oven. Saves coin and then cut it with the pizza knife or dough scraper then pop it on the make line.

 

[MJK]

We did it on the morning pizza slices.

We did 2 types. Doing a pinch that looked like a round ball that made me feel too much like Pizza Hut and then doing more of a press and pull method that reduced the thickness but increased the size via visual appearance. We’re going to test them out in the slice box and see if one dries faster than the other.

I think this will solve our problem.