Are Frozen Pizzas Precooked? Find a PRO Answer

At a Glance:

Are Frozen Pizzas Precooked?
How to Cook a Frozen Pizza
What Happens if You Eat Frozen Pizza that is Not Fully Cooked?
What If You Don’t Have an Oven that Reaches 500F?
Related Questions
How to Cook Frozen Pizza
The Last Slice
Additional Resources on Frozen Pizza

Are frozen pizzas precooked?

How many times have you asked yourself the same question when you see those nice boxes in the supermarket freezer?

Or have you ever been curious to find out what it takes to make the best-frozen pizza at home?

Many people also have big questions when it comes to the issue of whether are frozen pizzas precooked.

If you’re looking to make the most from a frozen pizza, there are cooking methods that can improve texture and taste.

Allow us to help walk you through many simple steps that help make your frozen pizza experience even better.

Pro Tip

A nice way to step up your frozen pizza is by drizzling olive oil when is done and some garnishes. Parsley will give it some color while truffle salt will take it to the next level.

Are Frozen Pizzas Precooked?

When you go to the supermarket freezer section and see all the frozen pizzas, and wonder: are frozen pizzas precooked?

Let’s say that there could be toppings that might last longer if they’ve gone through a quick steaming or have preservatives added.

Are frozen pizzas precooked?

The truth is that all frozen pizzas have ingredients that are essentially uncooked before you bake them.

There’s an excellent reason that frozen pizza brands do this.

These pizzas are frozen to help preserve the dough, pizza sauce, cheese, and toppings until you put them in the oven.

This way, a pizza tastes as fresh as it can when it’s baked in an oven for the correct amount of time.

While some companies might add preservatives to some frozen pizzas brands, many of the ingredients are primarily uncooked. It’s also why you need to cook a pizza to reduce the threat of bacteria found in certain meats.

If you want to learn how to best keep frozen pizzas in the freezer check our post on frozen pizzas.

Frozen Toppings

Items like chicken, pork, and meat products, including bacon, all need to be fully cooked.
If they were precooked, they might have a different taste or be rubbery and overcooked.

Vegetables and cheese won’t need any special preparation, while sausages, ham, and pepperoni are already cured meats.

Cured vs. Cooking Pizza Toppings

So you better understand, that curing meat involves adding salt for both preservation, color, and taste. This process reduces the risk of bacteria. Cooking meat entails bringing it to a temperature where it is safe to consume.

So to put end to the question –

Are Frozen Pizzas Precooked?

Frozen pizzas are not pre-cooked as no has been applied to cook them, cheese and sauce are uncooked while toppings like sausage and ham are cured instead of cooked.

Yet, for the sake of weeding out the threat of salmonella or bacteria, and if you are unsure if frozen pizzas are uncooked, here is our recommendation, frozen pizzas should always be fully cooked.

How to Cook a Frozen Pizza

Now that you have the answer to “are frozen pizzas pre-cooked?”, let’s dive into how to cook a frozen pizza.

Most of us think it’s perfectly fine to preheat your oven and plop a frozen pizza onto a cookie sheet to cook for 15-20 minutes.

But is that the best way to cook a frozen pizza? Here’s what we recommend to get the best overall cooking time and crispness.

If you’ve ever heard of a baking stone, it’s commonly used for cooking pizzas. It’s often made from ceramic, stone, and recently synthetic polymers.

Baking Stones

Pizza Stone

These baking stones are great at heating the crust base while allowing the toppings to get cooked evenly.

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This is why a baking stone needs to be preheated before you put in your pizza. There is also the issue if you need to defrost a frozen pizza before cooking it.

The answer to this is yes, preferably, it would be best if you let the frozen pizza thaw before you bake it. That way you make sure it cooks evenly and all the toppings are cooked properly.

However, if you are lacking time, and your baking stone is nice and hot, all the moisture will burn off. You may also add a generous dusting of semolina or cornmeal flour.

Parchment Paper

Alternatively, you can cut out a round piece of parchment baking paper that’s cut to the size of your pizza. These will help your pizza slide onto the baking stone a lot easier.

After it’s cooked, you can use a flat spatula to re-slide the pizza onto an upturned cookie tray.

Never take your baking stone out of the oven since the difference in heat can cause cracking. The ideal temperature is critical too.

Home Oven

Depending on your oven, it’s best to preheat it to 550 Fahrenheit to heat up your baking stone.

Pre-Heat Oven

Preheating should be for 30 to 45 minutes on the lowest rack setting.

Pizza Pun

What did the kid say after eating a frozen pizza?

Well, that wasn’t very thawed out.

What Happens if You Eat Frozen Pizza that is Not Fully Cooked?

Nobody likes a soggy pizza, and that’s what you can expect from an undercooked pizza. The texture will be totally off.

Also, not to mention the fact that you can run the risk of getting sick when you consume uncooked meats.

This is why we highly recommend a baking stone or preferably baking steel that cooks the pizza dough and toppings together.

We understand your oven might not reach over 500 degrees, and you might not have a good baking stone either. So what can you do in this case? There’s hope still for getting a great fully cooked pizza in your oven.

What If You Don’t Have an Oven that Reaches 500F?

Most home ovens will reach at least 400 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, but if yours doesn’t, you can still get good results.

Let your oven reach the highest temperature for 30 minutes before adding your pizza.

For the best results, you should put a frozen pizza on an upturned cookie sheet. Your pizza needs to be frozen for the best results. If you want, you should add parchment paper underneath, so it absorbs any moisture.

If you don’t add parchment paper, this is fine, but you won’t get as crispy crust as a result.

Instead, you might choose to add semolina flour or some cornmeal flour. With lower temperatures, it does take longer for your pizza to cook. Most of the time, it will take up to 15-20 minutes at 400F to become golden brown.

Undercooked pizza is also limp and floppy when you eat it.

Even if you have a self-rising dough, you need to allow this dough to rise and cook all the way through. This process can make a pizza taste too bready and overly chewy.

So are you ready to bake your perfectly cooked pizza? Have you tried using a pizza stone or a pizza steel?

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Is Sausage on Frozen Pizza Precooked?

Generally, sausage on frozen pizza is cured and cut into small pieces this allows the time to cook a pizza to fully cook the sausage.

Can You Eat Frozen Pizza?

You should not eat frozen pizza that is not fully baked, as it can make you sick. Frozen pizza contains uncooked flour which may contain germs that can cause food poisoning.

How Long to Cook Frozen Pizza?

Frozen pizza should be cooked from 12 to 15 minutes at 400 to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

How to Cook Frozen Pizza

For more information on how to properly cook a frozen pizza, check our Guide to Oven Time and Temperature for Pizza.

The Last Slice

When you learn how to cook frozen pizza at home, it will be easier to follow these tips.

Trust our approach to making a frozen pizza; not only taste better, but your properly cooked pizza will also turn out better too.

With a little bit of experimenting, you can get different crispiness levels from other frozen pizza brands. We hope this short guide will help inspire you to cook frozen pizza that will always turn out great.

We hope we answered your question are frozen pizzas precooked? and hopefully, you learned how to bake the best-frozen pizzas.

Check our Learn section, we have plenty of additional resources for you and would like it if you try making your own homemade pizza.

Are you up for it? Let us know if we would like to help you get started.