Scrumptious. Or not.

August 5, 2011 5:24 PM

Can-we-eat-it filter: frozen pizza, thawing in the car trunk. Edible?

We left a frozen pizza in the trunk of the car (Amy's pesto pizza, no meat) for about 2 hours (with an outside temperature of 85 or so degrees) and in the backseat of the car for maybe 30 minutes (never directly in the sun). The pizza is now back in the freezer (we didn't open it up to check how much it had thawed).

One of us thinks it's perfectly fine to eat, and one of us is not convinced. Shall we cook it or toss it? $2 is on the line here.

posted by sucre to food & drink (9 answers total)

2 hours in the trunk with outside temps of 85 and I know that pizza was soft. Regardless, I would eat it, but I would eat it tonight, not refreeze it.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 5:31 PM on August 5, 2011

I wouldn't think about it for a second. Vote here is: Eat!
posted by turkeyphant at 5:37 PM on August 5, 2011

Eat immediately or never. Freezing, thawing and re-freezing creates ice crystals that affect flavour.
posted by maudlin at 5:45 PM on August 5, 2011

It will likely be flat and sorta nasty. Such has been my experience with cooking thawed "Keep Frozen until the oven is hot" pizzas. It's mostly that the crust isn't going to rise as expected.
posted by zengargoyle at 5:52 PM on August 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

I think it will test fine, but the crust might not be perfect.

Refreeze it for a few hours (you can't handle it onto a sheet pan or pizza screen until it is hard again - trust me:) and chuck it into a screaming hot oven. Cross your fingers on texture and flavor.

There is little to no danger of food poisoning, it is just tastiness on the line!

(Did I win the $2?)
posted by jbenben at 6:20 PM on August 5, 2011 [2 favorites]

If there's no meat on the pizza, it's hard to believe that it's going to be hazardous to your health. If it were me, I would try cooking it as soon as possible. If it doesn't taste good, you can throw it out and you aren't any worse off than you were before. Have a backup dinner plan.
posted by grouse at 6:39 PM on August 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

Eat it! Or mail it to me and I'll eat it.
posted by vecchio at 7:24 PM on August 5, 2011 [2 favorites]

You can try to cook it but if it's a rising-crust type it may fail. I recently tried to cook a rising-crust frozen pizza in remarkable similar conditions to the ones your describe and it came out almost liquid dough in the center while being burnt to a crisp on the edges. Be advised.
posted by BeerFilter at 9:22 PM on August 5, 2011

Welp, I lost the bet! Goodbye, precious $2. Turns out I am a wimp when it comes to questionable food. We both ate the pizza last night and we are both still alive. And the pizza was quite tasty! The crust was crispy and thin. Congrats jbenben and everyone else! Thanks for not letting us waste a perfectly good pizza.
posted by sucre at 8:21 PM on August 6, 2011