I got off the phone with my mom last night, and she was talking about how she had an upset stomach from eating pizza at lunch--the pepperoni is just too spicy for her. I gave my standard speech on the virtues of cheeze pizza (now my favorite kind--particulary in New York). And then I had a food memory of eating Jeno's pizza as a kid. This was the pizza that came in a box. You mixed the flour with the dry yeast, spread out the dough, put on the sauce and seasonings, and then added the cheese. It came in two varieties: cheese and sausage. But because my mom was feeding a family of hungry boys (and one girl), she added hamburger and cheddar cheese (including additional parmesan from the green container). My mom used to spread out the dough on a rectangular cookie sheet, so you ended up with rectangular pieces. And the pieces in the middle had no crusts. (Later, pizza companies would call hamburger/cheddar pizza "cheeseburger pizza.")
My taste in pizza has certainly matured, and we never buy the paramesan in the green container. Good parmesan cheese is something worth spending extra money on. It doesn't have to be the fancy reggiano, but it shouldn't be somthing that looks like sawdust either. (I have to admit, however, that I used to eat handfuls of Kraft cheese out of the can when I was a kid. I think I liked the saltiness.) But I still have a fondness for hamburger and cheddar cheese on rectangular pieces--just not out of a box.
And did you know that Luigino "Jeno" Paulucci, the food entreprenuer between Jeno's and Totonio's pizza, begin his career with the Chun King brand of "Chinese" food? He said, "When I started Chun King, my mother said to me, 'What are you doing in the Chinese food business? We're Italian.' I told her some day I'd pack her sauces." His tribute to his mother is the Michelina's line of frozen Italian food.
7 comments:
I was looking for information on the old Jeno's pizza and found your blog. I remember these pizzas well. I think my mom sliced wieners real thin for a topping but she denies it. We thought it was a great treat.
I also remember the Jeno's mix as a child. What I liked was the seasoning package that came with it. Wow, it was great. Find is for me.
jthinkpad@msn.com
Can one still get the original old boxed Jenos Pizza? Those were the best spices I ever tasted in a pizza! Ronkarp@aol.com
Wish I could get that seasoning package from the old Jeno's Pizza !!!
I too, remember the old Jeno Pizza that came in a box. I use to make it all of the time. The recipe is one I wish I could find as most pizzas anymore taste almost the sam.
When I was a young boy, on Friday nights when my parents would go out they would buy a Jeno’s Pizza Mix and I’d make it. Then my sisters would take their share upstairs and my brother and I would polish off the pizza while watching Portland Big Time Wrestling on our black-and-white TV. It is a good childhood memory. Jeno's Pizza Mix made really good pizza.
What I remember most is the smell of the yeast and warm water mixture.
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