Safe to say
that we’re all dealing with the pandemic in our own ways. For me personally I
feel the safest when I’m at home. One would
assume a lot of folk’s normal habits have drastically changed, and I am no
different. For example I haven’t eaten out since early March. Every meal has been cooked at home by
me. Thankfully we live in a time where
grocery delivery is a thing and it gives me a chance to plan ahead, as well as
wipe down any and all groceries before they come in the house. During the last few months I’ve tried extra
hard to break up the monotony of what I like to cook/eat. One of those things has surprisingly been
homemade pizza. Admittedly I use a store
bought crust (Pillsbury pizza dough) and usually prefer a veggie pizza. Some of my favorite toppings are onion, mushrooms,
green pepper and broccoli. Yum! For whatever reason I don’t love meat on my
pizza, but I am one of those who’ll get down on some ham and pineapple too
though.
I bring up
pizza because I found a new survey on America’s ‘favorite’ pie. Would you believe that we as a nation consume
roughly 350 slices of pizza every second?
That’s a lot of pizza! 15% of
those asked say it’s their #1 comfort food.
It’s obviously big bucks too which has prompted Melonie Bartelme – an associate
editor of Food Technology magazine to identify 8 trends in American pizza
preferences and consumption habits. Any
of these describe you!?
1. Fifty-eight percent of U.S. pizza eaters say they would buy
more frozen pizza if it had more premium or gourmet ingredients.
2.
Pizza consumption in restaurants is trending at its highest level in the past
four years with 76 percent of us saying we have eaten at a pizza restaurant in
the past 12 months.
3.
While pizzas are trending toward thinner crusts, hand-tossed is the No. 1 crust
type found on restaurant menus, preferred by 57 percent of us.
4.
Another trend is gluten-free pizza crust, the availability of which has
increased 58 percent between 2012 and 2015.
5.
Tomato-based red sauce remains the most common topping on pizzas, but
nontraditional sauces, such as ranch, Alfredo and white sauce, are also
appearing.
6.
Mozzarella is the most commonly used pizza cheese with 71 percent of the
market. It is distantly followed in second and third place by ricotta and
Parmesan at 35 percent and 32 percent respectively, but alternate cheeses are
on the rise. These include goat, gorgonzola, fontina, Romano, asiago,
provolone, feta and even pepper jack. In addition, preference for Gouda is
increasing so much that it is among the fastest-growing cheeses on restaurant
menus.
7.
Sausage and pepperoni are still the top meats, being featured on 73 percent of
restaurant menus, but bacon is also widely available. Chicken breast is up 22
percent, likely due to its perception as a healthier meat. Prosciutto is
growing, up 27 percent since 2010. Other emerging meat toppings include
meatballs, salami and anchovies.
8.
Onion, tomato, mushroom and peppers are featured as pizza toppings on at least
73 percent of restaurant menus.
Interesting stuff! So if
you also love pizza, what do you love on it?
Can you make a mean homemade pizza?
If it’s not at home, where is your favorite pizza place? By the way in case you’re wondering, the #1
reason I do these blogs is to hear from you – my favorite part! So be sure to
leave your comments on this post over on Facebook and thanks for stopping by my
little slice of the web…see what I did there?! Ha!
– Butter
