Stove Top Frozen Pizza Science Experiment

Stove Top Frozen Pizza Science Experiment

Are you interested in a fun and edible science experiment? Let's find out whether you can cook a frozen pizza on top of a stove. This is a practical science project that will either result in a ruined pizza or a tasty treat!

Apply the Scientific Method To Cooking Pizza

1. Make observations.
2. Form a hypothesis.
3. Design an experiment to test the hypothesis.
4. Perform the experiment.
5. Analyze the data and determine whether or not to accept your hypothesis.

As you might imagine, experimental design is critical! Chances are, if you put a frozen pizza on a pan, set it on the stove and crank the heat to high, you'll have a fire department call on your hands and not dinner for two. What cooking conditions might offer you the best chance for success?

How To Cook Frozen Pizza on the Stove Top in a Skillet

A lot of science comes about from a person needing to achieve a goal. In my case, I was hungry, had a frozen pizza, but did not have an oven. I did have a stove and some basic kitchen utensils.

Observations

Hypothesis

You cannot cook a frozen pizza on the stove top.

Thus, any frozen pizza you successfully cook this way would disprove the hypothesis.

On the other hand, if you hypothesized it would be possible to cook a pizza on the stove you can gather data to support the hypothesis, but ruining your pizza really doesn't disprove the hypothesis. It could just mean you're a bad cook!

Pizza Experiment

1. Remove frozen pizza from box.
2. I tried to place the pizza into the frying pan or skillet, but it was too big for the pan so I broke it into quarters using my hands.
3. I set a piece of pizza into the pan, turned the stove on low (thinking this might help to thaw the pizza without burning it) and covered the pan (trying to trap some heat). My goal was to avoid starting a fire while cooking the pizza enough that the crust wouldn't be doughy and raw.
4. This seemed to be going very slowly, so I increased the heat to medium. A good scientist would have noted exactly how long I cooked the pizza and probably would have jotted down some notes about the temperature and characteristics of the pizza.
5. Once the crust seemed crisp, I turned off the heat. I did not remove the pan from the burner, nor did I remove the lid. My goal was to complete the cooking of the crust and melt the cheese.
6. After a few minutes, I put the pizza on a plate and proceeded to evaluate my results.

Stove Top Frozen Pizza - How It Turns Out

Here's what to expect when you cook a frozen pizza on the stove top, using my "experimental technique."

• Crisp, browned bottom of the crust.
• Chewy, fully-cooking middle and upper portion of the crust.
• Hot pizza with melted cheese.

Questions To Explore

• I had a Red Baron cheese pizza. What do you think would happen if I used a different brand or variety of pizza? What difference would it have made if I had thawed the pizza to room temperature before cooking it?
• Do you think it matters what type of pan I used to cook the pizza? Would it turn out equally well on a gas stove?