Pizza Today - November 2016 - 40

W

hen I was 16 years old, I
worked as a dishwasher
at the White House
Tavern in Palatine, Illinois. This bar had a small kitchen that
served huge cheeseburgers made by a
grouchy Hungarian chef. Every day I
would show up to a pile of dirty dishes,
a cranky chef and the wonderful aroma
of paprika dusted onions sizzling on
the flat top. A line of ravenous customers snaked out of the front door for
these glorious burgers served mediumrare and topped with a mountain of
melting cheddar cheese. This burger
was nestled in a basket with giant
home fries and a large Chicago pickle
and made my staff meal a paradise of
chin-drenching beef juices and onioncheese grease.
I always dreaded going into the
creepy, dank basement to get more
of these ¾ pound burgers from the
fridge. When I returned from the
dungeon, the chef would open the box
and smile as he inspected a new meat
disc saying in a deep accent, "Dees
ees pura ground chook young man,
eets all about the beef son, the beef."
I immediately realized that he liked
his burgers more than me, but it took
me years to figure out that he meant
"Chuck". To this day, I always put my
faith in the "Chook".
Ground beef in many a pizzeria

is almost an afterthought. It's not
the most popular topping and is usually labeled "ground beef " on many a
menu. What if you could increase your
sales with ground beef that is sexy and
not just a back-up singer? Here are a
few tips and tricks I've tried to convert
ground beef into a marketable hit.
Take advantage of the burger

trend: Create a pizza that mimics

the best of burgers. I created a pizza
called "Bride of Wonderboy" with a

4 0 / P I Z Z AT O D AY. C O M / N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 6

hot dog and mustard-stuffed crust,
mac and cheese sauce, onion, ground
beef, cheddar, tomato and dill pickle
- all topped with oven ready fries and
slathered with ketchup after the oven.
I know this is way-out, but it got us
in the papers and sales of beef jumped
(especially after 2 a.m.)
Go ethnic: We have a successful
double decker taco pizza with plenty of
ground beef on it. Every pizzeria has
everything a taco place has except tortillas. A handful of curry cooked with
your onions and cream cooked in your
pizza oven introduces your customers
to a wonderful curried beef topping to
remember.
Meaty pairing: Ground Beef
complements a broad range of other
toppings like cream, onion, Parmigiano,
jalapeño, tomato, mushroom, cheddar, potato, black olive, Asiago, ricotta,
roasted red peppers, roasted garlic,
beans, curry, cumin, parsley, coriander,
eggplant, green pepper, acorn squash,
cashew, curry, cauliflower, cucumber,
romaine lettuce, ranch, greens, sausage,
butternut squash, sage, basil, cilantro,
bacon, sweet potato, chipotle, cinnamon, walnuts, broccoli, pineapple,
mango, avocado, tortilla, lime, peanut,
fava bean, Manchego cheese, Gruyere
cheese, BBQ sauce and celery.
Go Local: I've used ground beef
from a local farmer for over two years
now. It is more expensive but there is
no better ground beef in the world! I
was amazed how easy it was to prep
and my customers really respond to
my ground beef marketing as local, no
GMO, feedlot, antibiotics or added
chemicals. The rancher and his
extended family and friends are now
my greatest customers.
Ground beef is graded and
priced on the following specifics

- type of meat, fat content, prove-

nance (where it was grown), feed of the
cow, additives and packaging. Here is
some of the raw and cooked products
available with prices per ounce.
.11 cents per ounce: Beef made
with TVP available in pound slabs.
(TVP is textured vegetable protein
and is food product made from soy
flour after the soybean oil has been
extracted. It is then pressure-cooked,
extruded and dried, then added to meat
products.)
.14 to .18 cents per ounce:

Ground certified chuck, not imported
in tubes, 81/19-percent fat and fine
grind. Sometimes this is included in
pound slabs for freezer-to-cook portion operations. Some may be "Free
Fall Bulk," or beef that isn't pressed
into a tube. This loose pack is for making patties and separating for soups.
.27 cents an ounce: NAMP certified processor, minimally processed, no
added ingredients, no artificial color
or flavors, no growth hormones, no
steroids, no antibiotics, 80/20 (NAMP
is North American Meat Processors
Association).
.29 cents per ounce: Grass fed and
farm-raised with certification of all
natural feed and farm included.
Fewer pizzerias are using raw meats
on pizzas because of sanitary, training and consistency issues and have
replaced this with smallish pellets or
cooked, frozen beef granules.
.37 cents an ounce for a fully
cooked frozen beef crumbles with VPP,
(Vegetable Protein Product), served in
a giant boilable bag for institutions to
thaw in boiling water.
.25 cents an ounce for fully cooked
frozen pure beef crumble topping, very
lean and individually quick frozen for
instantly placing on a pizza before the
oven. This is a "kibble" sized product
and looks like production sausage.
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Pizza Today - November 2016

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