Pizza made from Appian Way crust mix and sauce was once the favorite comfort food for many around the US. What made Appian Way pizza mix so famous, and where is this brand today?
Appian Way pizza mix offered the best pre-made pizza base, with terrific pizza crust texture and flavor, as well as spicy and tasteful tomato and cheese sauce. Founded in 1948, this product was discontinued a few years back. Although no boxed pizza can surpass Appian Way products, Jiffy crust mix, and Contadina sauce can serve as decent substitutes.
If you want to learn more about the Appian Way mix and compare it to other similar products still available for purchase, take a look at the article below.
Appian Way Pizza Mix Beginnings
The origin of the Appian way pizza mix is connected to the name Frank Fiorillo and Worcester, a city in central Massachusetts. Appian Way Pizza is known as the first commercial boxed-up pizza mix – Frank Fiorillo invented it back in 1948 in his parents’ home.
Consumers were a little suspicious of this pizza-making technique, so the creator started demonstrating the product in local stores and supermarkets. It turned out to be a complete success. One year later, the company making Appian Way pizza grew and produced around 10,000 mixes daily.
Frank Fiorillo retired only five years after he invented the product – at the age of 25! In the years to come, Appian Way products were owned by different companies. In 2006, a packaged food company, Pinnacle Foods, acquired the rights from The Dial Corporation. Now, however, this mix is impossible to find on the shelves.
Why Is This Product Discontinued?
Although you won’t find any official information about the brand’s discontinuation, it’s evident. Few of the most loyal buyers even tried to contact the company’s representatives. The answer they got? Consumers’ tastes have changed over time, so they’ve decided to stop production.
After supermarkets and grocery stores stopped offering this mix, the only way to find the remaining boxes was at online marketplaces, such as Amazon or eBay. Of course, as time passed, it became increasingly difficult to get the product before it became impossible to find anywhere. Such a shame!
What Made Appian Way Mix So Special?
Anyone who ever tried the Appian Way pizza knows that there is no better mix – and it goes both for the pizza dough and sauce. Here are some of the reasons Appian Way was the absolute favorite among the consumers:
- Deliciousness – the dough and the sauce are so tasty that many prefer them over today’s pizza chains’ recipes.
- Easy to make – making dough is the most complicated part when it comes to homemade pizzas. With Appian Way, however, you only needed to mix the box content with hot water and spread it over the pan.
- Nostalgia – during the second half of the 1900s, the Appian Way mix was used often and gladly. For many people, this mix and sauce bring the best childhood memories.
- Versatility – It’s up to you whether you want to make a thin or thick crust, round or square, or will you prepare it in a pizza pan or skillet. Additionally, Appian Way provides only the pizza base, but it is up to you to add the toppings, which allow you to create a pizza that suits your taste the best.
Are There Any Available Substitutes for Appian Way Pizza Mix?
Sadly, we need to make our peace with the fact that we won’t be able to find this mix in stores anytime soon. So, the next step should be finding if there is a product available that offers similar qualities.
I’ve spent some time looking for the best Appian Way substitutes, and after several failures and even fewer successes, I find that Jiffy pizza crust mix comes closest to the crust made from Appian Way – and it’s equally easy to make.
As for the sauce, although not as spicy, I would recommend Contadina pizza sauce. It’s made of seasoned Roma tomatoes, making it an ideal pizza topping – when you can’t get the Appian Way sauce, of course.
Appian Way vs. Jiffy/Contadina Combination – Ingredients Comparison
Being different products, it’s only natural that these crust mixes and sauces don’t have the same ingredients. If you want to study them more closely, take a look at the table below:
| Appian way crust mix | ● Enriched bleached flour (wheat flour, niacin, iron, malted barley flour, folic acid, riboflavin, thiamine mononitrate), ● Leavening (sodium aluminum phosphate, baking soda), ● Dextrose, ● Active dry yeast, ● Vegetable shortening, partly hydrogenated, ● Emulsifier (soy lecithin), ● Nonfat milk, ● Salt, ● Maltodextrin. |
| Jiffy mix | ● Wheat flour, ● Animal shortening (BHT preservative, tocopherols preservative, lard, and hydrogenated lard), ● Dried yeast, ● Less than 2% of silicon dioxide, folic acid, riboflavin, thiamine mononitrate, tricalcium phosphate, reduced iron, niacin, wheat starch, sorbitan monostearate, baking soda, sodium aluminum phosphate, dextrose, salt, and whey. |
| Appian sauce | ● Tomato puree (tomato paste and water), ● Modified food starch, ● Salt, ● Sugar, ● Cottonseed oil, ● Spices, ● Romano cheese (cheese culture, salt, enzymes, calcium chloride, and pasteurized part-skim milk), ● Beet and garlic powder, ● Citric acid, ● Paprika, ● Olive oil. |
| Contadina sauce | ● Tomato puree (tomato paste and water), ● Sea salt, ● Sugar, ● Corn starch, ● Soybean oil, ● Onion and garlic powder, ● Carrot fiber, ● Citric acid, ● Spices, ● Natural flavors. |
As you can see, Appian Way’s substitutes hold similar ingredients to the original boxed-up offer. Jiffy mix will even provide you with a similar texture and flavor, but you’ll notice a difference in the sauce taste.
The original sauce contains cheese and some additional spices, such as paprika. However, I’ve never tried to make this sauce from scratch and probably never will. If you share the same opinion, you won’t be disappointed by replacing it with Contadina.
It’s Never Too Late to Explore Different Homemade Pizza Recipes
Now that the US’ favorite pizza crust mix is out of the picture, you can try the substitute, settle for frozen pizza dough, or learn how to make pizza from scratch. Homemade pizza will allow you to adjust the crust, sauce, and topping entirely to your liking. Sure, there must be some trial and error situation, but once you get a hold of it, you won’t depend on distributors and their business decisions.
You’ll have a delicious meal whenever you feel like it – all you need is a little bit of time, effort, and patience to master the art of pizza making. But once you do, it’s a skill you’ll have for life.