Pizza Hut Make It Pepperoni And Everything Pizza Seasoning Review: They're Spicy Novelties
CORRECTION 12/15/23: A previous version of this article stated the only way to buy the spices is through the $60 collectible Pizza Haute box set. You can buy each spice on its own for a lower price.
On November 9, Pizza Hut announced it was collaborating with the Los Angeles pop-up shop Chain to make a set of two pizza-themed seasonings. Now they're available to the public just in time for the holiday season, so I tried them to see if they're worthy stocking stuffers. It may be true that nobody out-pizzas the Hut, but out-seasoning is another question.
The spice blends are sold in a Collectible Seasoning Duet Box Set — in addition to the spices, it comes with a nifty shaker that's designed to look like the classic hanging glass lamps that were a fixture of the old-school sit-down Pizza Hut locations. One seasoning, Make It Pepperoni, is supposed to infuse anything it's sprinkled on with the essence of America's favorite pizza topping, sans meat. The other one, Everything Pizza, is a play on everything bagel seasoning. Instead of including everything you'd find on a bagel, it's a mishmash of all the standard spices you'd find at a slice joint. While neither of the blends will replace my standard choices for all-purpose seasoning, they're both interesting, and I could see them having their uses.
What's in the Pizza Hut Seasoning Duet?
The most surprising aspect of the Make It Pepperoni seasoning is that it's vegan. What could possibly be in a pepperoni powder if not pork? As it turns out, the first listed ingredient is sugar, which seems a bit strange, as pepperoni isn't normally very sweet. Other than that, the blend contains many of the spices you'd expect to find in real pepperoni, like salt, dehydrated garlic, and paprika. There's even some lactic acid to mimic the fermented tang of the actual sausage. The recipe also includes some tomato powder, which I assume is either for color or to lend a more pizza-y vibe to the mix.
The Everything Pizza seasoning is exactly what you'd expect: It's a blend of familiar pizza flavorings. The first ingredient is shelf-stable Parmesan cheese, which contains all the stabilizers, fillers, and preservatives necessary to create a cheese product that doesn't require refrigeration. Other components include chile flakes, dried herbs, garlic powder, and black pepper. Mushroom powder and MSG add an extra kick of umami. The only confusing ingredient is sesame seeds — I think these are included as a reference to everything bagel seasoning since Pizza Hut pizza usually doesn't have sesame seeds on it.
How much do the seasonings cost and how can you buy them?
These seasonings are available on the Chain website; the Everything Pizza Shake is going for $12, while the Make it Pepperoni costs $10 per jar, meaning if you want to try both the whole thing will set you back $22. Alternatively, you can shell out enough cash to buy several Pizza Hut pies for the full Chain Pizza Haute experience.
The Collectible Seasoning Duet Box Set costs $60 and includes both spice blends and a collectible shaker reminiscent of the old-school Pizza Hut lighting fixtures. I get that these spice blends are innovative and nostalgia surely comes at a cost, but $60 is a steep price for food products that don't appear to be made from expensive ingredients. It's not like the Everything Pizza seasoning is made with real Parmigiano Reggiano. The inflated value of the box set comes down to its purported collectibility and the fact that it's a limited edition item.
If you order your spices (box set or solo jar) by December 15, Chain says that your package will arrive by Christmas. There's no mention of a specific end date for this collaboration, so it is safe to assume the spices will be available until the limited quantity is sold out.
How does the Seasoning Duet compare to other Pizza Hut and Chain items?
The pizzeria and pop-up shop behind the Seasoning Duet have collaborated before; Chain also makes the Hut Hat, a reversible bucket hat that looks like either a Pizza Hut lampshade or a red Pizza Hut roof depending on which way it's flipped. We've never heard of the company, but it seems to specialize in making swag for food brands; it's also sold collections of Friendly's and Chili's memorabilia, as well as a line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pizza-themed apparel.
As for Pizza Hut, this may be the first time the company has released at-home seasonings, though online sleuths seem very invested in trying to reverse-engineer the spice blend used on the chain's breadsticks. When I picked up the pizza I used for this taste test from my local Pizza Hut, I noticed that you can buy shakers of plain Parmesan-style cheese and chile flakes to bring home with you. Each one was less than $2, so you're paying a serious premium for the Chain collaboration.
Nutrition facts
Given that these are salty spice blends, it shouldn't be shocking that the main nutrient in both Make It Pepperoni and Everything Pizza seasoning is sodium. Per a ¼ teaspoon serving, Make It Pepperoni contains 85 milligrams of sodium (or about 4% of the recommended daily value), while Everything Pizza has 45 milligrams. I will say that I ended up eating way more than just a ¼ teaspoon of both of these in order to get their flavor to shine through; when using them on an already-salty food like pizza, the sodium numbers can add up quickly.
Beyond the salt content, there's not much going on in these nutritionally — each has 5 calories per serving and some trace amounts of other nutrients. If you're trying to avoid artificial food, you should not buy these seasonings. But if you had to pick one as being more natural, it would shockingly be the pepperoni. Everything Pizza uses calcium propionate as a preservative, while Make It Pepperoni is preservative-free.
Make It Pepperoni is pretty weird
Make It Pepperoni was my least favorite of the duo. It smelled promising; while the scent didn't remind me much of pepperoni, its combination of paprika, garlic, onion, sugar, and herbs reminded me of sweet Italian sausage. I'm not sure what the exact blend of ingredients is, as many of the seasonings are listed on the label as the ever-mysterious "spices," but I'd swear there's fennel in the mix, which adds to the Italian sausage vibe.
While the smell was pretty promising, the taste was confusing. The first sensation on the tongue was sweetness, followed by a Dorito-like savoriness. It certainly didn't make my cheese pizza taste like pepperoni, which is what I was hoping for. Pizza Hut advises using it on foods like vegetables, popcorn, and pasta, but I don't think it would work well on any of those. After eating an entire slice of pizza doused in this seasoning, I realized what it tasted like — a barbecue spice rub. Make It Pepperoni's blend of sugar with spices like paprika and ground mustard is common in barbecue rubs. I would be interested to try this seasoning on ribs or pulled pork, but I wouldn't want to use it for much else.
Everything Pizza is a minor success
It was probably too much to ask of a vegan spice blend to actually taste like pepperoni. Everything Pizza sets more achievable goals and meets them. It really did replicate the experience of mixing together every seasoning shaker at the pizzeria. At first, the savory saltiness of Parmesan dominated my palate, reinforced by an umami wallop from the MSG. The cheese's flavor would be recognizable to anyone who buys Kraft canned Parmesan.
After the cheese made its first impression, I noticed other flavors, too. The oregano and garlic powder came through quite strong, while the red chile flake, though perceptible, was a little weak for my taste. This seasoning mix enhanced the flavor of Pizza Hut pizza, and it would be good on a lot of other foods: it would be a knockout garnish for garlic bread or it would work as a finishing touch for pasta. I could even see it tasting nice on scrambled eggs. However, in my opinion, it's not worth shelling out $60 for the Seasoning Duet — that is, unless you're a devoted Pizza Hut merch collector. You could easily recreate something very similar with common ingredients from your own spice rack or simply buy the seasoning that appeals to you most for under $15.