12 Old-School Pizza Toppings People Hardly Order Anymore

Hearing the word "pizza" brings to mind images of ooey-gooey mozzarella cheese, spicy sausage, and pepperoni. However, this beloved meal has seen a revolving list of both savory and sweet toppings over the years. Invented in Italy's Campania region in the 1700s, the first pizzas featured several ingredients that we still know and love today, such as cheese, olive oil, and fresh garlic. While these mouthwatering toppings have stood the test of time, many others have not. 

Food fads come and go, and no food is safe from them — not even a favorite as classic as pizza. Factors contributing to the rise and fall of favored pizza toppings include culinary trends, popular diets, and even food prices. Ingredients may also go in and out of fashion due to cultural and regional preferences, or according to what's available in a specific area, such as seafood by the coast. While these old-school pizza toppings once made mouths water, people hardly order them on their slices anymore. 

Italian sardine pizza dates back to the 1500s, before tomato sauce was even invented. It featured a thick, focaccia-like crust and was known as a pissaladiera – named after pissala, which is a seasoned anchovy paste. The pizza featured whole sardines, rather than just paste or chopped pieces of fish. But while this savory, seafood-topped pie was seen as a treat back in the day, you aren't likely to find it on the menu at your local pizza joint today. That's a shame, considering the fact that there are many benefits to eating canned sardines.

Outside of ancient Italy, a version of sardine pizza was featured in the cookbook "Cooking for Two," which was published in 1978. That recipe was for individual pizzas topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, butter, and sardines. Although sardines aren't a common pizza topping these days, some adventurous eaters say that the canned fish works well with briny capers and olives for a salty kick. You can also try sardine-topped pizza with pickled cucumbers for a fresh, slightly acidic touch. If you look at the menus for any of the major pizza chains, such as Pizza Hut, Domino's, and Papa Johns, you won't find sardines on their available topping list, which shows how much they've fallen in popularity these days. 

You may love tacos and pizza, but have you ever tasted a fusion of the two? If not, you should know that during the 1980s, taco pizza was a hot trend in the culinary world. Tex-Mex met Italian on a traditional pizza crust, and you could find it everywhere from local pizza shops to big chains such as Pizza Hut. The menu item was all the rage, until it eventually receded into the sands of time.

The OG taco pizza from Pizza Hut featured traditional Tex-Mex fixings like seasoned ground beef, shredded cheese, diced tomatoes, chopped onions, shredded lettuce, black olives, taco sauce, and even crushed tortilla chips. If you're lucky, some Pizza Hut locations in the Midwest may still make a taco pizza if you call in a special request. But you can't count on that happening, as it's not actually on the menu anymore.

If children of the '80s and '90s want to recreate this flavor memory, they're better off seeking out a recipe for taco pizza. Consider making your own version with Taco Tuesday leftovers and a premade crust for convenience. You could use a store-bought taco seasoning blend or make your own with a combination of cumin, red chili powder, and garlic. Don't forget to turn up the classic '80s tunes on your boombox for ambiance while you eat.

If you can't decide between salad or pizza for dinner, why not have both? Topping your pizza with salad has many benefits. It eliminates the need for an appetizer, for one, and it might even encourage your kids to eat more greens. 

In this case, however, not just any salad will do. We're specifically talking about a pizza trend from the 1990s, when tangy Caesar salad was the topping of choice for the era's foodies. Caesar salad pizza appealed especially to those looking for a healthier way to enjoy a savory pie, and it was commonly served at Pampered Chef parties, where people gathered to purchase high-quality cookware, kitchen tools, pantry products, and more.

In the Pampered Chef version of the trendy salad pizza, ingredients such as romaine lettuce, red bell peppers, black olives, and fresh garlic were tossed in a creamy Caesar dressing, then layered onto a refrigerated pizza crust that had been baked up to crispy perfection.  If you want to try making your own but don't have time to make the salad dressing from scratch, don't worry: You can easily make bottled Caesar dressing taste restaurant-worthy. While Caesar salad isn't a popular pizza topping, you can find it on "secret" menus at some locally based pizza shops, such as the Mellow Mushroom in Gainesville, FL. The Mozzarella Grill in New Jersey used to top their pies with the salad before closing, as well. 

A pizza topped with smoked salmon makes for an indulgent way to combine brunch and dinner into one delicious meal. The original recipe — which features smoky, salty, and even briny flavors on a crisp crust — was launched onto the gourmet culinary scene by Chef Wolfgang Puck. When Puck added the dish to the menu at his acclaimed Beverly Hills restaurant, Spago, he proved that smoked salmon belongs on pizza.

Legend has it, the pizza — which features a rich base of dill-infused crème fraîche – was invented by the famous chef out of necessity. Actress Joan Collins ordered smoked salmon with brioche, but the restaurant was out of brioche, so Puck improvised with a freshly baked pizza crust. The luxurious pie joined other high-class eats in 1982, when it was served at the annual Oscars Governors Ball.

What makes Spago's smoked salmon pizza so delectable is the fact that the salmon is seasoned with a mixture of bay leaves, cloves, garlic, parsley, and brown sugar. After it's added to the pizza, the salmon is topped with caviar and fresh chives to create an explosion of flavors and textures. Throughout the years, chefs around the world have made their own copycat versions of Puck's signature pie, but they largely disappeared from menus once the trend's initial frenzy died down. Today, smoked salmon is not typically a topping you'll see listed at pizzerias.

A pizza topped with sliced hot dogs sounds like a meal made for children — and in the 1970s, it was. One vintage cookbook featured a mash-up of kid-friendly foods, with the recipe calling for a premade crust topped with tomato sauce, grated cheddar or mozzarella cheese, and sliced frankfurters. Occasionally, the recipes called for one or two healthy ingredients, such as green peppers or onions as well. Other vintage recipes consisted of canned biscuit mix or white bread dough pressed into a baking pan instead of classic pizza crust. Once the dough was shaped in the pan, it was topped with tomato sauce, shredded cheese, and sliced hot dogs. 

Commercially, smoky sausages hit the pizza scene when Pizza Hut incorporated hot dogs into its Stuffed Crust lineup in 2012. Although hot dogs weren't exactly offered as toppings, the pizzas featured a ring of frankfurters wrapped in dough, resembling mini pigs-in-a-blanket. Pizza eaters could pull bite-sized portions of the doughy wieners off the edges of the pies and dip them in various sauces, including yellow mustard. This specialty "Hot Dog Bites" pizza was added to Pizza Hut menus around the world, including Asia, Australia, Canada, the U.K., and finally the United States in 2015, before being quickly discontinued due to low demand. Today, you'd be hard-pressed to find sliced hot dogs as a menu topping at your local pizza joint, but you can also add them at home if you're craving a taste of childhood. Hot dogs aren't even offered as a topping at Pizza Hut these days.

Mac and cheese on pizza may sound like a culinary treat too good to be true. While you may not often spy it on the menus of popular pizza chains — such as Little Caesars and Papa Johns – it was once a more common sight. Dominoes once offered mac and cheese as a menu topping, but it's been discontinued. In 1983, Kraft ran a print ad that included a recipe for macaroni and cheese pizza, and it likely caught the attention of kids and adults alike. The recipe featured a combination of two ultimate comfort foods for a dish that satisfies on a nostalgic level.

The recipe calls for layering carb on carb, then adding an abundance of cheesy goodness. To make this delectable childhood favorite yourself, start with pizza crust, and then add a substantial layer of either store-bought or homemade mac and cheese. The cheesy pasta becomes another layer of "crust" for the pizza, which is then topped with traditional tomato sauce. You probably won't see people asking for this pizza while you're eating out, and they're no longer offered at the Wisconsin-based Kwik Trip convenience stores, but you could certainly recreate the nostalgia at home. Just remember that it's important to rest mac and cheese after cooking it.

Like sardines, anchovies are a polarizing pizza topping: Either you love them or hate them with no in between. For some, anchovies add a salty, briny flavor that is delicious on pizza. For others, the mere thought of the flavor combination makes them sick. That camp might be horrified to learn that anchovy pizza was once more popular than it is today. According to Food & Wine Magazine, America's least favorite pizza toppings are pineapple, jalapeno peppers, and yes — anchovies. A YouGov survey also confirmed the salty little fish are Americans' least favorite pizza topping, by far. 

The tiny fish are commonly found in the Mediterranean Sea, and are revered for their firm, oily flesh. Before the advent of pizza in the 1700s, Ancient Romans ate these fish on bread as part of their daily diets. Over the centuries, the culinary tradition morphed into adding anchovies to pizza. When paired with zesty tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese, anchovies give the savory pies a rich, umami flavor.

While putting anchovies on pizza was once commonplace, the topping only has a niche following in the U.S. today. Pizzas featuring anchovies might also have earthy mushrooms or fresh vegetables like onions or green peppers that balance out the fishy flavor. Some eateries will also mash the anchovy fillets down a bit to spread out the condensed flavor and make it less overwhelming.

Topping a pizza with plain hamburger meat may seem basic, but it's comfort food at its finest. Dating back to the 1930s, hamburger pizza traditionally consisted of a doughy crust piled high with cooked ground beef, tomato sauce, and a generous topping of mozzarella cheese. Now considered a Great Depression-era food, a hamburger pizza may have been more budget-friendly than one made with more typical pizza toppings, such as Italian sausage. While you may find taco and cheeseburger-inspired toppings on pizza at your local restaurant, plain hamburger doesn't seem to be a popular offering, according to Facebook users. Reddit users suggest that hamburger may be offered as a regional pizza topping, with it being spotted on menus in the Southern and Northeastern regions United States. 

According to a post on Reddit, a 1963 cookbook published by the Victory Catholic Church in Seaside, Oregon, took hamburger pizza to another level. In its version of the recipe, the hamburger replaced the pizza crust completely. Cooked ground beef was scooped onto a 10-inch pie plate, then topped with canned tomatoes, diced onions, and shredded cheddar cheese for a result more reminiscent of a giant, bun-less hamburger than an actual pizza. Nonetheless, it was mouthwatering in its simplicity. 

Kids of the 1970s and '80s may remember old-school pizza burgers being served in the cafeteria. The then-common lunch consisted of pizza sauce, savory ground beef, and shredded mozzarella piled onto half of a hamburger bun, then baked to toasty, melty perfection. You aren't likely to find that riff on hamburger pizza — or even the original style on a classic crust — at your local pizzeria nowadays.

You're probably familiar with Hawaiian pizza, which is topped with ham or Canadian bacon and pineapple for a smoky, savory, sweet, and even tart flavor combination. If you're craving that the next time you go to your local pizza place, you're likely to find a version of it on the menu. However, it's not likely to contain an old-school Hawaiian pizza topping that was once quite popular: Spam. 

Here's the truth about Spam: It's a canned meat product made with pork, salt, sugar, and other ingredients, and it's an everyday sight on grocery store shelves, but it isn't as popular a pizza topping as it once was. In the late 1950s, Kraft and Spam teamed up to create the Pizzaroo, a cross-branded pizza. The recipe called for a Kraft pizza kit — which included everything from the dough mix to the tomato sauce — and a can of Spam. The instructions said to assemble the pizza, then top it with green olives and triangular slices of salty Spam. It's possible to find recipes that include more gourmet toppings, such as thinly sliced red onion and pineapple chunks — but if you have a craving for Spam pizza, you probably won't find the ingredient listed at your favorite pizza shop. In fact, it's not on the menu at many of the popular pizza chains, including Pizza Hut, Domino's, and Papa Johns. 

You may not think that baked beans and pizza go together, but people in the 1950s disagreed. Also called "Yankee Doodle Pizza Pie" in vintage baked bean advertisements, these saucy bean-topped pizzas were packed with wallet-friendly protein. The classic recipe used refrigerated biscuits as the pizza dough, and spaghetti sauce in place of traditional tomato sauce. The biscuit dough was flattened into a pie dish, topped with the sauce, and then covered with a can of baked beans with pork, as well as grated mozzarella cheese. The bean-topped pizza was served with Italian sausage or anchovies. 

You most likely won't find baked beans as a pizza topping in many (if any) pizzerias stateside, but Heinz sells a frozen Beanz Pizza in supermarkets in the U.K. to those who want to take a bite out of the vintage, savory pie. Proving that the saucy bean-topped pizza isn't a favorite in the United States, these frozen pies are only sold in English supermarkets. Vegetarian-friendly, the convenient pizza is topped with traditional tomato sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese, and (you guessed it) a hearty serving of baked beans. 

Pizza hit the U.S. culinary scene in 1905 in New York City, and there have been many variations and preferred toppings over the decades. Like fashion, food trends come and go, and not even classic pizza is safe from the ups and downs. During the 1960s, Americans got especially creative in the kitchen, experimenting with a variety of meat and vegetable toppings. Throughout history, there have been a few ways to enjoy eggplant as part of a pizza, either as a juicy topping or even as the carb-free pie base.

In food critic and chef Craig Claiborne's 1963 cookbook, "Herb and Spice," a dough-less pizza was introduced. This vintage version of eggplant pizza featured breaded and baked eggplant slices as the pie base. When it comes to topping pizza with the purple vegetable,  Pizza Hut in Japan introduced a pizza featuring a meat sauce and slices of fried eggplant in the 1990s, this time bringing the veggie to the top — rather than the bottom — of the pie. Eggplant is considered an underrated pizza topping, and you unfortunately won't find it on the menu at most popular pizza chains, including Pizza Hut, Little Caesars, and Dominos. 

Egg-topped pizza has been a decades-long culinary tradition in Italy, where the popular Bismarck pizza features marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese topped with sunny-side-up eggs. This is one of those delicious dishes that can easily pass for both breakfast and dinner. The vintage pie typically includes other savory toppings, such as mushrooms, and even prosciutto. A drizzle of olive oil gives it an extra layer of richness. While eggs aren't typically offered as a pizza topping at mainstream chains such as Pizza Hut and Papa Johns, you may be able to find them at artisanal pizzerias across the United States.

In the 1980s, Domino's Pizza introduced a breakfast pizza featuring eggs, layers of cheese, sausage, and tomato sauce on a fluffy crust. Although it developed almost a cult following, it eventually fell out of popularity and couldn't compete with traditional Italian sausage and pepperoni pies. Although it was removed from the pizza chain's menu years ago, it's still remembered fondly by some today.  If you're craving pizza for breakfast, you can still find it on specialty brunch menus, or you can whip up your own morning pie using traditional ingredients and any style of eggs you'd like. No matter how much time you have to prepare your first meal of the day, it only takes 40 seconds to make these super luxurious scrambled eggs.