For A Heartier Pizza Hut Pizza, Order It Like This Texas-Style Pie From Germany

If you've never seen a Texas-style pizza for sale at your local pizza hut, it's probably because you don't live in Germany. Like international menu items at McDonald's, pizza toppings overseas can be fascinating insight into different cultures' tastes — reindeer meat pizza, anyone? But just as interestingly, they can sometimes show what other countries think of Americans' tastes. This can be anything from serving hot dogs for breakfast to Midwestern-themed restaurants that serve mostly Tex-Mex. Speaking of, according to Germany, Texans love their pizza with barbecue sauce and salami.

To be fair to the Germans, the "Texas Supreme" pizza available at their local Pizza Huts show they do understand that Texas loves barbecue and meat, even if it's not something you'd see served in the actual state. Beyond the salami and barbecue sauce, it's topped with mozzarella, bacon, and mixed bell peppers. While barbecue pizza is a decently popular option in the U.S. as an occasional alternative to tomato sauce, most versions default to chicken as it goes better with barbecue sauce than salami or pepperoni.

Of course, the fun thing about this German Pizza Hut option is that you can basically recreate it here with the normal American pizza topping options. Often international Pizza Hut toppings, like say garlic prawns in Sri Lanka, are not an option stateside. However, if you use pepperoni in place of the salami, the Texas Supreme is something you could have delivered right now.

While pepperoni and barbecue may not be appetizing to you, this combo isn't too far off from what would work as a custom Texas Supreme pizza (with a swap or two). The bacon can stay, but a better second meat would probably be ground beef. Barbecue sauce and ground beef isn't exactly a Lone Star staple, but it does at least honor the beef-brisket-forward barbecue tradition in Texas. Beyond that, some jalapeños would be a nice addition, both for the spicy Texas flavor and for the fact the heat and acid would help cut against the heavy, sweet barbecue sauce and fatty meats. So, not too far off Germany. You get an "A" for effort!

Unfortunately (or not), Americans can't so easily recreate "Texas-style" pizzas from some other countries. That's because a popular topping for pizza in Europe is corn, which is often featured on Texas-themed pizzas. Beyond that, what constitutes "Texas" seems pretty random. The German option was the only one that featured salami, while others use ham or just bacon. Even the use of barbecue sauce isn't a unifier. In a way, it's comforting to know that other countries' ideas of American cuisine can be just as off as our ideas of international food. But perhaps Pizza Hut should rectify this misunderstanding and offer U.S. customers a true "Texas Supreme" pizza of our very own.