The Secret of Pizza Cheese

[helios3]

Hi,

Generally speaking, all the best pizza places where I live (Montreal) have cheese on their pizza that tastes considerably different that anything I can whip up at home.

I have tried High MF mozzerella (25%), part skim mozz, even di buffula (expensive!). It all tastes very yummy, but I'm pretty sure that the pizza places I like (e.g. Amelio's near McGill U or Sgt. Pepperoni on the West Island) are using something quite different. It's probbaly cheaper, I'm guessing.

Anyone know the secret? Good pizza I had in the US was Familgia in NYC (Wisconson dairy cheese was it?) and Pepe's near Yale. Pepe's was probably the best pizza I ever had, and I am not quite sure what cheese they use (on standard pizzas). Their famous white clam pizza has just a sprinking of pecorino romano cheese from what the waiter told me.

Pizza experts please reply!

Thanks,

Helios

[mamster]

Have you tried a mixture of low-moisture mozzarella (they are certainly using that) and parmesan or pecorino romano? That's what I usually use, and it has considerably more flavor than mozz alone. Sometimes I also throw in gruyere if I have that on hand.

[slkinsey]

Good pizza I had in the US was Familgia in NYC (Wisconson dairy cheese was it?)...

Famiglia? No doubt pronounced fah-MIH-glee-uh? Feh!

Next time you're going to be in the City, drop a line back here and we'll send you someplace New Yorkers can be proud of.

[Fat Guy]

A lot of the middle-market pizzerias in the US are baking with something called "pizza cheese." This is a variant on mozzarella engineered by the CDR (Center for Dairy Research at University of Wisconsin). It's similar to LMPS (low-moisture, part-skim) mozzarella but has different percentages of moisture and fat; the pH is different; and the way the cheese is processed is different. I don't really know the details. The result is a cheese that tastes roughly the same as LMPS (very mild, almost flavorless, inoffensive) but behaves better on pizza: fat and moisture don't run off as much, and the color and texture are brighter and more uniform.

Better pizzerias often use either fresh (usually limited to the brick-oven-type places) or a kind of low-moisture mozzarella from small Italian-American suppliers, which behaves a bit like pizza cheese but tastes better. I'm not sure what the differences in manufacturing are.

[Wimpy]

I usually put whatever cheese pleases and don't insist on mozzarella all the time. I usually mix low moisture mozarella (i.e. not the soft balls in water) with combination of "stinkier" cheeses such as raclette and havarti or esrom with the occaisonal fontina slice. I usually grate em up in my cuisinart using the appropriate grating wheel. Proportion wise, its half mozzarella, and half stinky cheeses.

My general rule is to use milder cheeses (i.e. just mozzarella) if you want to accentuate the flavor of the other topping such as caramelized onions or anchovies. If you are using tomato sauce, then I figure it can stand up to stinkier cheeses.

For white pizzas such as blue cheese pizzas, i still layer some mozzarella as a based and crumble blue cheese on top and the occaisonal crottin de chevres.

[Jinmyo]

I like a mix of low moisture mozz, fontina, provolone, and smoked caccacavalo with perhaps some pecorino and/or parmesan and/or grana in there.

[KNorthrup]

and what not to try

[MatthewB]

and what not to try

[Katherine]

My father told the story of a co-worker, a man of Italian heritage who grew up on his mother's pizza. He had never again experienced pizza like that, neither in this country nor in his travels abroad, although he had searched for it. Finally, he decided to have his aging mother come visit him to make pizza again, so he could learn her secrets before she passed on.

He stocked the kitchen with everything he could imagine, the highest quality imported meats and cheeses. She went in the kitchen, and after a few minutes she came out again.

"Where's the Velveeta?"

He was in shock. He ran out and bought her a package. She made the pizza, and it was just as he remembered it, after all those years.

[Jinmyo]

Gah. Imprinted on Velveeta from a young age. That's child abuse.

[hotle]

pretty much same as jimmyyo's: low-moisture mozz, fontina, provolone, asiago - all fresh-grated into the oven, then parmesan as the pizza 'sets' (w/ some evoo on the crust, too!).

matt

[Pongi]

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[Pongi]

Hi everybody!

Hmmm...it seems I have had main problems with my first posting attempt. Could someone explain to me why I cannot post using Netscape (the writing space does not appear) while I can using Internet Explorer?

A pizza cheese mix very popular in Italy, and my very best favourite, is half Mozzarella fiordilatte and half Stracchino (or Crescenza or Certosa which are about the same). Although very soft and fresh, stracchino is tastier than mozzarella and melts very well without throwing out too much water and getting rubbery. As for "stinkier" cheeses, like most Italians I'm not crazy about them in my pizza...

BTW, jinmyo, if you ever come in Italy it's better you don't ask for "caccacavalo". Even if you LOVE stinky cheeses, it's unlikely you'd enjoy a horse sh*t on your pizza

Pongi

Edited July 7, 2003 by Pongi (log)

[hamburgerflipper]

try 52% moisture from saputo mozzarella,most decent places will use that

[malachi]

I guess it would depend on what you consider "pizza" (much less good pizza).

I would tend to define Wooster St pizza as the best in the world (with Sally's and Pepe's at the top of the category) and as such consider any cheese other than low moisture mozzerella, pecorino romano or parmagiana to have no place on good pizza.

Far more important, IMHO, in getting a good pizza is to be very restrained when it comes to the quantity of cheese on the pizza. More is not better in this case.

It's all personal taste, however, and I have friends whose tastes I respect who swear by a 50/50 mix of mozz ("moots") and cheddar. Shrug.

[bilrus]

In St. Louis - style pizzarias they use a blend of Mozzerella and Provel (which is somehow differnet than Provelone and I hav enever been able to find elsewhere). It's certainly different from the versions everyone is mentioning here, but in that setting (craker thin crust cut into squares) it is very good.