Mozzarella cheese is a private favourite, and I don’t suppose I’m alone on this regard. It’s salty, wealthy, and may provide a pleasant little bit of stretch when cooked—however ought to we actually be cooking it? This stretchy cheese is out there in a couple of totally different varieties, one in every of which is ideal for cooking at excessive temps. The others, nonetheless, not a lot.
Cooking cheeses isn’t going to cease, and it shouldn’t. The place would we be with out grilled cheese, lasagna, cheddar omelets, or pizza? Misplaced in a tragic, cheeseless oblivion. I don’t need that for anybody, particularly not myself. On the subject of extensively accessible sorts of mozzarella, I’m referring to low-moisture, recent, and burrata. (Burrata is a shell of recent mozzarella encapsulating a creamy heart, and I really feel prefer it’s value mentioning right here.) The most effective mozzarella for cooking at excessive temperatures is low-moisture.
Mozzarella is robust stuff
Cheese consists of protein, fats, water, and acid (learn extra about cheese parts right here) in numerous percentages. These totally different puzzle items work collectively to contribute to a cheese’s soften, stretch, and chew. Mozzarella has a robust protein community, which makes it good at stretching.
Recent mozzarella and burrata are robust and stretchy, however not like low-moisture mozzarella, they’re filled with a great deal of water. You might even consider them as high-moisture mozzarella. There are different high-moisture cheeses on the market, and the water content material contributes to its meltability. Nonetheless when warmth is utilized, the robust protein networks (additionally known as micelles) in mozzarella tighten up and begin to squeeze out the moisture and fats they have been holding onto at decrease temperatures.
There’s a lot moisture accessible in these kinds of mozzarella that the very first thing you’ll see because the temperature rises is the water launch. It releases and floods that casserole or selfmade margherita pizza you labored so laborious on, and it’s now soggy. What’s extra, when it cools, the once-melty cheese is now a slab of rubber that each one slides off in a single chew. What provides?
Recent mozzarella trials and outcomes
At about 150°F (if you happen to look fastidiously) you may see the water and fats globules separating.
Credit score: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
I heated up some recent mozzarella to a couple totally different temperatures to see the distinction. The water puddle sucks, however the texture issues don’t come up when the cheese is on the warmth—sizzling cheese is melty and, certain, there’s water, however that may’t kill my vibe!—it’s when the cheese comes off the warmth that the feel suffers. Let’s be trustworthy: You’re not consuming the pizza or lasagna whereas it’s effervescent. You understand what’ll occur to the roof of your mouth. You’re ready for it to chill.
Left: the cooled cheese was heated to about 140°F. Proper: the cooled cheese was heated to about 190°F.
Credit score: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
When recent mozzarella is heated to 130°F to 144°F, the mozzarella puddles in water however holds onto its fats. As soon as it cools, the cheese retains a barely chewy texture and creamy style. From 150°F to 160°F the mozzarella puddles in water and begins pushing out a few of its fat. After cooling, the cheese is agency and chewy, virtually like string cheese. Heated to about 190°F and over, the cheese loses moisture and the fats globules break free. The cooled cheese is greasy and the feel is difficult, virtually like chewing coconut.
Burrata acts the identical means, but it surely’s much more tragic when the construction breaks down. Because it’s mainly a balloon with cream inside, the protein will push out the water and the as soon as creamy ball will change into a watery, dairy puddle with shreds of rubbery mozzarella floating round. Should you should heat your burrata, hold it beneath 130°F.
Low-moisture mozzarella guidelines all of them
Low-moisture mozzarella is available in huge bricks for slicing, or shredded in baggage. It, clearly, has a decrease water content material than its mozz cousins, and this makes for a extra balanced composition. It’s drier and firmer, with a texture nearer to cheddar or provolone.
When heated to larger and better temperatures, there isn’t a ton of water accessible for the micelle networks to push out, and the accessible fats is busy engaged on breaking apart the protein community—the soften issue. Low-moisture mozzarella doesn’t overheat to spew out a puddle of water, nor does it change into greasy. You may warmth this sort of cheese to nicely over 350°F, which is nice for our pizza wants, and the worst factor that occurs can be the very best factor: It crisps. Low-moisture mozzarella caught on the sides of your pizzas and pressed in opposition to casserole dish partitions turns into the crispy, chewy frico prize that everybody’s after.
Deal with recent mozzarella kindly
Whereas recent mozzarella doesn’t have a spot cooking in your brick oven pizza (except you need it watery and rubbery), it nonetheless has a spot in your fridge. Use this creamy cheese for topping sandwiches or accenting chilly salads; caprese is legendary for highlighting the wonders of recent mozzarella. Serve it heat as a ending part over sizzling meals. You’ve gotten all of these levels up till about 130°F to have heat, creamy cheese (albeit a tad watery). For reference, you may contact or pinch cheese beneath 130°F. As soon as the cheese nears that temperature, pinching up a pile of melty mozzarella begins to harm. Not that I need to be within the behavior of pinching sizzling cheese, however right here we’re.
