Mozzarella

Stretched-curd cheese is southern Italian. The curd is heated and pulled until it becomes elastic, a method also called pasta filata. Mozzarella began as a fresh cheese eaten near the dairy, because it did not keep. Cow's-milk mozzarella, fior di latte, and buffalo mozzarella developed as two products. The buffalo cheese of Campania later received its own protection. This page follows the cow's-milk cheese, which has no such single protected title.

Pizza made the word global. Neapolitan pizza grew up with fresh mozzarella, which puddles and tastes of milk. In the United States, a drier loaf was developed so cheese could be shipped, shredded, and browned on a pizza without flooding the crust. That low-moisture cheese is now the pizza cheese of a large part of the world. It is a real mozzarella. It is a different choice from a ball packed in whey.

The curd is made, then warmed in hot water or whey and stretched until it is smooth and shiny. For fresh mozzarella it is formed into balls, knots, or braids and cooled in brine or whey. It stays high in moisture. It has no rind. It is meant to be eaten within days.

Low-moisture mozzarella is stretched and then held so it dries and firms. It may be sold as a block or already shredded. It browns, stretches in long strings, and weeps less water onto a pizza. A fresh ball cannot do that job, and a dry block cannot do the job of a caprese salad. Buffalo mozzarella, when it is the protected Campanian cheese, is a fresh stretched cheese from a different milk. It is richer and more aromatic. It is not what a package of cow's-milk pizza cheese contains.

Fresh fior di latte tastes of sweet milk, salt, and a little whey. It should be milky, not sour, and the cut face should bead with whey. Buffalo mozzarella tastes stronger and more of animals and grass, which is a reason to buy it on purpose rather than by accident. Low-moisture mozzarella tastes milder, saltier, and more plainly cheesy. Its virtue is texture: stretch and browning.

A fresh ball that smells fermented, or that feels slimy in its liquid, is old. A dry block that smells of nothing and feels like wax will melt, but it will not taste of much. Shredded cheese with a powdery coating is made to keep the shreds apart. That coating can taste mealy. Whole pieces you shred yourself taste cleaner.

Eat fresh cow's-milk mozzarella soon, at room temperature, with tomatoes and basil, or on bread with olive oil. Use it on a Neapolitan-style pizza when you want milkiness and soft puddles. Use low-moisture mozzarella when you want a slice to stretch, a lasagna to cut cleanly, or a pan of baked pasta to brown. Pat a fresh ball dry before it goes near a hot oven, or the dish will be watery.

Do not freeze a fresh ball and expect it to return as a salad cheese. Do not put a wet ball on a sandwich in the morning and expect the bread to survive until noon. Burrata is the substitute when you want a fresh cow's-milk cheese that is more of a luxury, with a cream center. Provolone is the substitute when you want a stretched-curd cheese that has been aged and can be sliced for a sandwich. Neither replaces a pizza block in a baked dish that must brown.

Southern Italy is the home of the method. Cow's-milk mozzarella is made there and across Italy, and the same word now covers factory cheese on every continent. The protected buffalo cheese stays tied to Campania and its neighboring rules. The cow's-milk fresh cheese and the low-moisture loaf do not.

In a shop outside Italy, assume a wrapped block is low-moisture cow's-milk mozzarella unless the label says fresh, fior di latte, or buffalo. In a salad recipe, buy the fresh ball. In a delivery pizza, you are almost certainly eating the dry style, wherever the shop is. The name alone has become the word for pizza cheese. The label's moisture, milk, and place are how you get the cheese you actually wanted.