Ingredient expert Jack Bishop tells you everything you need to know about mozzarella.
Read the taste test of fresh mozzarella:
ABOUT US: Located in Boston’s Seaport District in the historic Innovation and Design Building, America’s Test Kitchen features 15,000 square feet of kitchen space including multiple photography and video studios. It is the home of Cook’s Illustrated magazine and Cook’s Country magazine and is the workday destination for more than 60 test cooks, editors, and cookware specialists. Our mission is to test recipes over and over again until we understand how and why they work and until we arrive at the best version.
If you like us, follow us:
44 Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I recently used the high moisture mozzarella in the center of my arancini and it turned out really well. I also use it on pizzas because where I previously lived, it was more common than block. I love Peck Milano’s cheese, garlic and chili pepper calzones which I cannot buy now. I had thought it was mozzarella they used as the cheese but it never tasted right. I have managed to make a decent copy using fontina and Pecorino Romano. Fontina would make a nice substitute to mozzarella on a pizza as well. In my opinion, it has a much nicer flavor.
Bel Giorso is my go to. If I can't get fresh
Well you left out the only mozzarella. Buffalo mozzarella.
bzzt wrong-o, low moisture mozzarella is the way to go for most applications, unless you want your dish swimming in the added moisture.
I use whole milk low moisture mozzarella on my pizza and it's delicious and so flavorful!
When a recipe calls for shredded (fresh…) mozzarella, put a piece of it in the freezer for ~20 minutes – then, it will easily shred the amount needed, without clumping or getting stuck in the holes of the grater.
You don't know Jack (about cheese)
I bought shredded mozzarella from Walmart their brand. It was very hard to melt with very little taste. It lasted in the fridge for over 6 mths it would have lasted longer but the date was long past expiration I threw it out. Being that it lasted that long I wonder what was in it. Never again. Danger Will Roberson.
I recently baked a dish where I’d normally use high moisture, but the store didn’t have enough so I also grabbed some whole milk block. Wow, what a difference. For that dish it’s high moisture only from now on.
I wish Polly-) whole milk mozzarella was available in the Midwest.
If you want to shred or grate block mozzarella, put it in the freezer for about 20 minutes to firm up a little more. This is true for both hand grating and food processors.
Sorry but with the prices going the way they are I am going to buy what's cheap.
0:56 Best by Oct/02/20 Video uploaded November 21, 2021…hmmmm
I'd rather eat less full-fat food than more low-fat tasteless whatever
Do NOT look in my fridge Jack
With the exception of his comments about pre-shredded, everything in this video is entirely wrong. Believe this video at your own risk. It is, quite simply, massively misinformed.
Using fresh mozzarella on any pizza other than traditional Neapolitan (which requires an 800-degree oven) is guaranteed to fail. You may think it's working okay for you. It's not. The moisture content is far too high for it to melt and bake properly.
New York style pizza — which can be duplicated at high quality in home ovens at 500 to 600 degrees — REQUIRES low-moisture mozzarella. Low moisture is NOT low flavor or low quality. WRONG.
Also, the block cheeses he seems to think are fresh mozzarella are in fact LOW MOISTURE. However legal definitions do not require them to be labeled as such, whereas those labeled low moisture are even lower in moisture content–and theres NOTHING WRONG AT ALL with that aged low moisture Boar's Head. WRONG AGAIN.
Want to learn to make a decent pizza at home? Not to mention improve your eggplant parmigiana, baked ziti and the like? Buy the block cheeses this supposed expert is telling you is both fresh (wrong) and inferior to actual fresh (wrong). Buy fresh mozzarella — aka fior di latte or buffalo mozzarella — for your caprese salads and sandwiches. (And find a better quality than that Belgioioso crap. Look for the mozzarella from Murray's Cheeses in NYC that is distributed to many supermarkets around the country, or better yet, buy genuinely fresh from your local Italian market.)
Don't buy cheap cheese, it ain't worth it.
This is really helps. I bought my cheese because I love the taste, the whole milk is definitely the most delicious.
I did not see any real mozzarella
You need to know about the systemic animal cruelty involved. The dairy business is the meat business.
🤔
He cares enough to threaten us ❣
My market makes Moz fresh onsite. Wonderful on pizza.
The BG soft mozzarella sliced into thick slices, some pesto sauce, sliced pepperoni, one thin chicken breast seared with fresh rosemary, lettuce and tomato, all on a ciabatta bread bun. This is the worlds best sandwich.
Jack nailed it; Pollyo is the best
I don't know … I've tried them all throughout my life and they all seem to melt pretty well…
Why was the Polly-O logo blacked out on one of the packages?
You got a shake in your hands mister. Ask your Doctor.
I am sorry. I thought I should post it just in case. 😬
as an italian…my stomach is revolting!!! please please please….do not never ever buy a block mozzarella….is not real, has no taste and is plasticky. Avoid. Buy real fresh mozzarella cheese, with salt, in a container with it's water. You can buy the most expensive type to use raw and the less expensive to use for cooking. Mozzarella for pizza SHOULD always be of high quality.
Where's the fuckin' manigot? WAS HALF A FUCKIN' TRAY IN THERE!!!
“Im going to come find you” lol
About two decades ago one of Chicago’s best pizzerias (I think it was Gino’s East) published their recipe. They said two use equal parts low and high moisture mozzarella. So….
I prefer Colby/Jack combo myself. I don't buy or use mozzarella.
I know of one YouTube chef, who usually uses low moisture mozerella for baked goods and watchrs these videos
Wonder what the bipedal badboy will think
Jack, I just want to say that I like you. You do a great job on these videos and your smiling face can't be beat!
Texture is every with cheese.
I agree but would not buy anything except the real deal buffalo mozzarella for fresh applications. Nothing I have found comes close, unless you are talking burrata and that is really another cheese.
I’m curious as to why some labels are covered and others are not? Clearly a legal issue, but are they not given the rights to the image? That some companies give them permission to use their labels?
The humor in them having to black out the names of the products they hate/don't recommend, but then leaving the brands on for the ones they do recommend.
Polly-o whole fat gets to keep it's label, polly-o part skim gets blacked out. Then 12 seconds later the label is clearly visible on the part skim.
So is that a video editing oversight or an electrical tape malfunction?
Excellent tutorial Jack!
This is a general comment about this series. I enjoy the knowledge segments on the science of cooking and new/best gadgets info. However some of the recipes take way too long to prepare as some take 24 hours or more before finishing the dish. Some of these recipes look absolutely fabulous but the prep time… Nuff said. 😉 Albeit I enjoy the series and the new ideas offered.
Stay Frosty 🤗
I find Fontina works best for melting on a pizza.
Oooo…I won’t put it on my salad I promise…don’t come find me…lol…thanks for the good and helpful info…