A Little Cheese History

Even though many other cheeses are increasing in popularity as the choice of pizza cheese, mozzarella cheese is still definitely considered “the” cheese for pizza. Even those pies that are sporting the latest and best cheese combinations almost always include mozzarella in the mix, and the processed designer cheese products that have been developed specifically as pizza cheeses are only meant to be “new and improved” versions of the traditional mozzarella but would you settle for any less?

Even for those of you that prefer to Order Pizza On Your iPhone, it’s fun to know a little more about the history of the products that make it, starting with some of the very basics of the best pizza pie.

Mozzarella has predominantly been the most favored choice of pizza cheese. As with most cheeses, it is expected that mozzarella was most likely discovered by chance. Rumor tells the story that mozzarella was only created when cheese gratings fell into a pail of boiling hot water.

But getting to the point about mozzarella, it is a mild cheese that is put through a curing process (similar to falling in a bucket of hot water). Though we know little about its history, we do know that the first mozzarellas were made not from cow’s milk, as most modern people would expect, but was derived from the rich milk of native water buffaloes.

In fact, true water buffalo mozzarella is considered one of the absolute best choices when cheese matters, but it is not a product that is widely produced commercially; instead, most pizza and delivery outfits make do with the still excellent fresh cow’s mozzarella. Still, it is possible in some parts to get real water buffalo mozzarella, including some areas of the mediterranian and from specialty food providers. Just don’t ask us who milks the buffalo!