How can you tell if mozzarella is low in moisture?
In this article, we will answer the following question: How can you tell if mozzarella is low in moisture? We will talk about the types of mozzarella we can find on the market and how to best store mozzarella cheese.
How can you tell if mozzarella is low in moisture?
The best way to tell if mozzarella is low in moisture is to use your senses. Thanks to its low percentage of humidity, Mozzarella brings a lot of softness and smoothness to your hot dishes, without releasing water during cooking.
A mozzarella low in moisture has the following characteristics:
The color: pearl white. Low moisture mozzarella must not have any shade that tends to straw yellow; pearl white like fine and good quality porcelain.
Visual appearance: smooth and homogeneous on the surface, peeled and porous internally. The detailed craftsmanship of mozzarella makes sure that the internal structure appears as the superposition of successive layers interspersed with irregular pores.
Smell: musky and milky. Another scent that immediately stands out on the nose is that of fresh milk.
Flavor: milky and savory acidity. In the mouth, the first sensation is that of being enveloped in a pleasant sensation of milky acidity, diffused and persistent, which must be followed by the satisfying persistence of fatness that amplifies the flavors.
Consistency: tenacious to chew. The index of freshness and quality of a mozzarella is the tenacity under the teeth: a short time from production, it has a resistant and crunchy consistency, over time, it tends to soften, losing its tenacity and becoming soft and relaxed.
The packaging must be carried out in the production dairy or front of the customer in the case of the company store.
What are the types of Mozzarella that we can find on the market?
A mozzarella “fior di latte” is an Italian version of mozzarella of excellent quality made with fresh milk. It has no preservatives, stabilizers, or anti-caking agents and the yield is higher since it melts and disperses better throughout the pizza base. Only with 80 grams of mozzarella you can make a 32 cm pizza.
Some mozzarellas fior di latte have an anti-caking agent (potato starch) to prevent them from compacting once minced, this changes the humidity, flavor, color, string texture and baking time.
100% cow’s milk mozzarellas can be made with milk, more powdered milk, some preservatives and stabilizers. They are good mozzarellas but they are not as natural or tasty as the fior di latte.
Dairy preparations are not mozzarellas, they are cheeses made from whey, starch, highly saturated fats such as palm and coconut oil and soy proteins. Most dairy preparations do not have milk, casein is used, which is the milk protein. This cheese does not melt well and tends to burn. I do not recommend it, despite having quite cheap prices.
Buffalo mozzarella is the mozzarella that has the most fat and moisture. Thanks to the fat it is tastier and due to the humidity it has it can perfectly be used in wood ovens, since it does not burn. This releases an abundant amount of water that surely will not evaporate completely, one solution is to cut the mozzarella and put it in a colander, in this way part of the moisture is lost, another recommendation is to put it at the end of the baking.
The only contraindication of buffalo mozzarella on pizza is its price, it is somewhat higher than the others, so it is recommended to use it in special pizzas such as the so-called caprese or buffalo pizza. To reduce its cost we can mix it with mozzarella fior di latte.
Other FAQs about Mozarella which you may be interested in.
Can I use feta cheese instead of mozzarella?
How bad is fresh mozzarella for you?
How to best store mozzarella?
The mozzarella must be packaged in select bags of food plastics and must float immersed in the preserving liquid, which will preserve all the organoleptic characteristics intact.
At room temperature, the best storage is immersed in the packaging liquid and covered with a clean kitchen towel to avoid oxidation by light. The product reaches its maximum potential in the first 3 days of production. It is preferable to drain it from its water, keep it for another 2 days in the refrigerator and use it for cooking.
In the winter season, when the outside temperature is below 20 ° C, it is advisable to immerse the entire bag in a water bowl at body temperature and leave the mozzarella to cool. The serving temperature plays a fundamental role because buffalo milk has a higher percentage of fat than cow’s milk: the fatty components tend to crystallize in the cold, releasing an intrusive and not persuasive feeling of fatness in the mouth as one would expect.
The size to be preferred to appreciate the flavor better is the size between 250 and 300 grams. Simultaneously, it is advisable for the braid not to go beyond the kilo since the processing tends to let the water escape: large braids have inside them less liquid and tend to have a more compact structure, less pleasant to the taste.
Conclusions
Low in moisture mozzarella cheese can have multiple uses in the kitchen, but if it is known for one thing, it is for its presence in pizzas. We can also use it in salads, in balls, in sheets or melted. Broadly speaking, we can say that it is rich in protein, calcium and vitamin A, although it also contains saturated fatty acids and sodium.
The best way to tell if mozzarella is low in moisture is to learn to differentiate it from other types of mozzarellas. For this, re-read the “What are the types of Mozzarella on the marker” section as often as necessary.
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