Posted on 08/31/2014 2:38:09 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Any way you slice it, Americans are obsessed with pizza. One in eight of us are noshing it on any given day, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And the average American consumes pizza about 39 times a year, according to the NPD Group, a market research firm.
The signature of a great American-style pizza is not the toppings du jour but the cheese: hot, gooey mozzarella, with big, dark splotches of caramelization.
Pizzerias didn't happen upon that winning recipe by coincidence. Food scientists have been studying and finessing the low-moisture part-skim mozzarella we now put on most of our pizzas for decades. Pizza companies fighting for consumers' loyalty are especially invested in such work.
But a few researchers are interested in studying the chemical and physical properties of pizza simply for the sake of science. Bryony James, a professor of materials engineering at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, is one of them.
It's been known for a while that mozzarella melts and blisters better than most other cheeses. But James and some colleagues wanted to investigate further: Why do different cheeses look and taste different when they're baked? Their paper, titled "Quantification of Pizza Baking Properties of Different Cheeses, and Their Correlation with Cheese Functionality," appears in the August issue of the Journal of Food Science.
The researchers started by cooking up a bunch of pies using various cheeses, including mozzarella, cheddar, Edam and Gruyere, as James explains in a video. Then, they analyzed the pizzas using cameras and special software designed to precisely measure the amount of browning, blistering and oil content.
To further tease out the physical properties of the cheeses, the researchers measured water content and elasticity. They also developed detailed diagrams of what happens to each cheese as it bakes.
The unique browning patterns on mozzarella come from the way it bubbles, James says. Since it's made by repeatedly stretching and molding fresh curds, "mozzarella has a lot of elasticity," she explains. "If you look at it under a microscope, you see it has these channels of fat surrounded by protein."
In the oven, the water in the cheese evaporates to create of steam, which causes it to bubble. Since mozzarella is so stretchy, the bubbles can expand and become fairly big. As the bubbles grow, the oil sitting on top slides off and the exposed mozzarella starts to brown. "Finally, the bubbles pop and recede back down," James says.
Cheddar isn't very elastic, so it barely bubbles, the study found. Yet a cheddar pizza will bake to an even, golden brown.In contrast, Gruyere bubbles really well but barely browns. It's a lot more oily than mozzarella, and the fat keeps the moisture in the cheese from evaporating.
"As a home consumer, you might want play around with these things," James says. Want a pizza with the traditional blistering, but sharper flavor? Try mixing mozzarella with another cheese.
Eventually, James says, the sort of research she's doing could be used to manipulate the properties of foods, like a low-fat cheese that tastes and looks just as good as the fattier stuff. Or maybe food scientists will figure out how to make a pizza crust that stays crisp, even after a day in the fridge. "When we understand food right down to its micro-structural level," she says, "it gives us the levers we need to change the way it behaves."
We'll raise a slice to that.
Would you tell me how you pronounce mozzarella?
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Easy. Like this: mozzarella
I couldn’t resist.
The proper scientific term is, I believe, “Red Rocket”. :D
Different choice of brew, but that’s my primo pizza as well ;>P
OMG, how embarrassing! of course it is bufala! I can’t believe I put an o at the end of that. (hangs head in shame)
Don’t know where you or Nick are...
Around here we say...motz..a..rella.
Is that incorrect? No doubt.
A genuine Italian friend whose name ends with an i says you must pronounce it MOOTS-a-rella.
Last week I visited some friends and we made pizzas on the gas grill. The wife made the dough and we pressed it out by hand. Her husband grilled all the vegetables on the grill and I sliced fresh, butcher shop pepperoni. I also sliced up the belgiosie mozzarella. We grilled one side of the dough and then brought it inside the house and turned it cooked side up so we could put the sauce and various ingredients on it. Then we took it back outside and put it on the grill, closed the cover and let it cook for another five minutes at around 400 degrees. The cheeses were melty and the dough was crisp but chewy. It was delicious.
Worst episode ever!
Sounds delicious!
Pizza Testing...second only to Lil’ Abner’s job of Chief Mattress Tester at the Stunned Ox Mattress Company.
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Blasts from the past.........
My favorite pizzeria growing up in the Pittsburgh area used provolone. I still prefer it to mozzarella, though as long as there is plenty of it mozzarella is OK too.
pizza cheese
Grilled pizza. Cook one side of the dough, without any ingredients on it. Then take it off the grill and add the ingredients to the cooked side. Put the pizza back on the grill and finish the cooking, with the lid closed. Temps should be between 400 and 450 so that the dough doesn't burn.
I grew up in an area with many people of Sicilian descent pronounced it mooz-ah-rel or mooz-ah-rel-ah.
Lookin Good!
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