Even though many other cheeses are increasing in popularity as the pizza cheese, mozzarella is still definitely considered “the” cheese for pizza toppings. Even those pies that are sporting new and unique 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 why mess with a good thing?).
For those of us who love the Melbourne Pizza, it’s fun to know a little more about the history of the products that make it, starting with that all-important staple of the best pizza pie.
Mozzarella has predominantly been the most favored choice of pizza cheese. As with most cheeses, it has been widely considered that mozzarella was most likely discovered by chance. Legend has it that mozzarella was only created when cheese curds accidently fell off a table into hot water.
What mozzarella really is, is a mild cheese that undergoes a curing process not very different to dropping it into hot water off a table. The little we do know for sure about its real history is that the first mozzarellas were made not from cow’s milk, as most modern people would expect, but from the milk of water buffaloes.
In fact, true water buffalo mozzarella is considered one of the absolute best choices when cheese matters, however it is not that readily available for everyone; 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 in parts of Italy and from specialty food providers. The question then remains; Who milks the buffalo?