What cheese do you use for pizza?

[HeatnSmoke]

Lots of info already written up here on hand made pizza dough and sauces....but what do our pizza experts use for cheese?

[chrisg]

The same mix as the Italian momma who taught me a deal about Italian cooking in general, a mix of mozzarella and cheddar, exact ratios vary but roughly 50/50.

A lot of people I know do just just mozzarella but I prefer, and so do a lot of Italians, to have the flavour of cheddar with the elasticity of mozzarella.

There's a Kraft mixture now that I've seen that has those two and another, Romano I think, sounds interesting but not tried it.

Cheers

[Groovy Gorilla]

Sliced or torn Mozzarella and a sprinkle of parmesan
Gives you goo and flavour
Dont grate and leave lots of room where there is no cheese unless you are trying to recreate am American pizza franchise pizza.
Get a good mozarella that melts not burns
The cheap ones have lots of cheap milk powder in them and that burns

[Gumb]

Chunks of mozzarella for me.

[Bear]

Approximately 50% good quality Italian mozzarella, 30% cheddar, and 20% fresh pecorino.

Been using this for a few years, pretty happy with the results.

[Narmnaleg]

Fresh mozzarella (the white stuff that's stored in water, not the yellow stuff in a vac sealed bag).
When I want to make a genuine Margherita I'll use buffalo mozzarella. Make sure you drain it for a while to avoid soggy pizza.
A sprinkle of good quality Parmesan, pecorino or manchego can also work well.
For specific flavour pizzas (like 4 cheese pizza) I've used Gorgonzola and Camembert. Goats cheese can be good for that also, but in small quantities.

[HeatnSmoke]

Thanks for all the useful tips, they explain why I've had ordinary results using generic mozzarella and why I sometimes like cheddar on the pizza. It never occurred to me to combine the two, much less add some pecorino. Fingers crossed Coles or Woolies stock decent quality stuff now that I know what I'm looking for.

[Bear]

Fresh mozzarella (the white stuff that's stored in water, not the yellow stuff in a vac sealed bag).
When I want to make a genuine Margherita I'll use buffalo mozzarella. Make sure you drain it for a while to avoid soggy pizza...

+ 1 for margherita

[Groovy Gorilla]

I used to buy a few pizzas out of a wood fired pizza place in Province when I was staying with a friend who lives there.
They used a French version of cheese,it tasted ok but the not like a traditional pizza in my mind but a very good French interpretation.
All the Pizzas I had in Italy were excellent.(never had a bad one)
I watched them making them
They all seemed to use mozzarella and parmesan only

Its rare to get a good bought one in Australia there are a few, scattered around, most have too much topping,crap toppings, too complex passatas, too much cheap grated cheese, conveyor belt ovens that just toast and steam not cook properly,pink spam pretending to be ham and roast chicken in barbeque sauce (clear indicator that the owner/franchise is just interested in profit and has no taste).
I dont order any franchise Pizza except La Porchetta(when desperate and not home and there's no Italian family run shop around) and they have gone down hill real fast since they franchised (the original store in Carlton was excellent 20 or 30 years ago)now they are better than the rest but the rest is pretty crap.

My ones are the best I've had here close second to the best in Naples but I am biased.

[mymonaro]

Here is a comment from left field.

I have tried the different pizza cheese mixes (prepacked) from the supermarket. My two daughters claimed they were not overly keen on the cheese mixes.

As a result, one day I put shredded Coon on the pizzas. To my surprise it really tasted good.

This is what I have used for some time now.

Buy the block of Coon; shred it yourself. One can purchase shredded Coon in a package, but it is double the cost of the block cheese.

[chrisg]

Hey GG,

Yeah I've noticed that most any place in Italy that you buy a pizza it's just mozzarella, also that the French as usual have their own ideas

I used to stay with this old lady down near Brindisi way back in my flying days, she had some very interesting ways with food, guess some of it could be called fusion. Like a lot of Italy they make a lot of stuff like cheese themselves, their take on Cheddar didn't have more than a passing acquaintance with Somerset but that's true of "cheddar" the world over.

Italian food is incredibly regional though, they just make best use of what they have that's local and fresh

I think the thing with pizza is that it's not really Italian, it's global and everywhere has their own take on it.

Without complicating the discussion and no, I've never tried this but a Pizza place in London used to make some damned good pizzas which were anything but finger food, needed a knife and fork. Being a bunch of us ate there rather often we used to end up lingering around late at night sometimes drinking with the staff - which can be dangerous. One night a couple of us stayed so late that the chef decided more food was in order and went off to make some more pizza. We all joined him in the kitchen where he span up some dough then somewhat to my surprise pulled a pan of a very, very thick cheese sauce out of the cool room and sort of glugged it on top of the pies he had assembled. Gave it a quick spread with a palette knife and into the still extremely hot oven.

I've never even heard or read of doing it that way anywhere else but it sure made for a delicious pizza. Unfortunately I've no idea what cheese was used

Cheers

[pierre]

The same mix as the Italian momma who taught me a deal about Italian cooking in general, a mix of mozzarella and cheddar, exact ratios vary but roughly 50/50.

A lot of people I know do just just mozzarella but I prefer, and so do a lot of Italians, to have the flavour of cheddar with the elasticity of mozzarella.

There's a Kraft mixture now that I've seen that has those two and another, Romano I think, sounds interesting but not tried it.

Cheers

I don't know what italians you know, but in Italy cheddar does not exist let alone used on pizza

[pierre]

Lots of info already written up here on hand made pizza dough and sauces....but what do our pizza experts use for cheese?

In Naples they use buffalo mozzarella, but generally in Italy is 'bocconcini' o 'fior di latte', the fresh one in water not the dry ball. Unless you have an oven so hot you can cook pizza in 5 minutes like in Italy you should add the cheese at the last five minutes of cooking, if not it will burn.

[Groovy Gorilla]

True Neapolitan pizza in a low roofed Neapolitan wood fired oven should only take 90 seconds to cook.
In a Pompeii with a higher dome maybe 2 minutes.
In an ordinary home oven at full bore 250C it takes 10 to 12 minutes.
For me the cheap cheese burns the good stuff doesnt
I tried some Fior di latte last week it released a fair bit of liquid at lower temps.
Im going to try draining this weekends version to see if it makes a difference.
The flavour was great but the dough got a little moist and boiled tasting

[pierre]

True Neapolitan pizza in a low roofed Neapolitan wood fired oven should only take 90 seconds to cook.
In a Pompeii with a higher dome maybe 2 minutes.
In an ordinary home oven at full bore 250C it takes 10 to 12 minutes.

After I had pizza in Naples I couldn't eat pizza for a while, so superior it was compared to others. Same for coffe.