This is the first episode I have done looking at the history of a specific cheese. Let me know what you think. Also what other cheese would you like to know more about?
Awesome direction to go in. Gouda is a personal favorite of mine and I would love to learn more from you!! Thanks for another video you are so awesome do you have a patreon account yet? I'd be happy to subscribe a few dollars a month and I'm sure more of us would be too. I love the dedication and passion
Thanks Gavin. You have helped me so much it was the least I could do. I am having so much fun finding out all this fascinating cheese history for everyone.
12:30 As an American in NY, I don't often see blocks of dry mozzarella. It's usually sold pre-shredded in bags, and can be called a small variety of things but is usually just "shredded mozzarella".
Thanks. That is interesting. Maybe it is more of a New Zealand thing to sell it in blocks. We have shredded mozzarella too, but also common in blocks as well as the traditional balls
Thank you for the really informative video! I would like to expand a bit about the topic since, to my knowledge, there were a few mistakes in the video. The traditional way of making mozzarella is by using bacteria to produce acid and stop them at a ph that is between 4.9 and 5.3. The higher the ph, the firmer (less moisture in the curd), the more it last and easier to stretch (try to stretch a ph 4.9 curd, it's not easy to deal with, but if done properly, the result is just the best). If you stretch at ph 5.3 and vacuum pack, it will last up to 20 days. This is the way mozzarella for pizza is done in Italy. The pizzaiolo needs this kind of mozzarella not only because it last longer but also because it can be cut and put easily on pizza, without making the dough wet. With high moisture mozzarella he will need to drain it overnight. This kind of mozzarella made with fermentation is sometimes called "mozzarella fior di latte" and can be done in different versions, including pizza version as I just explained. To satisfy the increasing demand of mozzarella, Americans need to figure out a way to make it faster (the traditional method can take up to 4 hours). So they invented the citric acid method, which takes roughly 1 one hour. The resulting mozzarella contains all the lactose because it's not fermented. Lactose intolerant people have problem with it while they may not with mozzarella fior di latte (at least they can eat a pizza without having problems). The resulting taste is also completely different. Stretching after increasing the temperature with water and salt and stretching after heating with the microwave also gives completely different results. It's impossible to obtain a soft, high in moisture mozzarella with a perfect texture from the outside to the inside by using a microwave. It would also be interesting to know when the citric acid method was invented and when it arrived in Italy. People from Puglia region claim to have invented this method but, as far as I know, it came from America. Side note: to me, the definition of cheese must include the word fermentation, like it is in France. I personally do not consider cheese citric acid mozzarella or any acid-added coagulated like products, since they do not involve any kind of fermentation. Just to be clear, they are still delicious 😋 but they don't deserve to be called 🧀. Hope this is useful and if I made some mistakes, any correction is well accepted 😃 Always looking to learn more!
I look at it this way: Wonderbread is still bread, even with it made with generic refinded flour and a fast way to make bread. But it'll just never be as complex in texture or flavor as sourdough/levain raised bread made with a hyper local strain of flour.
Thanks for all the great cheese background. You are very well versed in all of this and i love being a person you share it with. And yes I do love the specific cheese variety approach. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge with us all. Would not have found you without Gavin.
Cool. I have plans for lots more. I am pretty much learning as I make new videos. I am so grateful to Gavin for all the awesome people he has sent my way 😁
Mozzarella was one of the first cheeses I made, using Gavin's microwave mozz video as a guide. It's not that difficult to make and turns out great on pizza, pasta, on bread or in lasagna. No forms, presses or much equipment. Thank you for the Cheese History!
Hello, another interesting video, I have been following your cheese through time videos since your appearance on Gavin's 12 hour live show. Great videos, Mozzarella is a bugger to make at times I have found that although I always get an eatable cheese when I make it the texture at times is not quite right 😒 I found it's history during WW2 very interesting. Looking forward to the next. cheers 👍👍👍👍
12:00 Nowadays it's not regularly called "pizza cheese" in the US, that's more of a mid-century commericial term. Most folks here today just call it "mozzarella" or "low moisture mozzarella" and call regular mozzarella-as it's always been known in Campania, Italy-"fresh mozzarella". But US low moisture mozzarella is very similar to a young scamorza, just like our provolone is similar to an Italian caciacavallo.
Couldn't wait till lunch!! Great video, some incredible info here, loved the section about the Margherita pizza. As far as making it goes and whether or not it is a beginners cheese, i am torn. The technique for quick and standard mozzarella is fairly simple, the difficulty i found was patience and the kit itself. Once you have some thick rubber gloves and you are willing to wait for up to 18 hours for your curds to reach 5.2ph, the rest is experimentally easy. It just may overwhelm a new cheesemaker. The quick mozzarella is great as far as you don't have to wait, it's a fun thing to do with the family (all with those thick gloves!!), although the result may not be the same, if you are having pizza that night, it's still better than any store bought. The good thing about cheesemaking is that, in the most part, any failures are still edible!! :) Gavin always shows us his 'not quite right' cheeses, you learn from his and your own mistakes, they still go in your belly. Look forward to the next one :)
The mozzarella was first made in Italy near Naples the rich milk of water buffalos. Because it was not made from pasteurized milk and because there was little or no refrigeration the cheese had a very short shelf-life and seldom left the southern region of Italy near Naples where it was made.
In the USA we do see a lot of different Mozzarella. Low Moisture Mozzarella is described as being 'soured' further before stretching. The result is more firm cheese for grating. Manufacturers use both whole milk and skimmed but my preference is whole milk. I've been reading and learning more about Mozzarella before trying it. I think it is worth trying both fresh and low moisture styles. Love your content!
Great video 😊 Mozzarella is definitely not a beginners cheese, although the process is fairly simple, it required some experience to know how to cut the curds for the best moisture level, and also the right acidity level to stretch it. For the storage, you can't simply use water because the Mozzarella ball will become gooey and loses it's texture. You need a brine salt with some vinegar (to have the same ph as the cheese) and aslo to add some calcium chloride to the brine, because of you don't do so, the brine will pull calcium from the cheese while weakens the structure of the cheese.
Hi Julia, great video as always, but I am curious as to where Ned Palmer got the information that the ancient Dacians produced brânză de burduf (which he misspelled) and that the Romans learnt the cheese-kneading technique from them. Thank you!
The format of the book means that it doesn't cite specific sources. It does have a list of suggested further reading for each chapter, but I can't see anything obvious there as most are books on Romans in Ancient Britain, so the information could well be in one of them. Based on what he writes, I would say he is speculating based on the fact that there were Dacians in Britain at the time and they may have brought the cheese with them or that the Romans learnt it from them after invading. He does only put it forward as possible rather than certain. Do you know a lot about brânză de burduf?
@@cheesehistory Yeah, kinda. I'm Transylvanian-Romanian and we do have quite a rich and far-reaching cheese-making tradition that is, sadly(!), mostly unknown and unrecognised. Not just brânză de burduf (which has multiple variations including a wonderful pine bark one), but a lot of telemea, caș and cașcaval types as well. During the medieval era "Vlach cheese" (probably a type of cașcaval) was considered a real delicacy, the best cheese, and a status symbol because of its exorbitant cost (Byzantine chronicles and poems attest that only the truly affluent could afford it). But I digress. I just found Palmer's quote quite jarring, not only as a historian but also as a Romanian. I think it's impossible to know with any certainty what types of cheese the Dacians produced. To my knowledge there is no actual evidence for them producing brânză de burduf. We know from the archaeological record that the Dacians made various dairy products (butter, yoghurt, cheese), but what types of cheese they actually made remains a mystery. The written sources are also silent on this subject. Except for Columella mentioning the Dacians as "milk-drinkers" I can't think of anything else. Sadly, there is no known source which describes the types of cheese the Dacians made or the cheese-making techniques they employed. Yet I find Palmer's hypothesis alluring and also plausible. Even if it's based mainly on educated guesswork and logical axioms. The Romanian word for 'cheese' (brânză) is one of the very few Dacian words to have survived into the Romanian language. So who knows? Maybe the Dacians actually did invent brânza de burduf along with the other types of cheese we still make and eat today. :)
@@exterminans Wow. The Romanian cheeses you mention sound really interesting. I don't have much info on cheese outside western Europe and America, but I am hoping to be able to get into cheeses from all over the world if I can find the information. I think one of the assumptions Palmer makes in his book is that if there is a traditional cheese being made in an area now, then there is a good chance that it has a long history to it, but often it is hard to say exactly when it originated. I guess there is always a place in the study of history for speculating what could be true even if we don't have direct evidence for it. I got in touch with Palmer recently over something else he mentioned in his book. He was very approachable and willing to talk about his work.
In West Bank Palestine in the city Nablus (Greek: Νεάπολις, romanized: Νeápolis) they have similar cheese called Nabulsi cheese, it is used used to make Nabulsi Kunafe desert. ruclips.net/video/WVtDbLBj5DM/видео.html I just find it ironic both cities Napoli and Νeápolis sound the same and have similar cheese.
Great efforts 👌 But am afraid you are short of history. Mozzarella originally invented in Syria during its Greek period. And the romans imported it when they occupied Syria. This cheese is still produced in the coastal cities of Syria till today.
Thanks for watching. I'm interested to know more about this if I can. Can you point me towards any records or anything I can look into to learn more? I'm working with what little information I can find and I know that it is easy to miss detail so always happy to learn more.
I searched for reference in English and i failed. No soft copies of the ones in Arabic either. But you can look up Kunafah sweet ( a sweet widely spread on the coast from Greek to Palestine through turkey Syria and Lebanon. The main ingredient in Kunafah is mozzarella. You can Seerch for syrian cheeses especially a stripey one called Shelal ( جبنة شلل)
This is the first episode I have done looking at the history of a specific cheese. Let me know what you think. Also what other cheese would you like to know more about?
Awesome direction to go in. Gouda is a personal favorite of mine and I would love to learn more from you!! Thanks for another video you are so awesome do you have a patreon account yet? I'd be happy to subscribe a few dollars a month and I'm sure more of us would be too. I love the dedication and passion
Lol nevermind I'm heading there now😆
@@soulshiversasmr Thanks so much. Gouda is on my list of cheeses for a future episode.
I love it
I love it. Very interesting as usual.
This was a perfect meal-time video to watch when eating some pasta with mozzarella sauce!
Julia, what can I say? I think you are a national NZ treasure of cheese history knowledge. Thanks for the shout out and kind words 🧀💛
Thanks Gavin. You have helped me so much it was the least I could do. I am having so much fun finding out all this fascinating cheese history for everyone.
Excellent Mozzarella information. Mozzarella was one of my first cheeses too but not having a microwave makes for a messy but fun process. 💖🧀
Its such a fun cheese to make even when messy
12:30 As an American in NY, I don't often see blocks of dry mozzarella. It's usually sold pre-shredded in bags, and can be called a small variety of things but is usually just "shredded mozzarella".
Thanks. That is interesting. Maybe it is more of a New Zealand thing to sell it in blocks. We have shredded mozzarella too, but also common in blocks as well as the traditional balls
@@cheesehistoryThe US does sell block mozzerella as a delicatessen cheese. Get it at the deli counter or already sliced off the block prepackaged.
Thank you for the really informative video!
I would like to expand a bit about the topic since, to my knowledge, there were a few mistakes in the video.
The traditional way of making mozzarella is by using bacteria to produce acid and stop them at a ph that is between 4.9 and 5.3. The higher the ph, the firmer (less moisture in the curd), the more it last and easier to stretch (try to stretch a ph 4.9 curd, it's not easy to deal with, but if done properly, the result is just the best). If you stretch at ph 5.3 and vacuum pack, it will last up to 20 days. This is the way mozzarella for pizza is done in Italy. The pizzaiolo needs this kind of mozzarella not only because it last longer but also because it can be cut and put easily on pizza, without making the dough wet. With high moisture mozzarella he will need to drain it overnight.
This kind of mozzarella made with fermentation is sometimes called "mozzarella fior di latte" and can be done in different versions, including pizza version as I just explained.
To satisfy the increasing demand of mozzarella, Americans need to figure out a way to make it faster (the traditional method can take up to 4 hours). So they invented the citric acid method, which takes roughly 1 one hour. The resulting mozzarella contains all the lactose because it's not fermented. Lactose intolerant people have problem with it while they may not with mozzarella fior di latte (at least they can eat a pizza without having problems). The resulting taste is also completely different.
Stretching after increasing the temperature with water and salt and stretching after heating with the microwave also gives completely different results. It's impossible to obtain a soft, high in moisture mozzarella with a perfect texture from the outside to the inside by using a microwave.
It would also be interesting to know when the citric acid method was invented and when it arrived in Italy. People from Puglia region claim to have invented this method but, as far as I know, it came from America.
Side note: to me, the definition of cheese must include the word fermentation, like it is in France. I personally do not consider cheese citric acid mozzarella or any acid-added coagulated like products, since they do not involve any kind of fermentation. Just to be clear, they are still delicious 😋 but they don't deserve to be called 🧀.
Hope this is useful and if I made some mistakes, any correction is well accepted 😃 Always looking to learn more!
I look at it this way: Wonderbread is still bread, even with it made with generic refinded flour and a fast way to make bread.
But it'll just never be as complex in texture or flavor as sourdough/levain raised bread made with a hyper local strain of flour.
Thanks for all the great cheese background. You are very well versed in all of this and i love being a person you share it with. And yes I do love the specific cheese variety approach. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge with us all. Would not have found you without Gavin.
Cool. I have plans for lots more. I am pretty much learning as I make new videos.
I am so grateful to Gavin for all the awesome people he has sent my way 😁
Mozzarella was one of the first cheeses I made, using Gavin's microwave mozz video as a guide. It's not that difficult to make and turns out great on pizza, pasta, on bread or in lasagna. No forms, presses or much equipment.
Thank you for the Cheese History!
I love making mozzarella. I have plans to make some this weekend.
@@cheesehistory opening a 5 month old asiago tomorrow. a sampling in august with a cheese trier tasted like it was almost there
I love Gavin, our curd nerd king...❤
He's an awesome guy
Hello, another interesting video, I have been following your cheese through time videos since your appearance on Gavin's 12 hour live show. Great videos, Mozzarella is a bugger to make at times I have found that although I always get an eatable cheese when I make it the texture at times is not quite right 😒 I found it's history during WW2 very interesting. Looking forward to the next. cheers 👍👍👍👍
Thank you. I have had mozzarella fails too where it just doesn't turn out right.
These videos are so informative and fun!
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it
12:00 Nowadays it's not regularly called "pizza cheese" in the US, that's more of a mid-century commericial term.
Most folks here today just call it "mozzarella" or "low moisture mozzarella" and call regular mozzarella-as it's always been known in Campania, Italy-"fresh mozzarella".
But US low moisture mozzarella is very similar to a young scamorza, just like our provolone is similar to an Italian caciacavallo.
Couldn't wait till lunch!! Great video, some incredible info here, loved the section about the Margherita pizza. As far as making it goes and whether or not it is a beginners cheese, i am torn. The technique for quick and standard mozzarella is fairly simple, the difficulty i found was patience and the kit itself. Once you have some thick rubber gloves and you are willing to wait for up to 18 hours for your curds to reach 5.2ph, the rest is experimentally easy. It just may overwhelm a new cheesemaker. The quick mozzarella is great as far as you don't have to wait, it's a fun thing to do with the family (all with those thick gloves!!), although the result may not be the same, if you are having pizza that night, it's still better than any store bought. The good thing about cheesemaking is that, in the most part, any failures are still edible!! :) Gavin always shows us his 'not quite right' cheeses, you learn from his and your own mistakes, they still go in your belly. Look forward to the next one :)
Thanks. I love making mozzarella the slow way, but it would not have been the best place to start.
This was really interesting!
The mozzarella was first made in Italy near Naples the rich milk of water buffalos. Because it was not made from pasteurized milk and because there was little or no refrigeration the cheese had a very short shelf-life and seldom left the southern region of Italy near Naples where it was made.
In the USA we do see a lot of different Mozzarella. Low Moisture Mozzarella is described as being 'soured' further before stretching. The result is more firm cheese for grating. Manufacturers use both whole milk and skimmed but my preference is whole milk. I've been reading and learning more about Mozzarella before trying it. I think it is worth trying both fresh and low moisture styles.
Love your content!
Thanks. That is super interesting to learn.
Great video 😊
Mozzarella is definitely not a beginners cheese, although the process is fairly simple, it required some experience to know how to cut the curds for the best moisture level, and also the right acidity level to stretch it. For the storage, you can't simply use water because the Mozzarella ball will become gooey and loses it's texture. You need a brine salt with some vinegar (to have the same ph as the cheese) and aslo to add some calcium chloride to the brine, because of you don't do so, the brine will pull calcium from the cheese while weakens the structure of the cheese.
3:56 What happened?
great work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Julia, great video as always, but I am curious as to where Ned Palmer got the information that the ancient Dacians produced brânză de burduf (which he misspelled) and that the Romans learnt the cheese-kneading technique from them. Thank you!
The format of the book means that it doesn't cite specific sources. It does have a list of suggested further reading for each chapter, but I can't see anything obvious there as most are books on Romans in Ancient Britain, so the information could well be in one of them.
Based on what he writes, I would say he is speculating based on the fact that there were Dacians in Britain at the time and they may have brought the cheese with them or that the Romans learnt it from them after invading. He does only put it forward as possible rather than certain.
Do you know a lot about brânză de burduf?
@@cheesehistory Yeah, kinda. I'm Transylvanian-Romanian and we do have quite a rich and far-reaching cheese-making tradition that is, sadly(!), mostly unknown and unrecognised. Not just brânză de burduf (which has multiple variations including a wonderful pine bark one), but a lot of telemea, caș and cașcaval types as well. During the medieval era "Vlach cheese" (probably a type of cașcaval) was considered a real delicacy, the best cheese, and a status symbol because of its exorbitant cost (Byzantine chronicles and poems attest that only the truly affluent could afford it). But I digress.
I just found Palmer's quote quite jarring, not only as a historian but also as a Romanian. I think it's impossible to know with any certainty what types of cheese the Dacians produced. To my knowledge there is no actual evidence for them producing brânză de burduf. We know from the archaeological record that the Dacians made various dairy products (butter, yoghurt, cheese), but what types of cheese they actually made remains a mystery. The written sources are also silent on this subject. Except for Columella mentioning the Dacians as "milk-drinkers" I can't think of anything else. Sadly, there is no known source which describes the types of cheese the Dacians made or the cheese-making techniques they employed.
Yet I find Palmer's hypothesis alluring and also plausible. Even if it's based mainly on educated guesswork and logical axioms. The Romanian word for 'cheese' (brânză) is one of the very few Dacian words to have survived into the Romanian language. So who knows? Maybe the Dacians actually did invent brânza de burduf along with the other types of cheese we still make and eat today. :)
@@exterminans Wow. The Romanian cheeses you mention sound really interesting. I don't have much info on cheese outside western Europe and America, but I am hoping to be able to get into cheeses from all over the world if I can find the information.
I think one of the assumptions Palmer makes in his book is that if there is a traditional cheese being made in an area now, then there is a good chance that it has a long history to it, but often it is hard to say exactly when it originated. I guess there is always a place in the study of history for speculating what could be true even if we don't have direct evidence for it.
I got in touch with Palmer recently over something else he mentioned in his book. He was very approachable and willing to talk about his work.
In West Bank Palestine in the city Nablus (Greek: Νεάπολις, romanized: Νeápolis) they have similar cheese called Nabulsi cheese, it is used used to make Nabulsi Kunafe desert.
ruclips.net/video/WVtDbLBj5DM/видео.html
I just find it ironic both cities Napoli and Νeápolis sound the same and have similar cheese.
That is such an interesting connection. Thanks for mentioning it.
NO WAY! You straight up look like a mid 20s Joan Cusack! That’s crazy. Lmfao great vid though, greetings from a 4th generation Italian American
Wet Mozz. I used to eat fresh Mozza balls after school in NY> The block stuff is good for lasagna but. the MOzz in water is best.
Fascinating! Now, how many viewers looked up Water Buffalo while watching?🙋♂️🦬😃
Watched this while eating cherry tomatoes, sourdough bread, olive oil and guess what kind of cheese.
Haha. That's so cool
Chese 🤤🤤
Great efforts 👌
But am afraid you are short of history. Mozzarella originally invented in Syria during its Greek period. And the romans imported it when they occupied Syria.
This cheese is still produced in the coastal cities of Syria till today.
Thanks for watching. I'm interested to know more about this if I can. Can you point me towards any records or anything I can look into to learn more? I'm working with what little information I can find and I know that it is easy to miss detail so always happy to learn more.
I searched for reference in English and i failed.
No soft copies of the ones in Arabic either. But you can look up Kunafah sweet ( a sweet widely spread on the coast from Greek to Palestine through turkey Syria and Lebanon. The main ingredient in Kunafah is mozzarella. You can Seerch for syrian cheeses especially a stripey one called Shelal ( جبنة شلل)
😁🖖✌👍👌😎
Marry me?
"pizza cheese"? Never heard of it. Perhaps its a California thing. Here in Texas we call it Mozzarella. :)
very interesting .great vid .thanks ....peace out
follow you on IG