A Little Mozzarella History

Despite several other cheeses are increasing in popularity as the choice of pizza cheese, mozzarella cheese is still definitely considered “the” cheese for pizza toppings. Even those pies that are sporting the latest and best 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 would you settle for any less?

Even for those of you that prefer to Order Pizza On Your iPhone, it’s fun to know a little more about the history of the products that make it, starting with some of the very basics of the best pizza pie.

Mozzarella is the most popular choice of cheese in history. As with most cheeses, it has been widely considered that mozzarella was really created entirely by accident. Rumor tells the story that mozzarella was only created when cheese curds fell into a pail of hot water.

But getting to the point about mozzarella, it is a mild cheese that undergoes a curing process (similar to falling in a bucket of hot water). 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, but it is not a product that is widely produced commercially; 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?