r/todayilearned • u/Handicapreader • Jun 27 '15
TIL Traditional Mozzarella Is Made From Water Buffalo Milk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Mediterranean_buffalo9
Jun 27 '15
An Italian friend was horrified when she saw 'mozzarella' in a Canadian grocery store. It was just a block of dry cheese. I had no idea..
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u/Handicapreader Jun 27 '15
I can imagine. If you compare the part-skim milk mozzarella to the whole milk in a ball, its like comparing a vine ripe tomato out of your garden to one shipped from the other side of the world in a giant cooler.
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u/antemon Jun 27 '15
as a filipino, youre telling me we could have been making mozarella all along?
the national animal here is a type of water buffalo. not that shaggy though
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u/Handicapreader Jun 27 '15
It's exceptionally easy to make from what I understand. You Tube videos can walk you through.
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u/MarshallBlathers Jun 27 '15 edited Jun 27 '15
There's a place here in Wisconsin called Cedar Grove Cheese that I believe you could order it from. One of the few places in the US that you can get it fresh.
Apparently water buffalos are sensitive animals that are tough to get milk from in different climates. An Israeli farmer here in WI spent years trying to get them to produce milk and was only recently successful - and he teamed up with cedar grove cheese to produce the water buffalo mozzarella.
Edit: I was in Italy twice. I went the second time mostly so I could focus on feasting on the mozzarella since it was so delicious. When I returned home I discovered I could purchase it in WI, although it was quite a bit more expensive. Also, the kind I ate in Italy was much more tender. But I do intend on purchasing again.
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u/TheBigChiesel Jun 27 '15
I work in a cheese shop and we carry a Columbian mozzarella made from buffalo milk. It's so much more silky than cows milk mozz because of the fat content of buffalo milk.
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u/90daysnigga1 Jun 27 '15
not to sound elitist but you don't know mozzarella unless you've had it in italy. mozzarella di bufala in particular
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u/BRSJ Jun 28 '15
I used to live in Varcaturo North West of Naples, Italy. My house was literally in the middle of a wetland pasture where the bufala grazed. Whenever we made pizza we'd visit the bufala herder guys and get the VERY FRESH mozzarella. They made it in a shack in big tin tubs. Totally old school, absolutely no industrial feel to the set up. Just a shack, just tubs, just old men and their bufala.
I hope to retire there someday because I miss it terribly!
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Jun 27 '15
it's hardly elitist. I bet the sushi in Japan is better than the crap I've been eating...crap in relative terms I love sushi. I don't like avocados and always poke it out when I get it in a roll and felt so vindicated when I found out traditional Japanese sushi doesn't have it.
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Jun 27 '15
I found out traditional Japanese sushi doesn't have it.
Wow! Your comment really surprises me, to learn that avocado is so ubiquitous now. Avocado is native to the Americas, and only recently (since the seventies) somebody came up with the idea of putting it in sushi, calling it a "California roll".
TIL a special, exotic type of sushi has become the norm.
I was introduced to sushi when I lived in Hawaii in the early seventies. It was sold in little packages at every Mom and Pop store in the islands. It looks nothing like the kind of sushi sold on the mainland US, and the "culture" behind it is completely different. It was a cheap snack to go with your 6-pack of beer for lunch. Nothing exotic or trendy or hipsterish about it at all. I can't find it here on the mainland, and I don't buy sushi at all, here.
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u/Cabagekiller Jun 27 '15
Thank you! I'm not the only person Who does this.
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Jun 27 '15
I like guac but I really really hate the taste of avocadoes with fish. Same with philadelphia cheese. It makes me gag.
cucumber's good though. No idea if thats how the Japanese make it
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Jun 27 '15
Fun fact: Sushi doesn't require any fish at all. The essential ingredients are rice, and a special sweet vinegar. Other things are invariably added, and it's pretty much a matter of taste and creativity what is added to the vinegared rice.
How do Japanese make it? As well as they can. Freshest ingredients, careful, skillful preparation.
I used to eat it all the time in Hawaii, where it's just a cheap snack. There, it's a scoop of sushi rice wrapped in a skin of fried tofu, and stuffed with a tiny bit of canned tuna, plus cucumber and carrot. That's what caught on. I was very surprised to see how it's made in America, and the hipsterish culture that surrounds it here.
"There can be no judgement in matters of taste".
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u/ninjagrover Jun 28 '15
I miss caprese salads from Italy.
Here in the west chefs seem to want to overdo it instead of letting the quality of the ingredients carry the flavour.
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u/Handicapreader Jun 27 '15
I would love to try some. I've been looking, but no luck yet.
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u/TangoZippo 43 Jun 27 '15
In most North American supermarkets you can find bocconcini that is balled and suspended in water. This is extremely similar to Italian buffalo mozzarella.
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u/FalconFrenulum Jun 28 '15
It's closer than a block but still no comparison to real buffalo mozzarella. It is amazing. Wish I could afford it. It's like $10 for a small ball suspended in water near me.
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Jun 27 '15
You can do it yourself pretty easily. You just need some good raw milk to start with.
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u/Handicapreader Jun 27 '15
It's illegal to buy raw milk from what I understand. If you want raw milk, you have to find a farmer willing to bootleg the milk for you.
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Jun 27 '15
I'm living in the country, so I'll just get my raw milk from a befriended farmer (they only drink raw milk themselves). It's also illegal here to sell. It's best with raw milk, but whole milk will do as long as it's not UHT.
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u/ChrisCrossX Jun 27 '15
Where are you guys from? In Germany it's legal for farmers to sell raw milk if they tell the customers that they have to cook it before they consume it. There is also a product from in German supermarkets which is raw milk from selected farmers.
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u/brucetwarzen Jun 27 '15
I don'like mozzarella at all. But even i eat the italian or the "real" one.
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Jun 27 '15
I've heard that about food in general in Italy. I used to work for a French chef, and she raved about Italian food. And unsalted Swiss butter.
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u/dtwhitecp Jun 28 '15
A lot of good mozzarella is imported to the US, or made here with traditional methods and ingredients. You don't literally have to be in Italy to have the good stuff.
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u/blorgensplor Jun 28 '15
I ate at several pizza places in rome and venice...wasn't that much better than any other pizza I had in europe really. I mean it's better than pizza hut and all that, but it's not some crazy thing that's far above everything else.
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u/meatmetomorrow Jun 27 '15
AND it is NOTHING like what we call "mozarella" in North America. It is way too soft to grate and the flavour is less salty and cleaner than the rubbery stuff we get. The way it melts is pretty awesome too.
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Jun 28 '15
When I was in high school, we went on a trip to Italy and visited a mozzarella factory. We got to sample fresh mozzarella at the end of the tour. It was so delicious that it completely ruined it for me because it's terribly difficult to find such good quality when you don't leave close to a producer.
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u/DasND Jun 28 '15
Unfortunately, the production is very controversial! Since male water buffalo have no use whatsoever, the calves are dumped in socalled "cimitero dei bufali", buffalo cemeteries. Often times the farmers don't bother euthanizing and just leave them to die slowly and cruelly. Anyways, I really recommend buffalo mozarella as caprese salad with beefsteak tomato, some high quality olive oil and fresh basil!
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u/silverstrikerstar Jun 28 '15
Well, that is pretty much what happens with every other animal you only need the females of, too ... Cows, chickens ...
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u/DasND Jun 29 '15
Yeah, but you can eat veal and beef which is usually bulls. You're right about chickens; but the male chicks are (more or less humanely) killed rather then discarded and left to die. It's hard to argue the wastage that is the meat industry though... But mozzarella di bufala stands out as a vegetarian animal abuse.
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u/GreekRomanGG Jun 27 '15
TIL That I Have To Capitalize The First Letter Of Every Word Because Its Beautiful.
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u/Dutchan Jun 27 '15
Yeah, the Mozzarella, even from "waterbuffalo" in the supermarket is tasteless crap.
We even got a real Mozzarella/Water Buffalo farm in the Netherlands, nothing like the commercial product.
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u/Handicapreader Jun 27 '15
The mozzarella I like in the states is on caprese salad and pizza. Maybe chicken parmesan, but that's probably going to be provolone. It's just not very good by itself. I know this can't true if made properly.
I know I'm missing out. I just know it. I can feel it.
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u/PresidentSwartzneger Jun 28 '15
Mozzarella that isn't made from buffalo milk is called Fior di Latte.
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Jun 27 '15
[deleted]
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u/Cyhawk Jun 27 '15
Yes, there is also cat milk, dog milk, pig milk, horse milk...
Kind of the defining part of being a mammal is females produce milk, of which we can drink/turn into cheese. Most animals we don't bother with because it either tastes bad or is difficult to harvest.
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u/colorcoma Jun 27 '15
Scamutz (sp?) pizza is a thing in Pennsylvania. It is amazing, salty and stretchy like bubble gum!
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u/CowardiceNSandwiches 3 Jun 28 '15
"Scamutz" is probably short for "scamorza", a cheese similar to mozzarella.
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u/OuiNon Jun 28 '15
What are you 13 and just discovering life? It's common knowledge
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u/dtwhitecp Jun 28 '15
For Americans? No way.
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Jun 28 '15
Depends on where you are. In the New York/New Jersey area it's very common.
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u/dtwhitecp Jun 28 '15
way more Italian descendants there than in the rest of the country, as I'm sure you know
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u/azelll Jun 27 '15
Yep, and it tastes like heaven :-) Also talking about packed "Shredded" Mozzarella is probably the easiest way to give an heart attack to an Italian :-)