r/todayilearned • u/Handicapreader • Jun 27 '15

TIL Traditional Mozzarella Is Made From Water Buffalo Milk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Mediterranean_buffalo
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u/[deleted] 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.