Author Topic: Where Can I buy some old fashioned, stringy Mozzarella cheese??  (Read 9746 times)

tbs

  • Guest
Where Can I buy some old fashioned, stringy Mozzarella cheese??
« on: September 09, 2010, 10:10:16 PM »
If anyone has a source for good old fashioned cheese, please share it with me. 

So far I have exhausted all my resources in Alberta and now I have to extend my search.  Yeah.. I feel the same too.  Living in cow country and can't find good cheese anymore.

I am looking for the kind of mozzarella that used to stretch arm length and still will not let go your pizza.  The ones they have these days look like candle wax when melted and it tastes even worst. 

I am looking for the kind of feta cheese that bytes back when you byte into it. 

Have the companies changed the way they make the cheese or have they left our certain ingredients??

Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks

Sailor Con Queso

  • Guest
Re: Where Can I buy some old fashioned, stringy Mozzarella cheese??
« Reply #1 on: September 10, 2010, 01:35:27 AM »
Why not make your own?

tbs

  • Guest
Re: Where Can I buy some old fashioned, stringy Mozzarella cheese??
« Reply #2 on: September 10, 2010, 03:43:19 AM »
Why not make your own?
I wish I knew how.  I don't have the time or resources to make it and that is why I want to buy it from those who know how it should be done.  I am an end user when it comes to cheese but it has not been the same for last 10 years or so.  What did they change in the ingredients or is not being pasteurized long enough??

I was working at a pizza parlor in Kelowna back in 92 when a shady business character came in once and asked us if we wanted to save up to 45% on our cheese cost.  He showed us this cheese substitute that was made of wax but looks like mozzarella and by mixing that with the real mozzarella, we used up a lot less real mozzarella. 

 The cheese today looks like that stuff when its melted.  Its not stretchy, its not white and its not good tasting.
I am looking for the old cheese.  If you think you can make that, I am willing to pay for it.

Thanks

JMB

  • Guest
Re: Where Can I buy some old fashioned, stringy Mozzarella cheese??
« Reply #3 on: September 10, 2010, 08:17:02 PM »
Check out cravecheese.com  Crave Brothers Farmstead in Wisconsin
It's an award winning farmstead cheesemaker specializing in mozzerella here in Wisconsin.  I am not connected to them in any way other than eating their cheese which is wonderful.  Maybe you can find the real stuff there.  I love it.
JMB 

tbs

  • Guest
Re: Where Can I buy some old fashioned, stringy Mozzarella cheese??
« Reply #4 on: September 17, 2010, 06:51:42 PM »
Thanks for your input guys.  It looks like my prayers have been answered.  I walked into a safeway on Tuesday and saw a new Kraft Super Stretchy Mozzarella cheese.  I bought some and we tried it and it was good.  I will be using those from now on. :D O0

Cheese Head

  • Guest
Re: Where Can I buy some old fashioned, stringy Mozzarella cheese??
« Reply #5 on: September 18, 2010, 02:37:40 AM »
tbs, don't know where you are in Alberta, but the pictures below are from Eastern Mediterranean (Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Greek, Romania) store here in Houston, if you look for similar in Calgary or Edmonton you will find same, maybe it what you are looking for.

iratherfly

  • Guest
Re: Where Can I buy some old fashioned, stringy Mozzarella cheese??
« Reply #6 on: November 07, 2010, 05:13:39 AM »
There are quite a few small artisanal mozzarella makers. I live in New York City and there are 3 in walking distance from my house! They make quality cheese and may also have more control over the specific cheese characteristics if you ask them for it. I don't know if it makes sense for you to get cheese from the US, but if it does, use Murray's Cheese (http://www.murrayscheese.com/) or Artisanal (http://www.artisanalcheese.com/). If this is for a business, give Jason at Murray's a call and he will hook you up with the best Mozzarella you can ever dream of.  They even have fresh Mozzarella flown from Italy!  Formaggio Kitchen is also another good source - they specialize in genuine Italian artisanal cheese import and sale (http://formaggioessex.com/artisan).

I suspect as for your grand question of "what happened to the Mozzarella I knew and loved" the answer is in economics. There are two common ways to create Mozzarella. The first is the classic one, acidifying fresh milk patiently with natural cultures until it's right and then coagulating it, cutting the curd, heating the curd pieces up and when they begin to melt, kneading them skillfully and braiding them, or turning them into a ball or tiny bocconcini.
The other method is quick acidification. Usually done by using citric acid or acetic acid (plain vinegar). That affects the flavor of the cheese as well as the meltability and "bite" of it because the melting character of cheese is direct result of how much acid is in the cheese. This makes an expensive 2 hour process into a cheap 5 minute process and it is obviously the favorite of many industrialists. Having the cheese stretched and kneaded by industrial machine contributes to poor texture control.  Also, the larger the factory, the worst milk quality goes into it. You have a mix of milk from cows of different regions that are fed junk food and injected with hormones and over-milked - you will get flavorless milk that seriously lacks in enzymes and minerals which are the basics of texture, flavor, stability and process in cheese making. Such milk is so poor that it typically must go through violent pasteurization -also to enable it to go through long term storage and cross country trucking (forget fresh!).  Such is the story of industrial food.

I say, go to cheese stores, get genuine artisanal cheese from small quality farmstead producers. Sure, the price will be higher, but you can tell why when you eat it. It will take you back 100 years to the real honest food you have been looking for. Worth the premium in my opinion.