Making Homemade Pizza Cheese (2 Ways)

[@CharlieAndersonCooking]

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[@jameshenderson8615]

As someone whose made cheese at home for pizza before, a couple things i noticed you're doing that might be tripping you up. Make sure to use milk that is not only low temp pasturized but also non homiginized, ie cream top milk. Also, just like pizza dough its a good idea to let gravity do most of the work when stretching the curd. If it wont stretch with just gravity then the curd isnt hot enough.

[@CharlieAndersonCooking]

I appreciate the tips! I’ve since tried non homogenized milk and it does seem to make a difference. I’ll have to try the gravity stretching method.

[@jameshenderson8615]

Love your pizza making journey. I've been on a similar path myself and love your videos.@@CharlieAndersonCooking

[@justus1995]

this takes a pizza "deep dive" to a whole new level. Would definitely watch a couple episodes about your mozzarella, or maybe even wisconsin brick for all us euro-folks who can't get that locally

[@promstar]

This guy will end up making his own pizza oven one day! Love the commitment and passion!

[@johnbarthalameuwhaler]

I’m fairly certain that low moisture mozz is typically chemically treated to remove moisture, which is also why it tends to be more acidic/less “milky”. Might be something worth looking into for next to to get it more similar to block low moisture.

[@CharlieAndersonCooking]

Interesting, yeah I’ll have to see if I can find any more info about how it’s made!

[@edwardrosser938]

Would love to see a cheese making series

[@brodouevnlyft]

Because you're using pasteurized milk, you'll need to add somewhere around 1/4 tsp. of calcium chloride per gallon of milk to aid coagulation. You might also need to lower the amount of citric acid since the addition of calcium chloride decreases the pH slightly, and going too acidic prevents the curd from stretching.

[@joeycovers406]

Wow, we’re going to the next level here.

[@sandhill9313]

CA, you keep complicating my life. The introduction of Alta Cucina tomatoes was a big boost in terms of bang for the buck, obviously a thanks due there. I have made hundreds of pies in my 60 year old 500 degree electric oven, my gurus including Beddia, Forkish, Vito etc, and every one of the dozens of best crusts have been those taught by you, here on YT and even better in you paid course, so of course again thanks there. Now I am not going to be satisfied till I am making my own cheese! You are some sort of a demon, thanks again 😅

[@CharlieAndersonCooking]

Thank you, that means a lot! I’m really glad you’ve found the content helpful!

[@aaron101889]

Instead of adding heat and squeezing your cheese, you should try salting it with kosher salt, and having a fan blow on it for a bit while it sits in the strainer over the pot. I THINK that the overheating/working is making the proteins stiffen up which results in the graininess and lack of melting. Hopefully some airflow would speed up the drying process without the need for more heat or agitation. The salt should help draw water to the surface as well, especially if it's a bigger size, like kosher salt. You should know the process is done based on the weight of the finished product

[@yomi001]

I love all the experiments. Very informative. Nice work!

[@kilikopela83]

Yes to further cheese investigation!

[@joelrsteele]

One day Charlie is gonna breed a set of calves to start his own milk farm to make his own cheese to make his own pizza and make a video series about the whole thing. And we will all watch every minute of it. Don't get me started on the future wheat & tomato farming series.

[@Elon_Trump]

this channel deserves 2 million subscribers

[@AWWx2]

I love following your journey into making home-made pizza. I've been a subscriber for over a year now and I love how brave and adventurous and inquisitive you always are about all aspects of pizza. I am so glad I subscribed. Are you planning any more collaborative videos? I think there's probably a lot of home pizza chefs and Italian chef channels that would love to work with you.

[@clashwithkeen]

Bro please make a full series. Your dough series changed my life and I have a feeling a dried mozzarella series would too!

[@Luuk8320]

It changed your life?

[@clashwithkeen]

@@Luuk8320 don't underestimate my love for pizza

[@Luuk8320]

@@clashwithkeen fair enough

[@marietailor3100]

2 Things: 1. The reason you wouldn’t want to salt your fresh mozzarella curds is the very same reason you would want to salt the low moisture ones - letting something sit with salt removes moisture. 2. I would recommend pressing your low-moisture mozzarella in a cheese cloth with maybe a book or something (there are also cheese presses). That allows you to not overwork the curds but still ultimately remove moisture effectively. That said, because it’s mozzarella, I wouldn’t do it for too long.

[@CharlieAndersonCooking]

Thanks for the tips! I’ll definitely give the press method a try.

[@brentonwalters]

@@CharlieAndersonCooking I found just hanging it in cheese cloth and letting its own weight work on it was effective.

[@andrzejskrabania9565]

Hey Charlie, Moisture from "Low-moisture" mozzarella is removed mostly chemically (which also affects taste) and physically, not just physically by squeezing.

[@BigSnipp]

I didn't know I needed this. Thanks, Charlie!

[@chrissandoval7675]

would recommend adding calcium chloride when using pasteurized milk. wringing the cheese out with a cheese cloth would be easier, though the i was surprised by how well the strainer worked. aging/smoking could be fun things to play with as well.

[@jameshuitt1420]

I make cheese at home. I would love to watch your deep dive. I have the same issues as you do sometimes. I find in the winter it comes out better. In the summer it comes out like how yours was.

[@danielcoffman9276]

Charlie, full send it dude! Do a homemade mozzerella series!!!! Be the hero we need.....

[@CharlieAndersonCooking]

I might have to…

[@danielcoffman9276]

@@CharlieAndersonCooking You're my hero......

[@divyanshgupta6795]

Love to see you perfect the recipe

[@lazy_dad]

great work! i would love to see more cheese making vids. greets from canada!

[@thedagit]

The thing you mention at the end about the price of milk vs store bought cheese was one of the big reasons I stopped making my own cheese. I found I was spending a lot more and it kind of annoyed me.

[@ratherbeboating10]

Awesome video! I've been doing mozzarella for a while now. I did it from total scratch for a bit but it just costs a lot and is fairly time consuming for how much you get, as you said. I now just buy 20-40lbs of curd from the restaurant supply house. If I am being honest, it's nearly the same cost if you use a quality curd but you get an order of magnitude more cheese. The big thing I always did was I keep the curd cold, use boiling and salted water to just barely cover the curds and then gravity stretch/fold into a nice ball. The cold curd flash cools the water to about 140 instantly. Let it rest and it'll start to coagulate. Once it gets there, get your hands in the bowl and stretch and fold. At this point the curds and water reached equilibrium around 120 degrees. I no longer buy "fresh" mozzarella from my local Italian deli. (They do make it in house) Coincidentally neither do my friends or family. When I go and do it they all chip in coin for it. Guess it doesn't suck. 😂 For the record, 1.5lbs of the in house fresh made mozzarella runs ~$20 around here at the local places. Smoked typically a bit more. If you need a lot of it... or are a cheeseoholic like my entire family, it is totally worth it.

[@skyem5250]

You clipped a bit of Ragusea's video on pizza cheese but didn't learn from it. Low moisture mozzarella is made by chemically removing the moisture, not squeezing the curds

[@SergioHernandez-le8wp]

Instead of adding some salt here and there and using cold water to cool the cheese, try cooling the cheese in a salt brine. That should take care of both jobs for you at once

[@Thee_Sinner]

Yo Charlie, look up some videos from Gavin Webber, if you havent already. Hes been making videos on cheese for over a decade.

[@justus1995]

G'Day Curd Nerd. I wonder how many people started following him after searching for allegedly hundreds of pissed off italians in the comments

[@nickpatella1525]

Ah, maybe check the video on Cheese by Ethan Chlebowski too. He described some of the things that can make cheese melty or not.

[@Dr.M.VincentCurley]

I haven't made cheese, but I've made Yogurt and I think one of the reasons why WHOLE MILK mozzerella is so hard to find is because its just easier to make a low moisture pizza cheese with it. Also, it takes some time in the fridge for the curds to dry out a little bit. Besides, you went through several different brands of tomatoes before you found the ones that worked out to be your favorite. With any store bought milk, they will put emulsifiers in it and anything else that would increase the shelf life and the cosmetic appearance. The stuff you used never was meant to be used for cheese. I'll be interested in watching you in your next journey.

[@nicholaslesage6896]

Low moisture mozzarella is generally more acidic and dried chemically (by letting the milk curds ferment longer or adding vineger) or dried in a controlled environment. Your final mozzarella attempt (fresh, low moisture) looks similar to what many old school New York coal fired pizzeria's (Lombardi's, Totonno's, Grimaldi's, etc.) use. It's a low moisture fresh mozzarella called a "dry loaf" or "caprese loaf" that was specifically designed for use on pizzas. It's usually sliced and placed down before the sauce. Aiello (now closed I believe), Lioni, and Losurdo are some notable cheese companies that produce this type of product. Grande even came out with their own version of it a couple of years ago called "avorio." It's less common than the whole-milk, low moisture mozzarella and fresh mozzarella. You'll almost never see it sold at regular grocery stores. It's more of a northeast thing. They literally make it the same way you experimented with, it's just fresh mozzarella that they squeeze more of the whey out of and then put into a mold (funny that you hypothesized you should use a cheese mold). Also, your desire for more salt is consistent with many mozzarella blind taste tests. It's one reason many pizzeria operators prefer grande. Not only does it melt better, but it's saltier flavor goes good with sweet tomato sauce. Take all this information with a grain of salt, I'm no pizza expert, just a internet and home pizza chef nerd.

[@GhostyGuy_]

Seeing this title made me crack a good laugh out, you Pizza MADMAN!

[@Dina_tankar_mina_ord]

I have allways wondered if the process of stretching could be done with a spiral mixer if you can maintain the heat it should be sort of the same thing? oh and a tip. use dobble plastic gloves when kneeding/stretching the cheese. your hands will thank you. and thank you for this video.

[@rileywolfe2387]

Maybe it’s sacrilege to say- but the $2.80 cheese that I use is awesome and produces pizza closer to the kind I’m trying to imitate than the $6, 8oz blocks at the fancy grocer near me. I also am very interested in making my own cheese for the sake of consistency and because I think the kids in my life would like to make the cheese for the pizzas we make… but other than that I’m happy with the cheepo blocks from the discount grocers. Still, I hope you continue the cheese series. Your pizza recipe was game changing for me (I make it most weeks and entertained friends with 4 pizzas last night- THANK YOU!). As soon as you make something that you seem proud of I will definitely give it a try.

[@guillermosanchezdionis9475]

Charlie! Big fan of your channel. If you could also share measures in the metric system in your videos, that would be amazing!

[@SarahBanks-pq4xz]

I’m going to test out the milk and vinegar method. I’m learning simple and less is better especially in Italian cooking.

[@jacobmartin4473]

Ngl your pizza series and hopefully mozzarella cheese series is something i have been wanting to do for a year or so now. Moving off Long Island sucks cause you lose hood pizza and i definitely took it for granted. I cant wait to try some of what i learned out!

[@paul_j_b]

Stellar video, and gives me some hope in the UK where low moisture mozzarella is literally impossible to buy (at least, in anything smaller than a 5kg block). One thing that occurred to me when you were discussing the different types of mozzarella you've encountered (fresh, low-moisture, aged, etc.) is that the signature pizza at Pizza Studio Tamaki (for my money the best pizza in Japan, especially since Seirinkan shut up shop) uses "fresh smoked mozzarella" - is this something you've seen before? I know that there's such a thing as scamorza affumicato, but I'm relatively certain that's not what's being used, given that scamorza doesn't really spread all that much when heated, whereas the toppings on PST's pizza are quite diffuse. Anyway, would be very curious to hear your input.

[@salilgupte4507]

Really interesting. For those living in parts of the world where good pizza cheese is less available...this is really helpful. Milk is pretty inexpensive in India relative to the U.S., for example...and good pizza cheese is available in big cities but not everywhere. But for those in the US or Europe where unhomogenized whole milk is expensive...is there much value in making the cheese at home?

[@gautam-narula]

I recently tried a pizza with smoked mozzarella for the first time and it was amazing. Haven’t tried smoking it at home yet, but that might be an interesting follow up to making your own mozz!

[@OinkMasterFlex]

Have u tried making the 2nd version that was too moist but try squeezing sum water out in a cheese cloth after its cooled, then let rest for a little bit?

[@rickrische557]

I'm looking forward to your next level pizza series where you raise your own milk cow and grow your own wheat and tomatoes.

[@CharlieAndersonCooking]

😂

[@PigsDream]

Great Job Natalie!

[@anthonyvink7153]

I’ve tried cheese making in the past. Very similar to your video, just a small ball. But my fresh mozzarella maker stopped making cheese last year and I’ve been tempted to make my own for my food truck (pizza obviously). I buy a whole milk low moisture mozzarella from a local dairy and cheese maker but they don’t do fresh. And I can’t just buy curd like the places in the NE of USA that say they make mozzarella.

[@jamkpa]

You are very good at what you do!

[@zay-lias]

As a cheese making expert I’d like to say that you made some cheese that’s cheesy. My credentials are I eat cheese btw

[@AFreeThinker999]

we don't have low moisture mozz in europe so would 100% love an investigation into what it actually is and how to make! Im sure it cant be more economical than the brands but Im so curious as to how its actually done. Would make a great and unique video series.

[@user-ey9bt7fs6n]

Love the pizza series. Have you ever attempted a Grandma Pizza

[@GhostyOcean]

Do you not remember in the Adam Ragusea video you referenced he said low moisture cheese isn't physically squeezing out the water. Instead they use chemicals like acid to push the water out of the cheese.

[@XanderL]

Overheating the curds and thinking you could get away with it reminds me of the first time I thought I could make beef stew faster by turning up the heat. I spent hours chewing that beef. 😂

[@AbdulKhan-ul7th]

Would be great to see a homemade parmesan at some point!

[@libbygatling-lee2780]

@CharlieAnderaonCooking Adding salt directly to the curd itself gave me a mozzarella with a slightly different texture but same flavor as the store bought stuff…

[@CharlieAndersonCooking]

Interesting, yeah the salting aspect is something I need to play around with some more

[@MetsuNoShin]

It’s interesting for me, we legit don’t have low moisture mozzarella in Germany. I wanna see more. Wish I could just buy a block like u can.

[@sleepyhead7391]

This is awesome! I'll definitely be trying this. What are your thoughts on using lactose free milk? I'm sure my friends and family would appreciate if I switched to lactose free cheese 😂

[@Jamespetersenwa]

Quart is short for Quarter, i.e. 1/4th, i.e. exactly half a gallon. Rennet is originally from animal intestines so I bet the temperature is set because that's the rough temperature inside a mammals body. I'm just speculating though.

[@georgepagakis9854]

The only reason one would go through the trouble of making their own mozzarella is to avoid all that salt. I don't know about you but I rather add a bit of salt to the pizza when baking if it needs more then having to bear with all that salt we are used to in a pizza. I don't use mozzarella anymore because I hate the taste, because in reality its mostly salt and it splits fast in an oven. I use Gruyere. Tastes way better and you have more tolerance in the cheese splitting when you cook it at high heat. The French use it as their preferred Cheese to melt in an oven.

[@quichenovel]

This man is going to be growing his own grain soon.

[@MakeKasprzak]

New Charlie video, can't click fast enough!

[@ginismoja2459]

You should start using proper measurements, like grams and litres.

[@Usep555]

I'm not sure where but I believe I saw a video somewhere once where they made "pizza cheese/low moisture mozzarella" by basically making fresh mozzarella and once it was finished they cut the cheese up again and redid the steps of dipping into the hot liked and stretching for a second time.

[@Usep555]

I found the video: It's from My Name is Andong "Why I never make Neapolitan Pizza at Home" . He heats the fresh mozzarella in a non stick pan and folds it with a spatula.

[@D2BII]

I can't wait until my man Charlie starts growing his own strains of wheat. 😭

[@Swagnoor19]

MORE CHEESE!!

[@troutjunkie7330]

Charlie. Any chance for you trying the new 800 degree electric pizza oven GraniteStone Piezano. Looks different. New on the market so no reviews from pizza dudes.

[@CharlieAndersonCooking]

I may have to give it a try soon!

[@MrVrijheid75]

Bro what happened to your covered call channel? I saw some of your vids and have seen multiple others on the wheel.. you were the only one with legit info on the flaws on the wheel. U really seem to know what u talking about on investing. I was quite impressed. U still do the CC strtagey?

[@iancoolidge899]

In the end we all want to expect you to somehow pull off a better mozzarella cheese in a home kitchen that we can do at home. This sorta shows us we can't reasonably do this. However, I'm still interested to see if you can pull off something that is better than store bought - but is impractical. Surely store bought mozzarella is lacking somehow. What about a local mozzarella farm?

[@mattbarnes4346]

Love your vids taking this eliministic, scientific approach to things. Awesome experience, but seems like the juice isn't worth the squeeze on DIY cheese. That is, unless you unlock some serious differentiators in taste for easy effort. Just doesn't seem readily available with little to no effort. Sometimes "best" is more work than it's worth to get to enjoy. Keep up the good work; I've learned a lot from going through your videos. Keep up the excellent work!

[@TrashRat45]

Save the whey! You can make ricotta!

[@chrissolar2543]

Cheese is just a loaf of milk

[@qapla]

Nice Mozzarella making video. Since you used 1/2 gallon, which is 8 cups, have you thought of trying 7 cups of "whole milk" and 1 cup of heavy whipping cream. I was raised having cows and raw milk. The "whole milk" sold in the store does not have the amount of cream "real whole milk" has.

[@CharlieAndersonCooking]

Yeah that’s what I’ve heard too, that’s a good idea. I’ve since tried with non homogenized milk too and I think it turned out better, but not everyone may be able to find that.

[@usernamelastname7741]

Hope you make a Neapolitan pizza tutorial :D

[@davidhalldurham]

Hey, Charlie! I have that same book and it's an excellent introduction to making cheese. Cheese-making is a hobby that will last your whole life. I hope you keep exploring.

[@gregorykarimian3813]

make a new haven style pizza next

[@epitome99]

Please do a deep dive on gluten free pizza!

[@rcg3496]

Bring on the cheese 😊

[@johnchafin3817]

I think I am going to have to stop watching this channel.... Every video seems to make me want to make even more pizzas.... DOH!

[@gregorykarimian3813]

make Neapolitan pizza next

[@gemofamara92]

This might be kind of a crackpot theory, but just using evaporated milk might produce more of a low moisture mozzarella?

[@jeffreyfreeborn6879]

SECRET on baking NEAPOLITAN style pizza at home shared on brief moment 9:28-9:38 You should MAKE A SEPARATE VIDEO on that specific subject!!! @CharlieAndersonCooking How in the hell you made your crust rise almost as much as those woodfire pizza places do?

[@clintmclaughlin2152]

I would think lactic acid would be the choice.

[@Becauseimme]

Better Place by Spring Gang??

[@connor1910]

this guy looks like mccauley culkin if the bad things didn’t happen

[@kellycarroll6829]

🧀💚

[@science2726]

Mascarpone not marscapone

[@phillipcarroll6625]

Are you only making pizza videos now?

[@finnafishfl]

He's also making cheese, and bagles, just this month!

[@altapp702]

You are overheating... Watch ''glen and friends'' make cheese curds... He is meticulous with temp. control. Good luck.

[@archivis]

:0

[@Saaaten]

why are your eyes purple

[@animeexpresscon]

Charlie, been watching a few of your videos as well as others and I was literally just about to try to make my own low moisture mozzarella. I agree that cheese making is incredibly hard to decipher from the outside as everyone has their own recipes and there's not much in the way of a standard, especially for making low moisture mozzarella. That being said, my plan was to cut the curds small as you did, but then NOT stretch the mozzarella. Instead, my plan was to press out the curds and press down into a mold. Based on the issues you had with fat content at the end, I think you should weigh the curds and when you get down to a target weight, stop squeezing whey out. In my research, it said normal mozzarella would be an 8 to 1 ratio, i e for every 8 ounces of milk, it would produce 1 ounce cheese. Your method resulted in a 9 to 1, which MAy indicate that you did indeed over squeeze it losing too much fat in the process. Super curious to see if you spend more time on this. I'll be giving it a go soon either way.