Pizza Cheese Showdown

For quite some time, I've made pizza with at least two kinds of cheeses: mozzarella and Parmesan.  I've done this for years ... a couple decades, actually.  So, I thought it was about time to examine my old habit.  Time to find out if it is a good habit or just something I did.

This is one of probably many cheese tests.  After all, there are a lot of different kinds of cheeses.  Some I can immediately rule out.  American cheese comes to mind.  I will not put that on a pizza.  There are many others worth trying ... some I can even get here.  Mozzarella, Parmesan, Romano, Cheddar ... maybe even Jack or Colby.

So many combinations ... so many pizzas to make.

In order to test correctly, I made sure to weigh the cheese.  30g of Parmesan for one pizza.  125g of mozzarella for each pizza.

My normal sauce on the pizza that will have both cheeses.  The two-cheese pizza I made round.  When I did the Oatmeal Showdown, I used food coloring to mark each type.  People found that to be strange, so I decided to use shapes this time.

Putting my sauce on the pizza that will just have mozzarella.  This one is square.

Here's a close up of the two-cheese pizza.

Here's a close-up of the mozzarella-only pizza.

The two pizzas after coming out of the oven.  My oven is working well again.  510F (265C) for 12 minutes to get these results.

Test Results

The Primary Test Team devoured the two pizzas.  As usual, they ate the pizza with all the subtlety of a stampeding herd of mastodons.

With only a couple of exceptions, the pizza with both cheese was preferred.

Conclusions

The result wasn't really a surprise.  While the intial taste of the two pizzas is similar, the Parmesan adds a nice sharpness to the aftertaste.  Something that the mozzarella-only pizza completely lacks.

Cheesemaking ... Mozzarella

I love good cheese. Getting it here is difficult, at best. So, I decided to learn how to make cheese myself.

I've made a sour cream-like substance for a while now. But, I wanted to get more serious ... step up to real cheeses. With my discovery of an actual dairy where I could purchase cow's milk that hadn't been destroyed by the ravages of heat, my hopes grew.

Ingredients

• 4 liters cow's milk
• 1-1/2 teaspoons citric acid
• 1/2 rennet tablet
• 3/4 cup water

Procedure

I poured all of the delicious white liquid into my stew pot. Four liters of white gold.


I put it all over a low flame.


While the milk was heating up, I prepared the citric acid. I mixed the 1-1/2 teaspoons of citric acid with 1/2 cup of cold water. I stirred a lot to ensure that it was completely dissolved.


I waited impatiently for the milk to warm up to 90F (32C). I used my nifty space-age infrared thermometer. This thing is perfect for cheesemaking!

90F (32C) is the temperature at which I'll add the rennet. While waiting, I dropped the half rennet tablet into a glass with 1/4 cup of cold water. Again, like the citric acid, I mixed very well.


At 90F (32C) I added the rennet. I stirred well ensuring to stir up-and-down in the pot to get complete coverage.

I heated the batch up to 105F (40C). The recipe said that in three-to-five minutes I'd see curds. It didn't, so I added the other half of the rennet tablet.

That resulted in a pot that was almost completely coagulated. Oops.

I managed to fix the problem. I cut the curds and continue to maintain the heat at 105F (40C). The curds shrunk as they expelled their whey. Saved!



Once I'd cooked down the curds well, I dumped the whole pot through a metal strainer. I took out the curds and put them into a two quart microwave-safe bowl.

As per the recipe's instructions (this is from a book that I have, review coming later), I nuked the curds for a minute. Then, I kneaded the curds ... when they got cool, I nuked again for 30 seconds. Knead, nuke, repeat. Finally, I got to a point that I liked with the consistency.

Let me tell you, kneading hot cheese is not exactly a pleasant task. Ouch! Still, it was worth it.

I rolled up the curds like a ball of bread dough, bringing the edges in under and pushing up from inside.

The result? The lovely picture you see at the top of this post. I'm so proud!

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Tastes good. A little more salt would be nice.

Test Group C: Was confused about the cheese until I explained that it wasn't like Cheddar. It's intended to be melted on a pizza. Commented that the cheese needed more salt.

Test Group J: Unfortunately, they were in Cebu when I made the cheese. So, no feedback here.

Test Group M: "It tastes like mozzarella."

Potential Improvements

More salt. More kneading. Less rennet.

Potential Variations

This was the 30-minute method. It's really more like the Hour-or-Two Method. Still, the results are nice.

I want to try the traditional method for making mozzarella. The kind you see the Italian grandmothers do in delis.

Conclusions

I did it! I made my own mozzarella! I am so pleased.

I ended up using far too much rennet. So, no ricotta from this batch. In the future, I'll get better.

Still, P288 worth of milk (P72 per liter once we include the cost of diesel) made 550 grams of mozzarella. Here, mozzarella comes in 250 gram blocks for P240-to-P250. So, we got P530 worth of good mozz out of P288! If I back off on the rennet, I should get some ricotta, too!

The best thing is, I don't have to worry about when the stores will have the mozzarella in stock. I'm in control.

I like control ...

Good Pizza ... Oh My!

Good pizza. Such a simple pair of words. Pizza itself seems so simple. Just some dough, a little red sauce, and cheese ... in its most basic form. Toppings are nice, but optional. A good cheese pizza is heaven unto itself.

Pizza is a balance of its ingredients: crust, sauce, cheese, toppings. Too much of one and the others suffer. If one is bad, the others cannot make up for it. This makes good pizza hard. And, great pizza near impossible. There are just so many places where one can go wrong.

I've had great pizza. It is amazing. And, surprisingly, it is not some giant pie heaped with toppings and dripping with cheese. It was a well-balanced pie with high-quality toppings, cheese, crust, and sauce. Not too much or too little of any.

As I've written before, many commercial pizza places fall short on one or more of the basic aspects of the pizza. I think it would be better to be mediocre at all four ... rather than good at three and bad at one.

This recipe yields a decent crust. For the amount of effort required, it's pretty good. Still, not great.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2-1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1 cup water
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 60g grated Parmesan cheese
• 250g shredded Mozzarella cheese

Procedure

Preheat your oven ... now! You want it as hot as possible for this. Mine gets up to about 460F (238C).

Mix the yeast, sugar, and water together. Set aside.

The original recipe calls for whisking the dry ingredients together, setting on the counter, making a hole in the middle, then pouring in the yeast-sugar water. Here's where I say ... no!

I put the dry ingredients into my mixer bowl and whisked them a bit by hand to properly disburse the salt. I'm told this aerates the flour, too. Not sure I believe this.

I poured in the olive oil (be sure to use good olive oil ... it makes a difference) and the water mixture. Then, I used the bread hook to mix slowly for a minute or so. I ended up adding an additional 1/2 cup of flour to get the right consistency. The dough should be slightly sticky.

Once mixed, I turned the mixer on medium to knead the dough. I let it knead for 10 minutes. When done, the dough will still be slightly sticky and quite smooth.

I put the dough in another bowl and tossed in about a tablespoon of olive oil. Put a clean kitchen towel over it and let the dough rise for about an hour.

I split the dough into two equal parts. For each, I rolled into a ball using my hands. Then, pat it down into a disk on the counter (with some flour down). To the amazement of my son, I tossed the disks into the air to get to the right size. Never done that before, it was rather fun. Easier than I thought it would be! Harder than those pizza guys make it look.

I used the pizza sauce that I made (and froze). Just put a big dollop in the middle and spread it outwards in a spiral motion using the back of your spoon. You want less sauce on the pie than you think. Too much sauce makes your cheese and toppings fall off. That's no fun!

Finally, I put on the cheese. Notice it's not all that much. It's the combination that makes it good. The bit of Parmesan adds a nice slight bite that I like.

I put these in for 10 minutes each at about 460F (238C). They came out looking amazing. I was shocked.

Pretty easy for a pair of 12-inch pies!

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Loved it. Some even giggled when they got a second slice.

Test Group C: Very good! Bring more whenever you like. Was surprised that it was just a cheese pizza (good surprise, thought it had more on it).

Test Group M: Good!

Potential Improvements

Alton Brown has a crust recipe that involves slow-rising the dough in the fridge for 12-18 hours. This sounds like a very good idea. Let the dough have the time to develop a good flavor.

Potential Variations

With the addition of toppings, there are too many variations to mention.

I think I'll try freezing a crust or even a completed pizza. Let's find out if I can make my own frozen pizza designed for later quick-and-easy resuscitation.

Conclusions

It was so good to eat pizza that tasted good, had a good crust, and used decent cheese. This one is definitely a winner.

That said, there's room for improvement. The crust was present, had tooth, but wasn't great. With practice and probably a different base recipe, I'm sure I can do better.

Still, it was really nice to have my first good pizza in 15 months.

Parmesan Cheese Crackers

I subscribe to a lot of food blogs. I just can't get enough of what people are doing, what they're using, so many cool things going on every day. So, when I saw a post for Natasha's Pac Man Crackers on Tastorama, I knew I had to make some.

She used Cheddar. Very high on my list of loves. But, I didn't have any and didn't feel like dealing with afternoon traffic just to get some. I did, however, have some Parmesan. Oh yes ... some savory crackers were going to get made.

I must apologize for the pictures here. I wasn't paying much attention to the picture taking while making these delicious crackers ... and, sadly, it shows. Still, I like to show step-by-step, so ... here we go:


Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 250 grams grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 4 tablespoons water

Procedure

So, so easy. Preheat your oven to 400F (200C).

Put everything into your mixer. Mix on medium until everything is nicely combined. Put the bowl in your fridge for 20 minutes.


Once chilled, roll out. I rolled out directly onto the parchment I was going to cook on. This worked well given the amount of oil in the dough. Then, I just used a wavy cutter to pre-cut the crackers before cooking.

Cook for 18-22 minutes, depending upon the consistency you like. We tried some that were on the softer side and some on the crunchier side. Both sets were fantastic.

Definitely move to a cooling rack nearly immediately after removing from the oven to help prevent overcook on the bottoms.

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Amazing! Delicious! Make more soon!

Random Test Group: I took it as a good sign when one of the members was clearly trying to keep the bag to himself and not share.

Potential Improvements

I'd love to try this with Parmiggiano-Reggiano. Unfortunately, that is not available here and costs far, far more than the simple bagged Parmesan. Still, I start to almost drool thinking about the flavor!

The rolling-out process was a little awkward. The dough doesn't like to roll out much. I was thinking about trying to roll it out in a pastry machine next time to get a nice, thin, uniform cracker. My only concern is that this might be working the dough too much.


Potential Variations

Tons of variations possible with this recipe. Cheeses, spices, etc. A chili-cheese version with Cheddar, Jack, and chili powder could be very good.

Conclusions

Definite winner! I loved these. The only problem is the expense of the cheese (the two bags of Parmesan cost P410, or about $9.32). So, they're not a daily snack item. Once-in-a-while, oh yeah. Most definitely.

Ham-and-Cheese Bun

The Barbecue Pork Buns that I made were a big hit. So, I decided to build upon success. After all, if Hollywood can release sequel after sequel, so can I!

I'd planned to do cheeseburger and bacon cheeseburger buns. Unfortunately, the local meat shops were out of ground beef and had been for a few days. This is one of the drawbacks of living in the semi-rural Philippines. And, don't get me started on fennel seed ... I spent three hours yesterday looking all around town for that only to find puzzled faces.

So, I decided to make a ham-and-cheese variant of these yummy stuffed buns. The problem was that I couldn't find any good cheese in town for sale. They go in cycles of availability here and I'd run out of my stock from the last cycle.

I tried a few experimental buns with Quickmelt and Kraft "Cheddar" (it's a brand name here, not real Cheddar cheese). Both of these are a notch or two below Velveeta on the cheese-quality scale and definitely count as industrial food.

Both were pretty bad, so I feel back to Cheez Whiz. Yes, Cheez Whiz was the best I had available to me.

Making the Buns

I used the dough from the original recipe. For filling, I chopped up some ham and mixed it with Cheez Whiz and a teaspoon of corn starch to thicken slightly.

I experimented with the sizes of each piece of dough. Last time, one of the testers complained that there wasn't enough bread in the buns. She was right. I'd been rolling the dough rather thin to get it to the right size.


Rather than doing that, this time I increased the amount of dough used. And, rather than relying on skill to roll to a specific thickness, I relied on my kitchen scale. After some experimentation, I ended up using 100 grams per piece of dough. I'd roll it out into 6-inch circles.

Each bun used two pieces of this dough. On the bottom piece, I put a small stack of the ham-and-cheese filling. I left a half-inch all around.

Then, I put the second rolled-out circle on top and sealed the two together by pinching and rolling. When I put the finished bun onto the parchment-lined baking sheet, I turned it over to hide the seam.

Again, 15-20 minutes at 350F (175C). When the bun comes out of the oven, immediately transfer it to a cooling rack and brush the top with melted butter.

Test Results

Primary Test Group: Marasa, very good. Eaten up quickly.

Test Group C: Liked very much. In fact, while we were sitting there talking, we popped open the bun intended for Test Group J and ate it, too.

Test Group M: Still waiting for feedback. Will post when I have it.

Potential Improvements

Better filling. The ham that I was able to buy was more like sandwich meat and not a good ham. And, while Cheez Whiz has better flavor than the other cheese-like products I used, I want better. I'm thinking a medium Cheddar with maybe a little grated Parmesan.

Since better ham isn't available locally, I'm probably going to have to learn to make it. I'm hoping I can get away with a wet method as I don't have a smoke house. Although, this is a nice excuse to build one!

If not ham, Canadian Bacon. Like ham, but made from the loin rather than a hind leg.

I'd really love a honey-baked-like ham. That would just be great.

Conclusions

As I said in the first post, this bread seems bullet-proof. The range of fillings that can go into it are nearly infinite. Going to have fun trying combinations.