Pizza cheese is a specific cheese designed to melt well on pizza while remaining chewy. It is commonly used on commercially produced pizzas in the United States of America where it is often mistaken for Mozzarella cheese. Pizza cheese is formulated so that it can be made with basic cheesemaking equipment but without the additional equipment and processing that true mozzarella requires.
Cheese is a solid food made from the curdled milk of various animals—most commonly cows but sometimes goats, sheep, reindeer, and water buffalo. There are hundreds of types of cheese. Rennet is often used to induce coagulation in the milk, although some cheeses are curdled with acids like vinegar or lemon juice or with extracts of various species of Cynara (sometimes called vegetable rennet). Rennet is an enzyme traditionally obtained from the stomach lining of bovine calves or a microbiological (laboratory-produced) substitute is used. Bacteria are added to cheese to reduce the pH, alter texture, and develop flavor, and some cheeses also have molds, either on the outer skin or throughout.
The natural colour of cheeses range from off-white to yellow. In some parts of the world, such as Wisconsin in the United States, the milk fat is low in beta-carotene, making the cheese a paler yellow than normal. In this case, it is common to add annatto plant dye as a coloring agent. Some cheeses are made with the addition of herbs and spices.
As a response to the loss of diversity in mass-produced cheeses, a cottage industry has grown up around home cheesemaking in some locations. In many European countries this has historically been the normal means of cheesemaking.
Different styles and flavors of cheese are the results of using different species of bacteria and molds, different levels of milk fat, variations in length of aging, differing processing treatments (cheddaring, pulling, brining, mold wash) and different breeds of cows, sheep, or other mammals. Other factors include milk, animal diet, and the addition of herbs and spices to some cheeses.
Some controversy exists regarding the safety of cheese made by the traditional methods of using unpasteurized milk and regarding how pasteurization affects flavor.
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| Culinary historians
credit the Greeks for developing bread baking into an art. Proper
front-loaded bread ovens originated in Ancient Greece. The
Greeks created a wide variety of doughs, loaf shapes and styles
of serving bread with other foods. Baking developed as a trade and
profession as bread increasingly was prepared outside of the family
home by specially trained workers to be sold to the public.
The pizza delivery process begins when a customer calls
the pizzeria and specifies the number of pizzas, their sizes, toppings,
and any other items desired. The customer must provide
an address, to which the delivery person must bring the pizza. Most
pizzerias also require the customer to provide a telephone number,
in order to prevent fraudulent orders. |