this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2025
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In my experience it doesn't brown right. It just melts. No cispy golden anything. And it doesn't pull. It's slides.
If it's pre-shredded, the anti-caking additive may be the problem. It's typically coated in moisture absorbing cellulose. When it melts that causes the problem you describe. Using higher moisture can overcome that somewhat, but shredding your own will come out better and it only takes a couple of minutes.
In my area low moisture chunk mozz is as cheap or cheaper than pre-shreds (~$3.75 per lb) and it won't do this.
Galbani "Italian style" whole milk "classic melt & stretch" is my favorite for pizza. Nicer flavor and texture than the cheaper options. It's $5 per lb but regularly goes on sale for less.
I buy the block and shred my own.
Interesting. I read a paper one time on the salting step, stretching/pulling the curd, and the proportions of skim milk content (in part skim cheese), as well as handling after production having some impacts on this. It's why I hunt out my one favorite cheese that always behaves like I expect.
On the left of skim milk low moisture. Edges are burnt but center has no browning. On the right is higher moisture. Even browning with no burnt edges.
And by high moisture I mean in comparison to the cheddar like block of low moisture. Not the stuff swimming on juice.
Makes sense. The one on the left is probably particularly crap. Higher salt content, more skim milk % than better quality part-skim cheeses.
Like you said, you can get a lot of info from the feel. I think those cheaper cheeses really over salt early, and work the curds harder to expell as much whey as possible to get the cheapest product and longest shelf life. And they feel rock hard.
There is a store near me with a house brand LMPS mozz that has the opposite problem. It feels soft, but it doesn't have the right pulled texture of real mozz. So it melts, but kinda in a puddle, and it breaks well before it browns.
The one on the right doesn't say low moisture, but I think based on the nutritional information it would still be that. It's the same calories/gram, fat, protein and salt as the 2 brands I use, and they are both marked low moisture. Maybe Walmart figures they've given low moisture cheese a bad reputation so they don't want to call it out on the whole milk cheese package.