It’s chilling how much changed in the last decade and then then from two decades ago.
It’s too nice, you can’t be mean anymore and it’s no longer to the point. Eternal summer forever. But pre 2010 comments really are before smartphones took over.
Reading this, I thought some madman was milking a Cape water buffalo, which have been known to beat lions in 1-v-1 fights, and is only capable of one emotion: murder.
But turns out this milk is from the Asian water buffalo, which is even bigger than the African kind, but can be domesticated.
I was surprised to find that there is an Italian Mediterranean buffalo species/breed [1] that is thought to be descended from an altogether distinct lineage that went extinct around the last ice age [2].
Not to rain on your buffalo vs lion parade, but the Cape buffalo is a sub-species of the African buffalo, not the water buffalo. There's no such thing as a Cape water buffalo.
"Italian" (and Egyptian) water buffaloes are not really bigger than regular cows. They are said to have come to the Middle East then to Italy through gifts from the Arabs or by Crusaders I believe.
I saw an Asian water buffalo almost gore Scott Stokely in Cambodia. Fortunately it was on a short rope and when it’s farmer mama came out and slapped it, it calmed down. The thing was probably 3 tons!
I make pizza at home in an outdoor pizza oven (gozney dome). My recipe cooks at about 850F. All forms (skim or otherwise) of cow mozzarella scorch fiercely at that temperature before the crust is done. Buffalo mozzarella does not. Some of my local markets carry Buf brand buffalo mozz, which is not from italy but is from the same animal (I think).
The buf mozz is the thing that takes my homemade pizza from "meh" to "actually, this is pretty good". I'm working on getting it to "wow, this is great" but that will require further refinement of my crust technique, I think.
which means you can throw in a pizza when you've finished at the kiln for a day and pull it out ready a minute or so later (depending on when you start the temp. step down cycle, current annealing oven temp. etc.)
It depends on the style. The super-hot (~900°F) brick ovens are primarily used for Neapolitan-style pizzas (thin crust, light toppings), which cook in as little as a minute. A denser pizza like a Chicago-style deep dish couldn't be cooked in that sort of oven.
I cook in a Gozney as well and the things that have made the biggest difference for me are a slow-rise dough (I've found that the really high-hydration recipes didn't make a huge difference for me and made the dough way more difficult to handle, so I haven't been doing that) and putting the sauce on hot (I keep it at a low simmer on the stove and dress directly from there). Shaving some parm over the whole thing with a microplane and adding a quick drizzle of olive oil right before popping it in also makes a big difference (I crank the oven to around 900F and my pizzas usually cook in ~75 seconds).
Ken Forkish's _The Elements of Pizza_ is a great resource though it's more focused on standard home oven cooking. His slow-rise recipe is roughly:
350g water (at ~95F), 13g salt, 1.5g instant dry yeast, 500g white flour (I use Caputo 00), mix the first three and let the yeast hydrate, then mix in the flour, rest 20 minutes, knead briefly until smooth, two hour room-temp rise in an oiled tub, shape into balls, then fridge rise (until either the next day or the day after, but best the next day). I do it with 310g of water to get a 60% hydration dough which is my preference.
I had a salad with buffalo mozzarella once and it was awful. Made me think the restaurant had an anti-vegetarian agenda (which probably is true, considering I'm in Belgium).
I'll give that a try, thanks! I'm currently doing a 10h room temp ferment (from 1/4t of yeast) and a 48h fridge rest. I think I got that from kenji alt. I'm satisfied with some of it, but I wish the crust was a bit more chewy and able to stand up to the sauce. The slices all flop over, but that may also be from over-saucing.
Not only are the protein ratios different in the Buffalo milk, but the fat content is radically different (buffalo 7-9% cow 3-4% jersey 5%). It's hard to even call anything but Jersey Mozzarella the same cheese.
And of course the much harder american "mozzarella" stuff thrown on most pizzas is something entirely different.
> And of course the much harder american "mozzarella" stuff thrown on most pizzas is something entirely different.
Not really! It's essentially the same cheese, but instead of put fresh into brine the stretched curds have the water pressed out and then they're aged.
Amul in India has "milk" (unspecified cow and buffalo milk ratio) Mozz as well as buffalo, which is marketed as more premium. Didnt know the Italians set the precedent. IME both are untangy.
Their copy: "The cheese is made out of pure buffalo milk, which makes the melted cheese creamier and whiter in appearance.When heated the product develops stretching property and melts uniformly on the food surface."
Hah, timely. Apparently there is a current (or at least I only encountered it recently) marketing trend in (at least) Germany and the USA of calling cow mozzarella "Fior di latte", to make it out as something special, when all it means is that it’s the slightly cheaper Mozzarella made from cow’s milk instead of buffalo’s, and is what the vast majority of Mozzarella is made out of in both countries.
Buffalo mozzarella is actually a trap on pizza. It contains more water and it tends to dampen the dough as it melts. Fiordilatte or Treccia are actually better, even though they're cheaper.
Readit News
It’s chilling how much changed in the last decade and then then from two decades ago.
It’s too nice, you can’t be mean anymore and it’s no longer to the point. Eternal summer forever. But pre 2010 comments really are before smartphones took over.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffal...
Dead Comment
But turns out this milk is from the Asian water buffalo, which is even bigger than the African kind, but can be domesticated.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Mediterranean_buffalo
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubalus_murrensis
Kinda like that killer bee honey thing.
Deleted Comment
Dead Comment
The buf mozz is the thing that takes my homemade pizza from "meh" to "actually, this is pretty good". I'm working on getting it to "wow, this is great" but that will require further refinement of my crust technique, I think.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annealing_(glass)
which means you can throw in a pizza when you've finished at the kiln for a day and pull it out ready a minute or so later (depending on when you start the temp. step down cycle, current annealing oven temp. etc.)
Ken Forkish's _The Elements of Pizza_ is a great resource though it's more focused on standard home oven cooking. His slow-rise recipe is roughly: 350g water (at ~95F), 13g salt, 1.5g instant dry yeast, 500g white flour (I use Caputo 00), mix the first three and let the yeast hydrate, then mix in the flour, rest 20 minutes, knead briefly until smooth, two hour room-temp rise in an oiled tub, shape into balls, then fridge rise (until either the next day or the day after, but best the next day). I do it with 310g of water to get a 60% hydration dough which is my preference.
Anything you’re going to cook at high temperatures, use cow mozzarella. Pizzas, casseroles, sauces etc.
(Also I’m amazed that buffalo mozzarella isn’t that known, I thought that’s what mozzarella was supposed to be).
https://web.archive.org/web/20250715171604/http://itscheese....
https://archive.is/3cJcu
And of course the much harder american "mozzarella" stuff thrown on most pizzas is something entirely different.
Not really! It's essentially the same cheese, but instead of put fresh into brine the stretched curds have the water pressed out and then they're aged.
Their copy: "The cheese is made out of pure buffalo milk, which makes the melted cheese creamier and whiter in appearance.When heated the product develops stretching property and melts uniformly on the food surface."
Same in the UK at fancy pizza places. It's £2-4 extra for buffalo mozzarella