do most ny pizzerias use mozzarella only or a mozz/provolone blend?

[Pizzalogy]

i am sure this has been covered somewhere on the forums before but i just can't be bothered to search right now. i am thinking of ordering some grande cheese because i am paying so much for my cheese that even with shipping grande would be cheaper and i just want to know which kind is best for the most authentic ny style.

[scott r]

Mozzarella is much more common in the NY area.   As you move into pennsylvania and ohio provolone blends or straight provolone become the norm.    I just bought a case of the grande mozz/provolone for a catering gig this weekend and although the cheese does have quite a bit of extra flavor when compared to straight mozzarella, I dont feel like the flavor profile was in line with what I look for when seeking out a NY style pizza.   

[Pizzalogy]

thanks. i went with the grande whole milk mozzarella loaf after i found out that the 50-50 blend uses skim milk mozzarella. i like whole milk mozz.

[scott123]

Peter, although seeing lots of Grande when I go to pizzeria suppliers tells me that quite a few pizzerias are using it, I think the vast majority are using typical cheap food service mozzarella, which on the retail level, would be comparable to private label.

It may be not be the same for different parts of the country, but, when I was attending college in Illinois, I'm practically positive the supermarket had their own brand of mozzarella- and that was pretty much in the middle of no where.  Does your local supermarket put out their own brand of cheese?

And, although I feel a lot stronger about other deviations from the style, I don't think provolone quite fits the definition of NY pizza. I'm not saying provolone is bad, but I think it deserves it's own classification. If I had my way, though, a LOT of approaches would get their own style. Imo, the current umbrella for NY style is way too big. NY style deserves to be defined just as rigidly as Neapolitan.  But that's another conversation 

[Pizzalogy]

i haven't tried the store brand mozzarella from my local supermarket (well i did try the shredded years ago before finding this website and didn't like it) because it's not whole milk.  the first cheese i tried this time around was GFS whole milk mozzarella, which wasn't bad but still gave my pizzas a slight sour/bitter flavor. i then tried the whole foods mozzarella (which isn't grande, i asked them) and wasn't particularly impressed. i finally found a cheese i like which i mentioned in another thread, cedar grove organic rennet free whole milk mozzarella. it tastes much more like pizza cheese to me, even when i first bit into it uncooked i thought "this tastes like pizza cheese". with this cheese the taste of my pizza improved tremendously. however, at 8 dollars a pound, it's significantly cheaper to order grande from pennmac, so i thought why not try it? especially because i realized what a huge difference the cheese makes.