Cheese: sliced, cubed or shredded?

[bakerboy]

Although i've never put mozz through a meat grinder, i feel as though it would be ALOT of work with a hand crank machine and if you've got a machine that grinds meat with the attachment it probably takes a shredder wheel too.  I personally feel grinding might "work" the cheese up,  making it even less manageable to distribute on the pie.  Incorporating ingredients thouroughly may take a couple of grinds.  If i had to do it i would surely use cold cheese and cold ingredients.
Oddly enough, speaking of cheese mixtures,  i just recently added cheese to one of our pies.  Its a combination of shedded mozz, local impastata, and parmesan.  We add about 2% extra virgin olive oil and mix it throughout.  not as homogenous as grinding but i'm REALLY pleased with the outcome.

[Natephish]

I've used all three: grated, sliced and cubed.  I prefer the grated.

When I first started I used sliced.  I felt that was the most authentic and traditional way of doing it, i.e. Pepe's.  Over time I adjusted my slicer to what I considered to be the best thickness.  The cheese (local--Calabro) browned very nicely, had excellent taste and was "super stretchy," a characteristic that all of my family (and other tasters) enjoyed.  I always felt that slicing breaks the smallest amount of protein chains and in a sense makes the cheese stretch further before breaking.  Shredded's chain are exactly that, shredded.  Biggest problem was getting a semi-even 50/50 part skim/whole mix.  I'd get a blob of oily, buttery cheese and a blob of firm, mild flavored cheese.

I've used diced a couple times.  Melting and browning was good but as others have stated, toppings and cubed really don't mix.  I had trouble controlling the burning of my sliced meats (pepperoni, prosciutto) and opted to switch to grated next.

Grated seems to be the best overall.  I can control the thickness of cheese more uniformly than with the sliced or cubed.  Toppings, melting times and browning are no problem.  The only hassle is the amount of time and work it takes to grate a couple of pounds of mozzarella.  Usually I can pawn it off on someone else with a "well if you don't help me grate it I can't make pizza!" line.  Biggest problem with the grated is that once the cheese is grated, it needs to be used quickly (within a couple days), especially the whole milk.  It ends up as a big soft glob otherwise.

[Jackitup]

Hi guys,
Reading thru you grated vs cubed threads I thought of showing you this. I made it several years ago when wanting to cube a large amount of cheddar for a big batch of venison sausage. I cut 1" board as shown and placed stainless screws interwoven with thin stainless wire. Push thru slicing side and then push the flat slices thru the dicing side. Works great and still holding up well. A bit of a pain to make but anyone that's a bit of a handyman should be able to tackle it. Cheaper than a commercial dicer that goes for a couple hundred or so...
Jon

[jfrancesconi]

Hey guys.

I am a long time reader but have never posted.  I have learned so much here, though, so thanks to everyone.

Question pertaining to this thread though.... when everyone refers to diced mozz cheese, is this to say that the cheese is cubed?  If so, how big are these cube supposed to be?

Thanks a lot!

Justin

[Pete-zza]

Justin,

I have been treating dice and cubes as being synonymous. The commercial diced cheese that I have seen is made of of very small dice, perhaps much smaller than one may be able to make at home starting with slices.

Peter

[jfrancesconi]

Ah, I see.  So very small then..

This whole time I'm reading and picturing like half inch cubes or something, and it's just not making sense. 

Thanks!

[Jackitup]

The homemade dicer that I showed above makes 1/4" sliced/diced cheese which is about the same size if you were to buy it already commercially diced (which I have for making sausage). There's some pics of a pizza I made last nite using cheese diced from it in the latest 'cracker crust' thread. http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,5762.msg49234.                First time I've used diced cheese on a pizza and will probably stick with it for the most part. Pizza cooked up very nice and the cheese I think melted more slowly so as not to overbrown too fast

[pcampbell]

Has anyone ever tried using the food grinder attachment for KitchenAid home mixers for dicing or shredding small 1 pound blocks of mozzarella cheese?

Would I be just as well to use my CuisinArt food proc with the blade or shredder attachment?

[BurntEdges]

PC,
I've used the KA shredder attachment, the largest size shredder cone.  Works fine, but still wish the shreds were a little fatter.  Make sure your cheese is very cold or the shredding process may become very "gummy".  You can even give the cheese block some freezer time for firmness, just don't freeze it rock solid.

[widespreadpizza]

if you break down some low moisture mozz. into 1 inch cubes or so you can quickly turn it into a fine dice in a food processor,  just don't overdo it or you will have dust.  Use the double knife attachment,  and make sure your cheese is pretty cool.  -marc

[lundervold]

When I worked at Luigi's in Red Bank NJ years ago, we used the meat grinder on the Hobart for cheese. At home I some times use the meat grinder on the kitchen aid and do the same. It turns it into little round bits that are easy to spread like the diced.

[scott123]

Unless I use it right away, my cheese tends to be too soft to work in the KA or Cuisinart, even if chilled thoroughly in the freezer. I have one brand of brick mozz, Biazzo, that's extremely firm, and does work for mechanical grating, but... it has a tendency to curdle as it bakes, so I have to avoid it.

As far as the thread goes, good NY style pizza is all about the butterfat that the whole milk cheese gives off as it bubbles. At least that's my impression of good NY style pizza Brick mozz just isn't going to release it's beautiful buttery-ness unless it's shredded. Hand formed mozz- that you can cube or slice because it melts a bit easier.