Jules Jones

Kalypso_v came round for dinner and Doctor Who last night. Dinner this week was home-made pizza, and since our local cheese shop had both water buffalo mozzarella and cow's milk mozzarella (both vacuum-packed in brine), I decided it was time for a comparison. Not a lot of difference in appearance or texture out of the packet, other than the obvious one of the buffalo variety being sold in a larger ball. Tasting them raw, Kalypso_v, Other Half and I all agreed that the buffalo was a little saltier and had a little more flavour, but that there wasn't a huge amount of difference. No obvious difference on the cooked pizza.

So was it worth paying the higher price for the water buffalo version? Not really, if it's a choice between mozzarellas to put on a pizza. But if it's a choice between a good mozzarella and some other cheese, then yes, it makes a very good pizza and I'd rather buy the water buffalo variety if that's what's in stock than a less suitable variety of cheese.

We do not intend to to taste test the pre-sliced low moisture mozzarella that was the only version available in the local Co-op yesterday. They had been stocking the fresh-in-brine cow's milk balls, but have obviously decided to go for the long shelf-life stuff instead. :-(