Why does string cheese have that peculiar stringy texture?
String Cheese is an unusual form of mozzarella cheese with lesser water and more stretch. American mozzarella is made from cow’s milk, but it originated in the southern part of Italy where it is made from buffalo’s milk, which is infinitely moist, creamy, and subtly flavored than the ones on top of our pizzas and grilled cheese nowadays.
A technique called pasta filata is used for making mozzarella in which cheeses undergo a plasticizing and kneading process which gives them their fibrous texture. First, buffalo’s milk is curdled (to read more on denatured proteins) traditionally with rennet, which yields cheese curds that are stronger and more rubbery and increases the growth of flavor-producing bacteria because of the fact that rennet doesn’t lower the pH as much as other acids do (J. Lawandi, 2015), after that the curds are cut up and heated to temperatures over 60ºC to tighten them and separate the whey. When the pH is around 5.2-5.5 it is kneaded to form delicate and consistent balls or cylinders. According to the Mozzarella di Bufala trade association, “The cheese-maker kneads it with his hands, like a baker making bread, until he obtains a smooth, shiny paste, a strand of which he pulls out and lops off, forming the individual mozzarella.” That’s emotional!
This stretching in a particular way is what aligns the milk proteins (casein) and fats in one direction giving the cheese a fibrous structure. According to S. Taneya et al., 1992, the optimum stringiness is achieved at a pH of 5.4 at 25ºC. In another study done by E.N.Oberg et al., 2015, lowering the fat content of the milk results in cheese which makes shorter strings and hence reducing its favorability among the buyers and they proposed that “incorporation of a 1% xanthan gum (a polysaccharide, which they thought could act as fat mimetics) slurry into low-fat cheese has potential for the manufacture of low-fat mozzarella cheese with increased stringiness and better flavor liking and texture. Why on earth do string cheeses exist, no one knows, but kids are quite fond of them and also the instagraphers.
Further Readings: Structure and Rheology of String Cheese
