Despite many other cheeses are increasing in popularity as the pizza cheese, mozzarella is still definitely considered “the” cheese for pizza toppings. Even those pies that are sporting new and unique cheese combinations almost always include mozzarella as a must, and the processed designer cheese products that have been developed specifically as pizza cheeses are only meant to be “new and improved” versions of the traditional mozzarella but would you settle for any less?

Even for those of you that prefer to Order Pizza On Your iPhone, it’s fun to know a little more about the history of the products that make it, starting with that all-important staple of the best pizza pie.

Mozzarella has predominantly been the most favored choice of pizza cheese. As with most cheeses, it has been widely considered that mozzarella was really created entirely by accident. Legend has it that mozzarella was only created when cheese gratings fell into a pail of boiling hot water.

But getting to the point about mozzarella, it is a mild cheese that undergoes a curing process not very different to dropping it into hot water off a table. The little we do know for sure about its real history is that the first mozzarellas were made not from cow’s milk, as is the most widely accepted norm now, but was derived from the rich milk of native water buffaloes.

In fact, true water buffalo mozzarella is considered one of the absolute best choices when cheese matters, but it is not a product that is widely produced commercially; instead, most pizza and delivery outfits make do with the still excellent fresh cow’s mozzarella. Still, it is possible in some parts to get real water buffalo mozzarella, including in parts of Italy and from specialty food providers. Just don’t ask us who milks the buffalo!

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