bookofjoe

Let's talk about buffalo mozzarella

I read Rebecca Rose's ode to buffalo mozzarella yesterday morning and it left me craving some all day.

Her wonderful article appears in this weekend's Financial Times.

Only because I was unable to be away from the never–ending parade of great televised college football games did I not go in search of mozzarella.

Today's the same story: the pro games began at 1 and go on until midnight so cheese will simply have to wait its turn.

Highlights from the article:

• The buffalo mozzarella industry is about 900 years old.

• Mozzarella must never be refrigerated — it must remain at room temperature lest it toughen.

• The cheese must remain in its salty water until the moment it is served.

• Good mozzarella is best eaten plain, with a fork and a knife — no salt, no pepper, no oil, nothing — within 10 hours of being made but never more than two days afterwards.

• Proper buffalo mozzarella should be snowy–white and firm, with a layered appearance inside and a juicy, almost squeaky consistency.

Here's the story.

Making the Most of Buffalo Mozzarella

Have you ever wondered, while enjoying a Caprese salad of tomatoes, basil and buffalo mozzarella, whether these porcelain-white delights really hail from the udders of dirty horned creatures that wade in foetid marshlands? And, if so, where exactly are all the buffalo in Italy?

Although it may be hard to square the cheese with the beast, the buffalo mozzarella industry is about 900 years old.

Buffalo have been populating the once-waterlogged regions south of Rome (Lazio, Caserta) and south of Naples (Campania) since the 6th century.

With their large hooves, these strong animals were used to plough muddy southern-Italian terrain for centuries, but the first record of mozzarella was found in the writings of 12th-century monks, as a by-product of that more durable cheese provola.

The name "mozzarella", however, stemming from the word "mozza" - the manual "breaking off" process that shapes the cheese - didn't emerge until its appearance in a 1570 cookery book from the papal court.

Because of its short lifespan, Mozzarella di Bufala was initially unsuitable for trading and to begin with the cheese was enjoyed only in select circles until the dawn of the railway age.

Today, far from being a papal privilege, it is an important export for Italy and an international gourmet staple - so much so that buffalo mozzarella farms have sprung up across the globe from Fife to Vermont.

For the people of Naples and surrounding Campania however, locally made mozzarella (mainly buffalo, but sometimes the cow variety known as fior di latte) is an essential part of their daily diet.

It is eaten on pasta, stuffed inside zucchini flowers, included in every type of salad and in that proud Neapolitan creation - pizza.

These days, buffalo mozzarella is a draw for visitors to the Neapolitan riviera.

Franco Luise, head chef at the newly reopened Hotel Caruso, in Ravello on the Amalfi coast, has sourced a wide selection of mozzarella varieties for the restaurant's menu.

All are produced locally and range from the small, almost bite-size balls known as bocconcini, to the heftier 500 gramme Aversana, to Treccia - a smooth, plaited variation from nearby Sorrento.

Luise says: "When you are using mozzarella on pasta, always put it on at the very last minute - otherwise it will go stringy." (Forget the idea that stringy cheese on pizza means it's the real thing.) "And, never ever put it in the fridge! It must remain at room temperature, otherwise it will toughen."

It must also be kept in its salty acqua bianca (white water) until the moment it is served.

In the kitchens at the Caruso, Luise demonstrates a few easy mozzarella creations: a salad of grilled vegetables with slivers of a smoked variety of the cheese on top, flash-grilled; a wedge of juicy mozzarella wrapped up with local lemon leaves and grilled until oozing point; a classic melanzane parmiggiana - a baked dish of thinly sliced grilled aubergine layered with chopped mozzarella, basil and parmesan.

"But the real way to eat buffalo mozzarella," he confides with a conspiratorial smile, "is with a fork and a knife. No salt, no pepper, no oil - no nothing."



In Capaccio, just south of the Amalfi coast, organic producers of buffalo mozzarella Vannulo are doing a roaring trade.

It is a Saturday morning in July, and instead of securing their sun-loungers at the beach, the locals are queueing up in the heat outside Vannulo's legendary farm shop to buy fresh cheese.

Vannulo's is considered the best mozzarella in the region, made entirely from buffalo milk with no addition of cow's milk (unlike most), and all the more sought after for not being sold anywhere else.

By midday, the 400kg of mozzarella made in the wee hours that morning will have sold out.

But the cars and coachloads will keep arriving to enjoy the creamy by-products served at the coffee shop: a brioche made with buffalo butter, a bowl of buffalo-milk yoghurt served with kumquat jam, or a scoop of delicious buffalo ice-cream - voted by the legendary gourmet guide, Gambero Rosso, as one of Italy's top 200 ice-creams.

It is not just the customers who are happy - the 550 Vannulo buffalo are a contented bunch too.

In fact, they may be the luckiest buffalo in Italy: they roam and feed in 200 hectares of organic land, they are homeopathically treated, and their accommodation is more like an animal spa than a farm.

Here, the buffalo have regular showers to cool off, the use of a large rotating brush to rub up against, and rubber mattresses to sleep on.

Despite their horny, lumbering appearance, these animals are intelligent and polite, forming orderly queues for showers and electronic milking.

"It's like Switzerland!" says Francesco Marino, Vannulo's financial controller and our tour guide.

There are only four male buffalo, and they arguably have the best deal, being responsible for impregnating 300 nubile females.

Mating only takes place once a year for the female however, and pregnancy takes care of the other months, lasting an impressive 310 days.

Buffalo eat more than cows yet produce less milk, but the fat content of buffalo milk is higher (9 per cent as opposed to 3.5 per cent) and it is richer in enzymes and proteins, making a richer tastier cheese.

Vannulo's mozzarella is made from unpasteurised milk, or latte crudo, so it is essential the animals are kept clean to avoid infection, so their udders are always washed manually.

The mozzarella-making process takes only five hours from start to finish, but it is a highly skilled job requiring considerable manual dexterity.

The animals are milked at 3pm and 4am every day, and rennet is added to the fresh buffalo milk to encourage the acidification process.

This turns the milk into curd, which is then shredded, immersed in boiling hot water and kneaded until it forms a thin smooth skin, ready to be scooped up by a pair of cheese-makers.

It is strenuous work requiring strong hands, so mozzarella-makers are usually men.

As Marino explains, proper buffalo mozzarella should be snowy-white and firm.

On biting into it, the appearance on the inside should be layered, and pearls of milky whey should appear immediately.

It should smell of milky enzymes and taste mild and fresh, with a juicy, almost squeaky consistency.

It should ideally be eaten about 10 hours after it is made, but it can be eaten up to two days afterwards, but after that - forget it.

The Vannulo farm, owned by the distinguished Antonio Palmieri, has been producing buffalo milk since 1907, but only started making mozzarella in 1988.

Despite the fact they sell out daily, Palmieri has no plans to expand or export and is more concerned with maintaining their famously high standards.

With an example such as Vannulo, with its fast turnover and high profit margin, it is no wonder people around the world are encouraged to set up mozzarella businesses.

As we leave the cheese-makers and walk round to the front of the farm and the disorderly queue of punters, Francesco sums up why the business is a winning formula: "Milk in the morning, money in the evening," he says with a smile.

Here is a link to the website of the Vannulo Dairy, considered the very best of the mozzarella producers in southern Italy.

The farm's legendary shop is the only place in the world where you can buy its cheese; the 900 pounds of buffalo mozzarella made early each morning sell out by noon.

MorphWorld: Hilary Duff into J–Lo

You be the judge: the picture above of Ms. Duff is from the September issue of Jane magazine.

The one of Ms. Lopez below

headlined my post of earlier this year but I have no idea where it's from.

It just is what it is.

[via Shawn Zehnder Lea, creator and proprietress of the inimitable, indescribably [del.icio.us] everythingandnothing]

Wireless Weather Forecaster

When I saw a picture of this device in a catalog I instantly understood what it was and what it showed and I realized it had been invented for people like me who like their technology really simple, like about third–grade level.

The icons at the top tell you the overall weather forecast for your area for the next five days; the dark bars show the expected range of temperatures each day.

The information is updated wirelessly around the clock from weather forecasting facilities nationwide.

You put in two AA batteries (not included) and select your location and there's the weather report.

The days of the week update automatically as well.

$109.99 here.

BehindTheMedspeak: Urine–Powered Battery

Korean scientist Ki Bang Lee and his team at Singapore's Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) have developed a paper battery (above) that is small, cheap to fabricate, and uses the fluid being tested — in this case, urine — as the power source for the device doing the testing.

Talk about bootstrapping.

The work was published on August 15 in the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering.

Said Lee in a story on PhysOrg.com, "We are striving to develop cheap, disposable credit card–sized biochips for disease detection. Our battery can be easily integrated into such devices, supplying electricity upon contact with biofluids such as urine."

The battery unit is made from a layer of paper soaked in copper chloride and then sandwiched between strips of magnesium and copper.

This "sandwich" is then held in place by being laminated, which involves passing the battery unit between a pair of transparent plastic films through a heating roller at 120ºC.

When a drop of urine is added to the paper through a slit in the plastic, a chemical reaction begins, producing electricity.

The final product has dimensions of 60 mm x 30 mm and a thickness of just 1 mm (a little bit smaller than a credit card).

Using 0.2 ml of urine they generated a voltage of around 1.5 V, the amount of power generated by a AA battery.

Their biobattery lasted 90 minutes.

The current in the device comes from a chemical reaction in which substances in the urine produce a flow of electrons from the magnesium to the copper.

Lee foresees the device's use with specific biochips to create specific tests for glucose levels in people with diabetes or to detect food or water poisoning.

The scientist noted that his battery also works with saliva or blood.

I think this is simply sensational and potentially revolutionary.

The more you distance the nuts and bolts of medicine — testing and such — from the institutional structure and put it in the hands of the individual, the better will the individual fare in the world of health care.

Magazine Saver

Very clever idea.

If you find that your magazines pass through so many hands and circumstances that by the time you get to read them they're but a tattered, coverless, stained shadow of their former selves, perhaps you'll find these very inexpensive (less than 25¢ apiece) and simple holder/organizers a godsend.

You open the magazine to the center, then slide it through the slot, fold it back together and then insert the plastic device into any three–ring binder.

If you prefer, you can put the device in the binder first and then insert the magazine — your call.

Good for storing and preserving magazines as well.

Works with magazines in any language.

12 for $3.98 here (binders and magazines not included).

Erik Satie — by Kay Ryan

Only that which does
not teach, does not
cry out, does not
persuade, does not
condescend, does not
explain, is
irresistible.Thus
must we love your
music du meuble. Yes
your longueurs are
loungeable, your soissouirs
rearrangeable to suit
a walk–up flat or suite,
your coeur screws into
any lamp, your small fits
enliven long halls
or brighten stairwells, your
songs go anywhere a chair will.
Your passions in the whimsical
colors of cushions please cats
and Persians. Your endless
sadness unrolls before the
tread of Duke or Princess.
From the least distance
your motifs refresh a place,
knots you gave your eyes to
are a saraband of lace.

CandleWand™ — 'Stepford Wife' Candle Restorer

Like creating retreads out of old tires.

This candle trimmer employs a heated blade to create a level burning surface with a smooth finish.

"Candles look like new, burn more evenly and drip less."

Your guests will never know you didn't buy new ones to grace their presence.

From the website:

When the wick gets too short to light or the top of a candle gets uneven and starts to spill hot wax, make your candle look like new with this unique trimmer.

The CandleWand™ heats to 350°F, a safe temperature for melting wax.

A guard protects you from hot wax; a safety stand protects the work surface.

Easy to use: just wipe the blade clean after use.

I must say, though, that at least in the picture on the website (above) the protective "safety stand" looks awfully similar to a newspaper with a folded aluminum foil tray on top.

$24.50 here.

When welders wear Rolex watches it's hard to believe things are all that bad with the economy

The above picture appeared on page B2 of yesterday's New York Times Business section.

It caught my attention because the welder, one Jim Johnson of Industrial Fabricators in Westerville, Ohio, was pictured at work in full protective headgear wearing what appears to me to be a Rolex watch (below).

The retail price of an entry–level Rolex is around $3,500.

The picture headed Mark A. Stein's wrap–up of the U.S. economy which was headlined, "The Numbers Don't Add Up to Confidence."

Tell you what: when welders are wearing Rolexes I think that's a pretty good sign that there's plenty of confidence down on the shop floor where, in the end, things do or do not happen that ultimately make the economy go.