812-L«ncuter Fanning, Saturday, October 17, 1996
Cornell Food Scientists
Why Baked-Then-Cooled
ITHACA, N.Y. - A Cornell
University food science student
has answered and age-old ques
tion that has puzzled collegians
through the years: Dude, why is
the cheese on this cold pizza
translucent?
As those who save leftovers
for next-day snacks know, low
fat mozzarella cheese turns
almost clear after it has been
baked on a pizza and then
cooled. It gives leftover pizza an
aged, unappetizing look. Lloyd
E. Metzger, a Cornell doctoral
candidate in food science, from
Lester, lowa, has discovered
that it is the serum - the water
content in the mozzarella cheese
- that causes the translucency.
Pizza connoisseurs know that
mozzarella should be white.
Low-moisture, part-skim moz
zarella has a fat content high
enough to maintain a white
color before baking, during bak
ing and after the pizza cools
down. But the lower fat moz
zarella cheese has a white color
when baked but doesn't retain
the opaque whiteness during
cooling.
"What's causing the moz
York County’s first-place team. From left, Dr. Blannie Bowen, Mike Burrell, Joe
Emerheiser, Travis Reid, and Jennifer Flinchbaugh.
YORK (York Co.) York
County Livestock Judging team
placed second at the Eastern
National Livestock Judging con
test in September at Timonium,
Md and first at the Keystone
International Livestock Expo
judging contest recently The
team will compete in the Main
event contest m Ohio and then
imjy sei
Cheese Turns Translucent
York County Has First-Place Team
Mon., Tues.. We
zarella to become translucent?
Well, by understanding how it
works, we can control it," say
Meztger. “In this study we want
ed to find out what was happen
ing to the structure of the cheese
during heating and cooling."
Once made exclusively from
the milk of water buffalo, moz
zarella is composed of water,
protein and fat. Mozzarella in
the United States is made from
cow's milk and then processed
through a stretcher, in which a
water solution is added. The fat
and water are bound together in
mozzarella by a protein called
casein. Other proteins form the
watery serum that is dissolved
within the cheese.
When pizza is topped with
mozzarella and popped into an
oven, the water-soluble proteins
interact with each other during
the heating process. The serum
in the cheese forms a white gel
during heating that causes the
cheese to become white. As it
cools, the gel reverts back to a
clear liquid, and the cheese then
becomes translucent. As a
result, the serum - the protein
dissolved in the cheese's water -
in the contest in Virginia at the
end of October. In November
they will travel to Louisville
Kentucky to compete in the
national livestock judging con
test. The team members are
Jennifer Flinchbaugh, Travis
Reid, Joe Emenheiser, and Mike
Burrell. In the picture Dr.
Blanme Bowen, head of the agri-
phon:
Discover
Mozzarella
is responsible for the whiteness
changes during heating and
cooling of low-fat Mozzarella.
"When we make a fat-free
cheese, we're trying to get the
cheese to behave like a fattier
cheese from a sensory point of
view," says David M. Barbano,
Cornell professor of food science.
"We know there's something
in the low-fat cheese that makes
the white color reversible during
heating and cooling. One we
completely understand cheese's
properties, we can apply that
information to control white
ness of other low-fat diary
foods."
Metzger won the American
Dairy Science Association com
petition for graduate students
this summer in Denver for his
presentation on "Whiteness
Change During Heating and
Cooling of Mozzarella Cheese."
He performed this research with
Barbano; Michael A. Rudan,
Cornell postdoctoral fellow in
food science; and Ming R. Guo of
the University of Vermont. It
was funded by the Northeast
Dairy Food Research Center and
Dairy Management Inc.
cultural and extension educa
tion, presents the award to the
first-place team at the 4-H State
Achievement Days contest. The
team is currently fund-raising
for their trip to Louisville.
Contact Kathy at the York coun
ty extension office (717) 840-
7408 if you have questions.
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