4 Levels of Mozzarella Sticks: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious

[Music] hey y'all my name is desi and i'm a level one chef hi i'm beth and i'm a level two chef hi i'm chris scott and i've been a professional chef for 32 years some people use mozzarella sticks for cheat day i call it eat day like a nice smell you break it apart the cheese is smelling this is the appetizer that we all order it's crunchy it's stretchy absolutely delicious you can't get no better than that cheese bread sauce duh i'm going to start with the cheese now my choice of cheese is polio string cheese i like paleo whole milk mozzarella cheese i really like the flavor and i like the way that it holds up when you fry it today i'm making handmade mozzarella cheese nah i would never make my own mozzarella too much responsibility no i'm gonna take my curd and i'm gonna make gentle little tears and place that directly into the bowl cheese curds are the milk solids that are stretched and formed to make cheese chef frank had me do that when i did my grilled cheese episode but it's a tremendous amount of work from there i'm going to take a little bit of sea salt and work that into it i'm boiling more water now so i can continue the process and now that i have the hot water i'm going to add that you can see already that it's starting to loosen up adding that hot water melts it down to where i'm able to kind of knead it into the mozzarella that you know and i know i want to try to get all the pieces the same size so i'm going to cut it in half then i'm going to cut the half and half and then i'm going to cut the quarters in half again if it's a square it's not a mozzarella stick it's a cheese patty to me a mozzarella stick does not have to be a stick shape i'm going to take my cheese out the packaging and put them on the plate store-bought string cheese is great the kids love it all the time but it's one of those things that you don't really know how old it is it's been sitting in the store it just tastes processed to me i much rather go with a plain block of cheese look how it came already it's less work bigger is better just make it taste good and have fun doing it i am kneading this properly so that it gets all of those wrinkles out of there so that it's smooth it's shiny and that it doesn't fall apart when i move on to my next step i'm making these mozzarellas into balls i'm gonna wrap the prosciutto around that which i think will be interesting and when you bite into it it's going to be cool that's fair he ain't calling the mozzarella stick and shaped like a bowl like putting a hamburger in the hot dog bud all right that's my cheese now i'm ready to go size it up squeeze and then i'm going to put the mozzarella balls into the cold water so that they stop cooking and they hold their shape so now that these mozzarella balls are already hooked up let's move on to the breading all right so right now i'm going to work on the breading store bought seasoned breadcrumbs italian to be exact not too spicy not too hot and it gives you that soft crunch you don't want to be chewing crackers i like panko crumbs better because the pieces are larger it adheres better to the cheese than if i use fine bread crumbs and i'm going to season it up i'm going to be using this rustica bread which is basically an italian rustic loaf what i want is the inside this is going to be the good stuff right here you make his own breadcrumbs chris man we gotta talk about this i need help i made crumbs when i eat i never make my own bread crumbs though well i'm gonna leave this torn bread overnight in the oven until it's totally dry pecorino romano cheese freshly grated i use dry parsley because the fresh parsley tends to burn lots of pepper not too much salt because the cheese is salty now the bread is nice it's toasted it's crispy and it will really absorb all of the new flavors that i'm gonna put into it i'm buzzing up the bread crumbs to be a little bit smaller than panko but a little bit larger than your everyday fine breadcrumb now i'm going to cook it with a little bit of clarified butter i am going to crush the garlic now you're going to get some of that garlic infusion so now that these bread crumbs have been toasting for 30 minutes they're golden brown they're toasty they're fragrant i'm gonna add the lemon and parsley very clean herbaceous flavors all right now let's get to bread my favorite part what i'm gonna do is take a little piece of the prosciutto wrap it around the bowl my breading process is i'm going to take my cheese dip it in the egg dip it in the panko and put it right on the tray this prosciutto is going to add a salty crispness it's going to add some uniqueness you know it's going to be different so i'm cracking these eggs getting ready for the breading station we're going to mix the eggs and the milk i add water to the eggs to help thin it out and to just make it a more cohesive mixture i'm going to take my string cheese go on the flour one row always start with the flour so that the egg has something to stick to i know that there is a whole school of thought about breading with flour first before the eggs i never did it that way got the cheese in the egg i'm going to mix it with the egg and milk get it into the panko breadcrumb and i'm going into the breadcrumb twice because i want to make sure that there are no eruptions of cheese definitely make sure that all the sides are coated to come back to the egg and milk roll again flour egg bread crumb egg back to the bread crumb they're going to be nice and crunchy now they're breaded i'll eat it right now if i could but i'm not gonna do that can you get sick i'm gonna put them in the freezer i usually put in there for six to ten hours but you leave them in there for overnight for as long as you want i gotta wash my hands now it's time to get the cooking i'm gonna use the air fryer quicker to cook less mess this is the new popping thing right now to cook everything in you can cook lamb chopping here i am not a fan of the airfryer it's like a big convection oven well i have fried salmon uh french fries cold pizza it's easier i'll tell you less mess it's not as crispy you definitely don't have that submerged in oil flavor that frying is all about if you're going to eat mozzarella sticks go all the way enjoy the fat my vehicle of cookery right here is going to be this table top commercial home use deep fryer i've never deep fried anything i like my like my stuff easy and simple one two three i can really control the temperature on this one where if you were using a cast iron or dutch oven you could do it if you had a thermometer but it's a little bit harder this way the computer sets everything for you you just do it and you're good to go the spray helps the mozzarella stick stay golden brown and also too you know you want the golden brown on your mozzarella sticks now that my mozzarella sticks have been in the freezer for about an hour i'm gonna fry the mozzarella sticks so that they're golden brown on the outside and soft and squishy on the inside with a deep fry the oil gets on you you gotta go to the hospital it's dangerous i kind of start at a shallow pace the deeper that i go the more agitation with the oil is gonna happen that could erupt the cheese i want them to have enough room to dance around in the oil i'm going to set the temperature for 390 for about three minutes i'm not sure what the advantage would be to air frying them to me it's a cheat code you can't cook or if you're if you're a cook like myself let's get it air fryer yep that's three minutes let's see how these mozzarella says came out i think we should be good now oh look at that you hear that sizzle this mozzarella sauce talking saying we ready always salt immediately when they come out of the fryer as chef frank would say can't have enough salt look at the cheese look at that separate them nice and salty are they ready cheese is smiling at you see it so now these mozzarella balls are fried up i'm taking some extra prosciutto and i'm frying it up almost like a crispy bacon almost and i'm gonna use that as garnish for these delicious mozzarella balls already wrapped in prosciutto i started working my sauce and i am using jar prego marinara sauce slap the butt all i'm gonna do is pour in a pot and heat it up this is a little unusual it's a pesto sauce i think that pesto for a mozzarella steak is a great idea having something different is great i started to put some bitter arugula in with my basil and pistachios instead of pine nuts you certainly can dip your mozzarella sticks in there or you can put it just bathe in it every mozzarella stick needs a great sauce right so i'm gonna do what is called an arabiata sauce which is a spicy tomato sauce has red chili flakes so it's not too crazy hot but it has that burned extra virgin got the garlic in there and the hot flakes no i'm not gonna make homemade sauce it's already in the store they got a hundred different types of homemade sauce so i'll make my own now let me get this turned i want to heat it nice and evenly so it's not hot it's not cold take your tomatoes or wrist work all i have to do is throw everything in the food processor and pulse it up first the arugula the basil lemon zest pecorino romano cheese pistachio nuts garlic some salt a little lemon juice i'm gonna throw some tomato paste in there right now start to caramelize all that i'm gonna go in with the tomato product chopped oregano and parsley let this simmer concentrate all of those flavors really gonna infuse together for about an hour and a half it tastes chris two hours of making sauce within two hours i'm done to make it more mozzarella sticks i actually turned up a little bit because i want to cook a little faster because i'm not doing two hours like chris i need my stuff to be ready to go i got stuff to do later so i'm trying to get this out the way i'll just add the olive oil until i get the consistency that i would like it's nice and smooth good texture sample the sauce see what you add with it let me just taste it for uh seasoning that's really good this is good i'm gonna eat this by itself not too hot it's not too cold right in the middle i'm gonna put the sauce in this little dish here they're ready for the mozzarella sticks so now that this has been reducing for an hour and a half it's ready to go now i'm ready to plate i'm gonna put my sauce in the plate i'm getting my sauce down treat your plate like ginger mozzarella balls on top put them around the side like a clock i don't know why i'm bothering because they'll be gone in three seconds but it's nice to plate it pretty little garnishes of crispy prosciutto and parsley i really like this presentation and these are my mozzarella sticks and marinara sauce and these are my mozzarella sticks with a pesto dipping sauce and these are my prosciutto wrapped mozzarella balls with arabiata sauce [Music] i'm actually excited i wish i didn't have to eat these i want to frame these and put them on facebook and i know they're going to taste delicious i've made them so many times the fragrance is coming at me i can't wait to dig in they're meant to be eaten now mm-hmm look at that cheese bowl just as i planned look at that still smelling now that's what i'm talking about right there that's mozzarella that's really good i need to make some more like the burn the spiciness prosciutto crisp loving it hey man if at first you don't succeed get air fryer mozzarella sticks are so good anytime day or night let's see how each of our three chefs made theirs mozzarella becomes stringy while hard cheeses don't this is because the casein proteins which form cheese curds are linked together with calcium from the starter milk into long thin fibers that are cohesive but can stretch desi used string cheese which is a form of mozzarella heated to 140 degrees fahrenheit and packaged at this temperature proteins are aligned in a parallel matrix that allows for smoother gliding of the proteins when heat is added mozzarella is a cow or water buffalo's milk cheese cow's milk cheeses tend to be more golden in color because cows can't metabolize beta-carotene a pigment associated with orange and golden colors occasionally titanium dioxide may be added in order to make the mozzarella very white and uniform in appearance it's also added to make toothpaste white beth used whole milk mozzarella which has a moisture percentage around 45 to 52 percent this is still a lower moisture percentage than fresh mozzarella which makes it firm for cutting into sticks chris did a level three elevation by stretching his own mozzarella he soaked pre-formed mozzarella curds in hot water to start the melting process he gently worked and stretched and folded the curds until they came together into a mess he then separated the mass into golf ball-sized portions desi used jarred marinara sauce marinara is a thin tomato sauce some commercially produced sauces have added sugar citric acid as a preservative and salt most are hot packed which means the sauce is made heated for pasteurization and then deposited into jars sealed and cooled making them shelf stable until the jar is opened beth made her own pesto a sauce that's blended but not cooked it's made with lots of basil which is fragrant from eugenol which is synthesized when the leaves are cut or damaged by the action of an enzyme called eugenol synthase she also added peppery arugula pistachios garlic and the juice of a lemon to add an acidic note it really makes it lively crunchy on the outside and melty on the inside there are so many different options when it comes to mozzarella sticks in fact you can even make them into balls next time you're making this delicious snack we hope you'll take some tips from our three amazing chefs

Channel: Epicurious

Views: 1,009,889

Keywords: 4 levels, best mozzarella sticks, easy mozzarella sticks, epi, epi 4 levels, epicurious, epicurious 4 levels, expert mozzarella sticks, fried cheese, fried cheese sticks, fried mozzarella sticks, gourmet mozzarella sticks, homemade mozzarella sticks, how to make mozzarella sticks, italian mozzarella sticks, make mozzarella sticks, mozzarella, mozzarella sticks, mozzarella sticks at home, mozzarella sticks recipe, pizzeria mozzarella sticks, quick mozzarella sticks

Id: OIz8e_o5aG8

Length: 14min 26sec (866 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 16 2022