North American Mozzarella Cheese
© Denzil Green
North American Style Mozzarella is a completely different cheese from Italian Mozzarella. It comes in blocks, looks like a pale yellow cheddar and has a rubbery texture.
It looks more like Provolone than it does Mozzarella.
Though it can be eaten fresh in theory, it is almost always used as a cooking cheese, in particular as a pizza topping.
North American Style Mozzarella is actually more like Scamorza Cheese.
Cooking Tips
Use the North American Style Mozzarella for cooking.
Equivalents
2 cups grated/shredded North American Style Mozzarella = 8 oz / 225g in weight
7 oz / 200g North American Style Mozzarella, diced = 1 cup
12 slices North American Style Mozzarella = 8 oz / 225g
Storage Hints
North American Style Mozzarella freezes well for use in cooking later.
You can shred it first, pack it into freezer bags, and then freeze. As it freezes, you may want to massage the bag to see if that will help avoid it freezing in one big lump. Over time, though, it may form one big lump anyway. Use a serrated-edge knife such as a bread knife to saw off a portion that you want to use, and put the rest back in the freezer. Let the portion you cut off thaw a bit for a few minutes, then crumble it by hand. It is fine for most cooking applications to use the shreds still partially or mostly frozen.
