Pizza first appeared on the London food scene in the 1950s, brought by Italian immigrants who were looking for a new life abroad. These pizzerias were often small family-run businesses, and their delicious ‘pies’ became so popular as the local people had never seen anything like it before.
Pizza is considered to be one of the world’s most popular foods and there is a reason for this, we are apparently drawn to foods that are greasy and have sweet, rich and multifaceted flavours. Cheese is the greasy part; meat toppings are the rich component and the sauce tends to be sweet and tangy; all of these element’s pair so well together which makes us want more!
Pizza toppings are also packed with an amino acid called glutamate, glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter, in other words when foods containing this compound enters our mouths it tells our brains to get excited and to crave more of it, our mouths water due to the signal it is sending to our brains, causing us to anticipate the next mouth full!
Glutamate is found in many foods which we all love on our pizza such as tomatoes, cheese, spicy meat, mushrooms etc; when you combine these ingredients not only will your brain be buzzing with excitement but they pair really well too when eaten together!
Another characteristic of pizza that makes it so delicious is the browning of the ingredients which happen when cooking the pizza.
When we cook food the crisping and the browning happens due to chemical reactions; caramelisation is the first reaction, this happens when the sugars in the food become brown because most foods contain some sugar, caramel is made and, on a pizza, ingredients such as onions, and tomatoes become caramelised during the cooking process, which in turn makes them rich, sweet and tangy; even the pizza dough contains sugar, so you get that gorgeous crispy crust.
The second reaction is the browning which takes place of the meat and the cheese, this is due to the “Maillard reaction,” which is named after French chemist Louis-Camille Maillard. The Maillard reaction occurs when the amino acids in high-protein foods such as cheese and meat react with the sugars contained within the foods when heated to high temperature. When we cook Pepperoni and it sizzles, curls up at the edges and browns, and the cheese bubbles and browns, these are examples of the Maillard reaction.
Pizza may seem a simple, no fuss, easy to make food item, but the elements that go onto a pizza and the reactions which take place during the cooking process make the pizza quite extraordinary!
At The Good Cheese Company, we pride ourselves as being one of the only CHEESE WHOLESALERS who grates fresh blocks of mozzarella every week and do not add any preservatives such as potato starch to the cheese. Our mozzarella is pliable, it has amazing melting quality and is perfect for a mouth-watering pizza!!
Mozzarella is bought in as 2.3kg blocks
The blocks are cut in half, this makes it easier to guide the blocks through the grater
The blocks are then put through the electric rotary cheese grater into large bags
Grated weekly to ensure freshness and quality
Each bag is weighed with 2kg of grated Mozzarella in each one
GRAB YOURSELF A BAG OF THIS DELICIOUS HAND GRATED MOZZARELLA FOR YOUR PIZZA'S THIS SUMMER PRICED AT £13.90 FOR A 2KG BAG OF LOVELINESS!!