Food & Drink

How is "low moisture" cheese defined?

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[OP]
Sr. Member
Aug 30, 2013
819 posts
998 upvotes

How is "low moisture" cheese defined?

I normally buy Best Buy cheese from Safeway/Sobeys. It is 34% or 39% moisture if I recall correctly? I understand low moisture cheese is better for pizza and food that you don't want soggy. What is low moisture exactly? Is it easy to find in our local stores?
15 replies
Newbie
Feb 12, 2017
57 posts
43 upvotes
Calgary
I don't know of an exact threshold for low moisture in cheese. However, many fresh cheeses for pizza are 50% moisture and higher. For example , the two below are 50% and 60%.

https://www.trestelle.ca/english/cheese/mozzarella
https://www.saputo.ca/en/products/fresh ... -di-bufala

The trick to using the firmer (50% moisture) ones on pizza is cutting them into strips like french fries, or slicing them into thin discs. For wetter cheeses, place them around the pizza in small dollops pinched off by hand.

Rectangular shrink-wrapped cheeses are substantially lower in moisture, perhaps averaging 40%. I would say the Best Buy cheeses at Safeway are low moisture. Shredding works best for these cheeses.
Deal Expert
Feb 7, 2017
25661 posts
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Eastern Ontario
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Types_of_cheese

Whole section explaining Moisture content
Basics ... it’s about aging or pressing a cheese & letting it dry out

The harder the cheese, the less the moisture generally
Like Parmesan... aged a long time, dried out, very hard cheese & low moisture
Deal Expert
Dec 4, 2010
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Quarantine Bubble
I read it up not long ago and it’s basically the shredded and blocks sold in the dairy section. I think the percentage is about 35-40% which I assume is moisture level? The soft stuff is the fresh stuff in water or brine. All this time o was mistskingly thinking low moisture was some kind of special cheese that was premium and not “the cheap stuff”.
Deal Fanatic
Jul 7, 2017
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SW corner of the cou…
Cheese will have mainly milk proteins, fat and water. Some cheese likes feta will have a high moisture (water?) content. Others high fat. Fat too can be a liquid and if you make cheese wrong (e.g., my first attempt at Halloumi) and press it too hard, you can push out the fat and make the cheese hard as a result. Aged cheese as noted will have very low moisture content due to the water drying out.

I guess the question is whether fat is counted as moisture or not. If so, the cheese could be low fat, i.e., all the cream taken off and sold to ice cream manufacturers, etc. and the leftover used to make a (usually) lower-quality cheese.
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Deal Addict
User avatar
Mar 4, 2007
2286 posts
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Vancouver
Hi,

It's not just the moisture content (water) but also the fat content in the cheese that determines how runny it becomes when it's melted. You could use less cheese or use old or extra old cheddar cheese instead of the medium. Or mix in some swiss cheese which is more harder & drier than cheddar cheese.
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Dec 4, 2010
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Quarantine Bubble
Anyone know if this brand is as good or better than Kraft, black diamond etc?
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Deal Expert
Dec 4, 2010
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The worse kind of cheese to make pizza with is the Silani cheese balls you find for like $2-3 when it’s on sale. I think it may be good for margarita pizzas and you put them at the end or something because shredded or sliced when baked it becomes a freaking watery mess.
Deal Addict
Oct 13, 2014
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Just Moved To Somewh…
Supercooled wrote: Anyone know if this brand is as good or better than Kraft, black diamond etc?
I like Armstrong, but to be clear I can only rate it for the Old Cheddar. I rank it in the middle as being more flavourful than Black Diamond or Kraft but less than Balderson or St. Albert.

Again Old Cheddar:

Balderson
St. Albert
Armstrong
Black Diamond
Kraft
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[OP]
Sr. Member
Aug 30, 2013
819 posts
998 upvotes
We primarily consume mozzarella. And we avoid using any cheese with animal rennat in it. Best Buy cheese has been a go to here in Manitoba.
I find it taste better than Kraft and Black Diamond. Not to mention the great pink "Special price" sticker, as cheese is quite expensive I find.
Deal Fanatic
Jul 7, 2017
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Supercooled wrote: Anyone know if this brand is as good or better than Kraft, black diamond etc?
Used to be made in a town called Armstrong (just north of Penticton on south central B.C.) until around a decade ago when Saputo acquired the brand and moved production to who knows where. Never been a fan of the cheese ("cheap" consumer grade cheese). However, can't say I am a fan of the cheese now made locally in Armstrong.
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Dec 4, 2010
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Quarantine Bubble
thriftshopper wrote: Used to be made in a town called Armstrong (just north of Penticton on south central B.C.) until around a decade ago when Saputo acquired the brand and moved production to who knows where. Never been a fan of the cheese ("cheap" consumer grade cheese). However, can't say I am a fan of the cheese now made locally in Armstrong.
Far from cheese connoisseur or even a foodie by the loosest definition allowed but my only past experience with pizza mozzarella has been Kraft or black diamond which I believe are owned by the same company if I’m not mistaken. At any rate my palette isn’t as refined as some, I don’t dress up my dishes with $20 block of Parmigiano-Reggiano, hell I had to look up the spelling of the name so these supermarket cheese all pretty much taste the same to me except the silani cheese ball I mentioned.

Picked these up since they were on sale and as expected they were pretty standard fare.


I had one dough ball which was going on 4 day old and started to develop a hard crust in the fridge because it leaked out of the cling wrap from rising so figured I’d use it up before it grew to the size of puff the marshmallow man. The rest of the cheese will go in the freezer wedged between what little space I have left from my TWO massive containers of ice cream containers.

For $4.99 a block they’re ok. 400g I think. Freshco has a compliments 700g? block for around $7-8 regular which are good value. No idea who makes their cheese.
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Is this still good?! Someone mistook it for a bar of soap. It was sitting in a drawer for almost a week.
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Deal Fanatic
Jul 7, 2017
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Supercooled wrote: Is this still good?! Someone mistook it for a bar of soap. It was sitting in a drawer for almost a week.
If there's no mould growing on it, and it doesn't smell or taste rancid, it should be o.k.
I smile when I see container ships sailing past my house laden with stuff made in China
Deal Expert
Dec 4, 2010
19536 posts
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Quarantine Bubble
thriftshopper wrote: If there's no mould growing on it, and it doesn't smell or taste rancid, it should be o.k.
Smells like cheddar. I hope I don’t die over _$5.



Tastes delicious.

Going to make elbow pasta and throw a chunk in for dinner.



I literally just started cooking with that stone pottery today. It’s so convenient. Who knew cleaning the cupboards had so many surprises.


Curry rice for lunch.
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