wow…thanks for all the tips!! first we make our own dough!! but we just don’t have the space to store the tubs of cheese, or the time!! we do a lot of prep as it is!! second, we are in the dinosaur system and don’t have a pos…wish we did!! so I can’t really tell you how many pies a week we do but our sales are good. we also do a lot of pastas, grinders, salads. I do think della vita is a house brand, so I think we need to find a more reputable company to go with, and just stick with them. I like the whole milk mozz…I just think its a little creamier than the part skim. But I would love to hear why some prefer the skim over the whole. I really don’t see us switching to grande, not at that price difference.
Cheese will behave differently based on dough thickness, oven type and settings etc. We found the whole milk cheese to be somewhat oily. The low moisture/part skim just worked better. We did blind tastings with a number of people of both fresh pizza and pizza that had been in a hot bag for 10 minutes. The tests included both whole milk and part skim cheeses, 100% mozz and various blends and several brands (including grande) the result was that we use low moisture, part skim 100% mozz. Your results may vary.
Laura you need to find a way to get a POS…It will give you better control over food cost and increase your sales…These days a POS is as important as an oven…It is a “must have”…
We use Low moisture part skim. Never tried Grande…never will…but am glad all the grande users like it.
We have over the years tried using shredded cheese and it just has never melted or tasted right.
We found the whole milk to be oily too and Just too much of a milk taste (for a lack of a better description.)
Laura trust me when I say we do a lot of things the dinasour way and I know many of these items are time consuming and I am assuming you feel you won’t have “time” to manage it.
We can get 4-5 cases of cheese blocked, shredded and some portioned in a half an hour. We only grate cheese twice a week. We portion it in less than 10 minutes every morning.
So money wise is saves us tons of money…and the taste can’t be compared to pre shredded.
There are several ways you can go about it to save on space. We use pickle buckets to shred into. We stack them in the cooler. We have at times used bus tubs and even dough trays. You can stack them in a cooler and save space.
I don’t know that you will find the taste you are looking for with a pre shredded.
Also on another note, being a behind the times…with a dinasour way of doing things, myself…I find switching to easier more efficient systems difficult. It is hard to change because we have always done it this or that way and things are in an order. But most of the time when we do switch we are pleased with the changes. You can probably find an attachment at a used equipment dealer or craigslist for 200 bucks you will save that in just a couple of weeks of grating your own cheese.
As another poster says…if you always do what you have always done you will always get what you have always got.
Kris
Thanks kris!! good advice, I think I may try it! whats even worst is I’m pretty sure we have that attachment already! we can always go back to the pre shred if we don’t like doing it ourselves. its the anticaking that is giving us the most problems.
I would love to buy a POS!!..BUT…there very expensive, and neither my hubby or myself are very computer savvy so the point of success which is the less expensive way would probly not work for us. Someday!!
If you do find the attatchment you will probably want to spray it with some pan spray to lube it up. We spray ours every time just to keep things running smooth.
The grinded cheese will clump a bit but when portioned we just break it up a bit. You will also find when grating that there are some cheese clumps just throw those in the bucket…it all melts the same.
I hear ya on the pos. We have 2 stores been in business 15 years and no POS. Sure wish we had got them when we thought going into debt was a good idea… 8) For now we do it the old fashion way and saving for the much needed pos. I can’t imagine the time we will save not having to audit tickets everyday. :shock:
Kris
Our machine (Stefan VCM) chops up 20lbs of cheese in 25 seconds. During the slower time of year, we do cheese every couple of days and do 80-120 lbs which takes about 15-20 minutes including clean-up. In our high season we do more like 200 lbs at a time and we do it every day.
Regarding clumping, we put about a 1/3 of a cup of flour into each 20lb batch before hitting the start button. That pretty much eliminates the clumping.
Thanks Daddio, we’ve been using Raccolli but skim. $9.29/kg. I will talk to our supplier to see about Raccolli Plus
CaptSammy
Racolli only has 1 “c” for those that are trying to Google it…