At the show last week a lot of people were asking me about “diced” cheese. Can someone explain all the benefits of diced instead of sliced cheese? Particularly if it helps prevent overlapping, overcheesing, and speed up the cheesing process?
Hobart definitely has machines that can do this but I am trying to understand the benefits fully.
Thanks
Eric Lutz
Hobart Engineer
Faster
Easier to control distribution on pie
Easier to blend your our cheese.
Spreads more even on a pizza.
Melts more even on a pizza.
Wow…I would have thought shredded was a better coverage and melt. How small of a dice are we talking about here? I am guessing 1/4" or less?
I’d have to have it proven that the diced provided a better melted coverage than shredded, but the dice is way faster to use and get a more uniform placement fast. All that said, I like the melt that shred gives me better though so that’s what we use. Besides, pizza is but a small part of our menu so speed isn’t our top priority on the make line.
1/4" diced cheese can be better ‘weighed’ than a shred and is much faster ti apply when doing a high volume operation…but it can be messy & you can still use too much cheese…
I’ve used both and have no real preference these days…we just shred & blend w/our Hobart mixer, but may someday get a cutter/mixer…
I have never noticed any difference in melt either way, but for ease of portion control, ease of consistant spread over the pie and speed are all important considerations. After several years of using each, I would not go back to shredded.
It definitely covers better - particularly if you free throw. I experimented extensively with both and u can use less cheese with diced. Why? Because it spreads more uniformly around the pizza. If you free throw, that variation causes the maker to put additional cheese on the pizza to fill in the pace. But even if you don’t free throw, the finer cheese is going to allow a more uniform distribution. To take it to the extreme, If I have a circle and want to fill it in with a group of blocks (each group of blocks having the same surface areas the circle) I can do a more thorough job of filling in the circle completely with very small pieces than I can with large, overlapping pieces).
More importantly though, the density of diced is more uniform which means you can use volumetric measurement rather than weight. I promise you that a “cup” of diced cheese is going to have way less variance than a “cup” of shredded cheese if you measure 100 cups and compare their weight. This is particularly true if you introduce a variable of the person filling the cup. Of course if you weigh your product, it really doesn’t matter one way or the other…
Thanks for the answers and comments everyone. Our HCM450 will dice cheese into 1/8" - 1/4" balls in about 1 minute. I have a few customers who have started using the HCM for this application and I never completely knew why.
Much Respect
Eric Lutz
But if I use plastic blocks and put the circle in the oven, the plastic will flow and cover the entire circle either way, right? If you are talking about cold coverage in assembly, then I guess the whole perception thing can get you in trouble when not weighing the cheese. Quality cheese should have good flow character and make for a cohesive fill of the pizza surface . . . or did I miss the point again. I’ve had problems with that here lately in real world.