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Excess water on pizza

P

pizzeriatime

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In the past few days, we’ve been having a problem with excess water on the top of cooked pizzas. We haven’t changed any recipes, any ingredients and always use the same suppliers. The only thing we can think of is that we just got a shipment of cheese. We use Krohn 2% cheese out of Wisconsin. The cheese is dated 5/14. We’ve actually had to drain off the extra water off the pizzas as they’re coming out of the oven. It doesn’t seem to matter how many toppings, or even if there are veggies on the pizzas or not.

Does anyone know what could be causing this? We haven’t had any complaints, but we want to deliver the best pizza we can at all times. Any ideas on how to solve the problem?

Thank you for any help!

PT
 
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Wouldn’t more water in the cheese cause your pizzas to burn and turn dark. We’d done a few tests with cheaper cheese against Grande and we got the burn. Not water.

Mushrooms though…
 
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“The cheese is dated 5/14. We’ve actually had to drain off the extra water off the pizzas”

It may be the cheese.
I am not familiar with the Krohn 2% cheese.
I use Grande wm mozzarella and have found I can overbake it more without as much cheese burning or water run off.
I understand that Grande has less moisture, in my memory of around 47%, other cheeses have as much as 52% or more and that it makes them more likely to burn nd have water run off.

hope that helps,
Otis
 
Your cheese is very young, not sure if this will cause watering out. It’s very rare to see 11 day old cheese. I think 21-28 days is closer to ideal.
 
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What’s strange is that we have been using this cheese the whole time we’ve been open. It’s a high quality, award winning cheese …low moisture part skim. We’ve never had this problem before. If the pizzas had a ton of veggies on them, I could see why we’d have extra water. But even just ham and cheese has tons of water to drain off. We’re not having a problem with burning, the crust and color of the cheese is cooking up perfect…

PT
 
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Tell us about your sauce. Is it a fully prepared, a blended in house, or what? This could be an additional source of investigation . . . most all pizzas have dough, sauce and cheese. Probably one of these three?
 
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good point Paul made about the cheese being young…maybe check with the cheese processor on that batch.
Otis
 
Otis Gunn:
good point Paul made about the cheese being young…maybe check with the cheese processor on that batch.
Otis
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We did some experimenting last night and it is definately the cheese. Luckily, a food rep dropped off some samples of another brand of cheese on Friday. We shredded those and cooked it up on some pizza. No water issues. Unfortunately, we have 4 50+lb cases of the new cheese, plus what we already shredded. We’ll call the cheese processor this week, get some more information, then call the vendor and see what he’s willing to do. Yeah, we could just hold onto the cheese for awhile, but we don’t have the room or budget to make do in the meantime.

PT
 
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I have read here in TT, and/or in a trade magazine that one of the drawbacks of freezing cheese is that it speeds the ‘aging’ process/character of the cheese. If someone can confirm that, then you may be able to freeze and thaw the blocks you have, and get a good result??
 
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"We did some experimenting last night and it is definately the cheese. "

pizzeriatime,

Could you determine the % of water in the cheese that watered on you, as opposed to the cheese that did not ?
I think Grande whole milk mozzarella is 47%, not positive, do not have a paxkage with me now.
I have not had a problem with it watering, even when less than 2 weeks old. Flavor is better after 30 days.

Otis
 
Any chance your oven could be the culprit?
What kind of oven are you currently using?
 
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I have heard of Krohn…middle of the road product. Not sure if cheese is the issue…do you add water to your sauce? If you don’t stir each time before you use, it might separate. Just a thought. I was using an Italian tomato that had this problem a few years ago… a lot of juice in the cans.
 
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pizzeriatime:
Otis Gunn:
good point Paul made about the cheese being young…maybe check with the cheese processor on that batch.
Otis
Click to expand...
We did some experimenting last night and it is definately the cheese. Luckily, a food rep dropped off some samples of another brand of cheese on Friday. We shredded those and cooked it up on some pizza. No water issues. Unfortunately, we have 4 50+lb cases of the new cheese, plus what we already shredded. We’ll call the cheese processor this week, get some more information, then call the vendor and see what he’s willing to do. Yeah, we could just hold onto the cheese for awhile, but we don’t have the room or budget to make do in the meantime.
PT
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Glad you figured it out. Call that vendor and ask him to replace that batch. If the rep is good he/she will even watch you do a comparison test.
 
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