Scientists Empirically Discover the Best Cheese for Pizza

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Advancements in pizza science is very serious business. Even the military has been experimenting with strange methods on how to extend the life of the average pizza. Now, science aims to answer a question that's puzzled mankind ever since the dish was created: What cheese is the best?

Turns out the answer is mozzarella.

Originally spotted by NPR, a paper appearing in the Journal of Food Science titled "Quantification of Pizza Baking Properties of Different Cheeses, and Their Correlation with Cheese Functionality," aims to answer the century-long culinary quandary and is also the most delicious-sounding scientific study I've ever heard. The study focused specifically on the interplay between cheeses on a pizza once they're baked. In a video, professor Bryony James, who was associated with the study, breaks down the group's methodology behind eventually selecting mozzarella as the undisputed pizza cheese champion.

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The study included several options, including cheddar, colby, gruyere, and provolone. Using machine vision, letting the scientists get objective data from imaging rather than subjective data from taste buds, the team discovered that the reason mozzarella works so well is because of its low free oil conten and its overall elasticity, allowing it a chance puff up and blister unlike the competition.

This study may all seem a little unneeded or just a chance to undergo the best-tasting research of your career, but James says understanding cheese on a micro-level could help develop low-fat and healthier alternatives to the cheeses we love by sacrificing little to no quality, according to NPR.

However, James explains that sauces, arguably the only other necessary ingredient in a pizza, were purposefully left out of this research. As she explains, that's for a whole other study. [NPR via Engadget]

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