Q6.10 What is the difference between mozzarella and fiordilatte?
Description
This article is from the Italy FAQ, by Gianluigi Sartori gg@angel.stanford.edu, Paolo Fiorini fiorini@telerobotics.jpl.nasa.gov with numerous contributions by others.
Q6.10 What is the difference between mozzarella and fiordilatte?
Last modified: August 8 1993
Based on a posting by Ugo Piomelli <ugo@eng.edu>
Real mozzarella is made from buffalo milk. This may sounds
surprising to many people that are convinced that buffalo only live
in North America. The explanation is in the fact that people mix
buffalo and bisons, but they are different beasts.
Webster's dictionary says:
buf-fa-lo \'bef-e-,lo^-\
[It bufalo & Sp bu'falo, fr. LL bufalus, alter. of L bubalus, fr.
Gk boubalos African gazelle, irreg. fr. bous head of cattle
-- more at COW]
1: any of several wild oxen: as
1a: WATER BUFFALO
1b: any of a genus (Bison); esp: a large shaggy-maned No. American
wild ox (B bison) with short horns and heavy forequarters with
a large muscular hump.
The buffalo needed to make mozzarella are probably close
to what is known as water buffalo in America (Bubalus bubalis),
and yes it lives in Italy too.
Since Bisons were not domesticated at the time, it is
doubtfull that native Americans used to make anything similar
to mozzarella using Bison milk. :-)
Fiordilatte on the other hand is a cheese similar to mozzarella,
but it is made with cow milk. (famous is fiordilatte made in Agerola).
The confusion between mozzarella and fiordilatte is widespread
not just in America, but mostly everywhere outside Naples.
Fiordilatte is often sold as mozzarella. Most Italians living in
the north have probably never tasted the real mozzarella.
Good places where to buy mozzarella (in Naples of course):
* Soave in via Scarlatti (quartiere Vomero). You can buy "bocconcini
di mozzarella coperti di panna".
* Mandara has many shops around town.
* Or you can go to Mondragone where there are many small
"latticini" that sell a good product.
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