I’ve tried lancing them ahead of time, like I would with a sausage, but they still split open and spill their chizz everywhere.
Have you tried mixing in a 1/4 cup of non-toxic glue?
yeah
Then you’ll probably need to use the toxic stuff.
mmm a little for the chef, a little for the recipe
chefs can have a little toxic glue, as a treat
I heard it tastes better.
It’s unavoidable - once the cheese gets hot enough the steam will either force the liquid cheese out of existing holes, or it will make its own holes.
Make sure they are fresh out of the freezer when you put them in, as this lets the outside crisp up more before the inside becomes lava. Once you get close to the prescribed cooking time, you need to just sit in front of the oven door and watch them, and as soon as 2-3 break open, take the whole tray out
This, and brush with a healthy amount of canola oil
Quickly dip them in the sun (or any G-type star). The high heat will immediately carbonize the outside keeping the mozzarella contained (and also carbonized).
Generally, once the cheese becomes liquid they’re over cooked…
Mozz sticks are not a “set it and forget it” item and cooking conditions are different everywhere. Sticks also go from hot, to gooey mess very quickly.
You need to watch them, at least until you learn exactly how long to cook them in your oven.
That’s actually what i would have suggested as a first.
Are you cooking them on the flat of the pan, or are you using a baking rack in the pan? They tend to do better on a rack from what little I’ve done them.
you know those splash guards for frying pans? I cook them on that alongside the frozen pizza. all the benefits of on the rack, with half of the dangers
Dang, that really should keep them from splitting. Even heat and escape holes normally do the trick.
And they usually have instructions where the temp is the same as most pizzas, so it can’t be heating up too fast for the escape holes to vent (which shouldn’t even be possible at oven temps at all, but it isn’t impossible I guess).
Only other thing I can think of is that any surface ice could make the coating cook unevenly, leading to a split where it starts out colder and stays wetter. But that’s difficult to fix if that’s what it is. But I’ve seen it happen on breaded items before.
Past that, I got nothin
I’ve got different things I’m going to try. the pizza is 18 minutes at 400°, the mozzarella sticks are 8 minutes at 475°. I like my pizza overdone so I set the timer for 10 minutes, and do the first 10 minutes of just pizza at 400°. then I add the mozzarella sticks, turn it up to 475°, and set it for another 8 minutes. I don’t wait for it to get up to temperature, but it gets there rather quickly. usually less than a minute
It might work better if you deep-fried them.
No, seriously: that way, they can cook quickly enough to get crispy before the water in the cheese has a chance to boil.
yeah
Yeah that’s it ay
That’s how you know they’re done
Deep fry them
The internal heat is causing them to open up so you have to cook the exterior faster than the inside and frying is the only medium that’s immediately hot enough to cook the outside before the inside and keep its temperature consistent when you add in the sticks.
I’m theory a hot enough convection oven should do the trick as well but it needs to be high quality enough (aka expensive) to recover the lost heat instantaneously.
One option is to try cooking them low and slow. Reduce the cooking temp and go for longer. This will take some trial and error.
Another option is to poke them part way through, before they split, to give steam a way to get out.
Finally, try keeping a close eye on them. When one splits, take them out before the rest follow, they’re done.
Are you using low moisture mozzarella?
I’m using whatever Publix has in their frozen mozzarella sticks
This is one reason why I don’t do mozz sticks until I have a fryer of some kind. Having worked in plenty of kitchens with deep fryers, they’re the only/best way to eat fried foods.
Are you lancing them once? Cheese has a ton of water in it so you need to keep going until the stick cries out “Et tu Brutus?”
so I tried it once the first time, that’s usually all a sausage needs, but this last time I did eight per stick and it still popped. but, I think I left them in a slightly too long this time, I’m dialing that in
Totally going to knife gang murder my mozzarella sticks next time. Got it. 🔪
I’ve been having this trouble with frozen burritos and what works for me is dunking them in water and putting them in an air fryer
Either watch them constantly, or lower and longer temps. You’re boiling the cheese and it’s gassing up then popping.
Lower the temps and cook it longer if you don’t want to watch it like a hawk. Ignore the stupid box instructions.
As a rule, cheeses with high moisture levels (60-80%) melt at low temperatures (30° C or 86° F) while cheeses with lower humidity level (30-35%) melt at higher temperatures (70-75° C or 158-167° F). The others will melt at between 40-45° C (104-113° F).
I think I just discovered the sweet spot tonight. when the timer went off, the pizza didn’t look quite done, and the sticks hadn’t split, but 3 minutes later they had. I’ll just have to dial it in. or maybe microwave them a bit first
Lower and longer temps will cause more even heating, meaning the cheese will melt before the outside crisps up.
You want uneven heating - high temp and short cook time. That way the outside is cooked before the cheese starts steaming and splitting the breading open
There is less chance you’d boil the cheese which is the issue. Perhaps the literal opposite and broil the sticks.
You would have to cook below 100C to not cause the cheese to steam, but the breading needs maillard level temperatures to cook properly, which is 140C+
Broiling would be fine, but you would only be applying heat from one side (most ovens don’t engage the bottom element/grilles when broiling) - most mozza sticks I’ve seen recommend 450F - I reckon they would recommend hotter, but not all home ovens go up to 500/550
Try higher heat with shorter time. Also preheat the oven first.
