Melting Fresh Mozzarella

[Jkirstein]

I've got a FB Modena 140 and use it to operate a seasonal farm-to-table pizzeria. We run the oven at around 800-900 degrees, mainly because we can get really busy and need to be able to cook a pizza in 75 seconds for at least an hour or two. I've never been able to properly cook fresh mozzarella. I've dried it a bit, I've raised the temp to 80-90 degrees, I've broken it into smaller pieces. But the crust and other toppings cook way before the cheese actually melts. The pizza tastes great, and customers are OK with it, but the cheese isn't actually melted. Any suggestions on how to remedy this problem? Due to the volume, i prefer to buy pre-sliced cheese-which comes in maybe 3/16" slices.

[Giovanni Rossi]

Jkirstein You're on the right track. Just make sure the small chunks are about the size of a quarter and leave some space between them on the pizza. If you still need a bit more melting, when the crust is just shy of finished, lift the pie toward the top of the dome for 5 seconds or so and you should be good to go.

[SableSprings]

+1 on Giovanni' comment. Using the thinner, smaller chunks of moz and doming at the end are pretty effective methods to get the cheese up to melting temp in that short cook cycle. It's also very important to not get too much sauce & other toppings on the pie...definitely, less is more here.

[Giovanni Rossi]

It's also very important to not get too much sauce & other toppings on the pie...definitely, less is more here.

Amen to that. For me, pizza is all about the bread. Everything else is just condiment. And yes, I know Americans love their cheese (tho we shouldn't quite so much).
I just roll my eyes every time I see a smothered pie

[david s]

As everyone who uses a WFO to cook pizza at high temperatures finds, the toppings need to be sparse and the base needs to be thin. ie nothing overlapping, with cheese on the bottom rather than on the top. It is no accident that the traditional Italian pizza, from a WFO has been cooked this way since time immemorial.