The Unexpected Cheese You Need To Avoid For Homemade Mozzarella Sticks

Do you remember the first time you had a mozzarella stick? How the crunch of the deep-fried breaded shell mixed beautifully with the hot, melty cheese inside? How the cheese seemed to stretch for miles? If so, it's no wonder you've thought about making your own from scratch. After all, no matter how good frozen mozzarella sticks are, and they are good, there's no replacement for fresh foods made with love. But to save some time in the process, you may be considering string cheese for your filling. After all, they're already in the perfect shape — and they seem particularly stretchy.

Unfortunately, that's a bit of a trap. While the already-in-stick form is appealing, string cheese just doesn't have the same melting ability as a good quality mozzarella. It still tastes great, but you won't get that big gooey stretch from each bite that makes mozza sticks so fun to eat.

For the best homemade mozzarella sticks use low-moisture, whole milk mozzarella in block form. The low moisture point is mainly to avoid the explosive combination of water and hot oil when it's time to fry them, though this point is avoidable if you air-fry your mozza sticks or bake them instead. You want whole milk mozzarella because the extra fat in whole milk mozzarella helps it melt better. Finally, you want blocks of mozzarella since they're easiest to cut into sticks... not everything has to be science-based.

With your cheese secured, you can coat them using the flour dredge, egg mixture and breading method. Some Italian-seasoned bread crumbs (even though mozzarella sticks aren't Italian) and a bit of shredded parmesan make an excellent coating. Once they're coated and ready, instead of moving straight to the oil, freeze your mozzarella sticks first. This prevents that coating you worked so hard on from sloughing off the cheese once it starts melting. Whether you dip them in marinara sauce or enjoy them plain is up to you.