Why Pizza Cheese Turns Rubbery

Question

After 7 minutes at 550°, my pizza came out well except for the cheese, which was fine when the pizza was hot out of the oven; however, after just a few minutes, the cheese became a rubbery mass. I did deviate from Milkstreet’s recipe by not including fontina and by using part skim mozzarella instead of whole milk mozzarella; could that have made so much difference?
I also noticed that Milkstreet’s recipe says to place the pizza on the upper rack of the oven near the broiler but does not say to turn on the broiler; is this correct? Without the broiler, the heat comes up from the bottom, and i’ve seen various recipes with instructions to put food on the lowest rack for a crispy crust (?)

Lynn Clark · Accepted Answer

Hi Chi - You are correct - it's the cheese. We call for whole-milk mozzarella because it melts better. Part-skim is great for browning, but its more likely to seize into a mass than flow when it melts. The fontina is there, not only for flavor, but because its also a great melting cheese.
We place the steel on the upper middle rack in the oven to better heat the baking steel. (It’s also easier to slide the pizza off the steel when the rack is in a higher position.) While an oven is heating up, the heat usually comes from the top and the bottom of the oven so this will really get the steel as hot as possible. It's the top of the steel that actually cooks the bottom of the pizza so getting this really hot is key to crispy crust. We don't call for using the broiler in our recipe, but if you want to turn yours on to get more browning on the top, definitely try it! Just make sure to keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn.  Best, Lynn C.

Why Pizza Cheese Turns Rubbery

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