Stringy String Cheese

When I think about string cheese, I am brought back to my child hood. It was always nice to open my lunchbox and find string cheese waiting there for me to peel its strands. String cheese is simply yummy, portable and a snack I still enjoy as an adult. I do not discriminate when it comes to cheese, I love 'em all!
While peeling away on a stick of string cheese, have you ever wondered why you are able to do this, and not to a stick of Cheddar? Those variety packs of cheese sticks used to stump me as a kid. When I  finished the Mozzarella, I would try to peel the Colby and Cheddar, but it would just break up into chunks. Colby and Cheddar are not pasta filata cheeses but Mozzarella is.

Pasta filata means "spun paste." The curd is heated in a hot-water/whey bath and then stretched and pulled (kind of like taffy) until the desired elasticity is to the cheesemaker's liking. This why we are able to pull apart string cheese and have fun while eating it. ;)

Image via iVillage. Horizon Organic string cheese.