All language subtitles for Modern.Marvels.S21E02.Food.Cheese.1080p.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H264-BTN_track3_[eng]

- [Adam] Melty and magnificent,
creamy and dreamy.

Whether it's mozzarella,
Manchego, American, or Swiss,

when you take a snapshot of
America's favorite foods,

you gotta say cheese.

Last year, the average American

ate a whopping 40
pounds of cheese.

That's like taking two
of the tires on your car,

turning them into cheese,
and then eating the tires.

Last year, over 95% of American
households bought cheese,

which makes the cheese business

bring in a whole lotta cheddar.

Annual sales last year,
topped $34 billion.

Annual production is
around 13 billion pounds.

That's almost
equivalent to the weight

of a million African elephants.

Cheesemakers around the
country are working super hard

to keep up with the demand.

And I wanna know how they do it.

Just like fondue, we're
going to immerse ourselves

into all things cheese.

I just wanna do
Double Dutch with this

for the rest of my life.

From how it's made

we'll learn how much mac
and cheese we eat a year,

the origins of string
cheese and why it peels

the way it does.

We'll even find out where
Philadelphia Cream Cheese

really comes from.

And we've been granted access
to a dark underground cave

in the last place
you'd ever expect it

to find out how cheese is
aged to moldy magnificence.

This is "Modern Marvels: The
United States of Cheese."

[bright electronic music]

[upbeat music]

Today, I'm at Caputo
Brothers Creamery,

an artisan cheesemaker,
who has been praised

by "Food & Wine Magazine"

and some of the most prestigious
restaurants in New York

for their Italian-style
mozzarella and ricotta.

Caputo Brothers gets milk
from local farms and turns it,

or maybe I should say churns it,

into 6,700 pounds of
cheese every week.

That's 350,000 pounds
of cheese per year.

And though they
deliver all this cheese

to each of the 50 states,
they still stay true

to their traditional
Italian techniques.

And most of that
is done by hand.

So, I figure that this
is the perfect place

for some real
deal, step-by-step,

hands-on instruction

in how cheese is made.

I'm excited to get started.
I'm gettin' hungry.

[upbeat music]

- [Adam] Dave and Rynn Caputo
started Caputo Brothers Creamery

as a small cheesemaking
operation in their home

and grew into one of the premier

artisan cheesemaking
businesses in the country.

Their Ricotta Salata
took home a blue ribbon

for the best traditional
cheese produced in America

and went toe to toe with
their Italian counterparts

in the World Cheese Awards.

I'm so excited to try this
because the truth of the matter

is cheese is not
all created equal.

Would you be willing to
impart just a fraction

of your cheese knowledge to
one very, very earnest student?

Will you be my cheese sensei?

- I think so.

I think so.
- I love it.

I will be your
provolone Padawan.

- Excellent.

- So, if I wanna learn the
process, where do I begin?

- Well, we know that all good
cheese starts with good milk.

- Of course.

- So you gotta
start there first.

So, head on out that way,

you'll get the milk
in the building,

and then we'll get you all
suited up to make cheese.

- Okay, let's
check out this milk

and get the process moo-vin'.

Please don't change the
channel 'cause of that joke.

[Rynn chuckles]

- [Adam] The world produces more
than 110 billion gallons

of milk every year, and some
of the best milk on the planet

comes from the pastures
of Central Pennsylvania.

Caputo Brothers
gets all its milk

from dairies within 30
miles of their location.

I'm meeting with Mike, the
so-called herd to curd manager

who oversees this process.

This massive dairy locomotive
that we're looking at here,

how much milk does it hold?

- [Mike] This trailer holds
roughly 63,000 pounds,

7,000 gallons.

- This milk will go into all
products, or like do you do

this farm we only use
for the mozzarella

and the stracciatella, this one
we only use for the ricotta.

- We do a a blended ratio
of our dairy farms together.

- Oh, so each farm has a
different flavor characteristic?

- Absolutely.

- Is that right?

- Absolutely.

- So, Farm A may be
known for sweeter milks,

Farm B may be known for
like more grassy milks

or something like that?

- [Mike] Yep.

- [Adam] And this particular
milk is what kinda cow

are we getting today?

- It's a blended from-

- Oh, this has
already been blended?

- [Mike] Yep, yep.

So, he stops at
each of the farms.

- Is that right?

- And brings all
of it at one time.

- I love that.

The place that's
manufacturing the cheese

is getting a custom blend
from within a half hour

of its front door.

That kind of quality
control is something

that you very, very seldom find.

[gentle music]

Although there are thousands
of different variations

in the cheesemaking process,

resulting in thousands of
different types of cheese,

there are essentially
four basic steps

to convert milk into cheese.

- The first step to making
cheese is adding bacteria,

and this bacteria lowers
the pH of the milk,

making it more acidic,
which prevents bad bacteria

that can make you sick from
growing on the cheese later on.

The second step is adding
enzymes to coagulate the milk.

Traditionally, these enzymes
come in the form of rennet.

What rennet does is
it coagulates the milk

causing the solid
curds to come together

and separate from
the liquid whey.

And you almost have cheese,

you just have to
age it or ripen it.

The conditions under
which you age it

are the thing that determines
what type of cheese

you end up with.

- [Adam] Cheeses range from soft
to hard, stinky to salty,

but many experts
would group them

into one of seven
main categories.

Number one, soft
cheese like brie.

Number two, semi-soft cheese
like Monterey Jack or Muenster.

Number three is hard
cheeses like cheddar,

Manchego, or Parmesan.

Coming in at number four, the
good old stinky blue cheeses.

Number five is cheese
with mix-ins like

cheddar with jalapeno or
Gouda with truffles mixed it.

Category six is fresh
cheese like the mozzarella

and ricotta we're
making a Caputo,

and finally there are
aged fresh cheeses.

[upbeat music]

Now that we have the
milk in the building,

Elizabeth, the head cheesemaker
for Caputo Brothers,

is going to show us how to make

their traditional
Italian fresh mozzarella.

But before we do
anything to the milk,

I wanted to taste the raw
stuff straight from the cow.

Is it safe to taste raw milk?

- It is safe, and it's
legal here in Pennsylvania.

- I've eaten all over the
world and eaten all kinds

of wonderful, I have
never had raw milk.

This is the first raw
milk I am consuming.

This is a food first. I
am very, very excited.

[soft playful suspenseful music]

This is pure, frothy, raw milk
straight from the cow to me.

I'm like nervous and excited.

[upbeat music]

I mean, clean is like the
top note that I wanna get.

I mean, it's nice and cold
and maybe on the very back end

there's like a
grassier note to it.

It has a greater degree
of thickness to it.

- Yeah, we often
describe raw milk

as more like a milkshake
in consistency.

- That's pretty accurate.

Because of the blend you use,

it's really unlike
any milk I've had

'cause most commercial dairies
just have one kind of cow

'cause they're not trying
to blend it into cheese.

It's really, really
good, though.

Now, we're ready to get down
to making this mozzarella.

At Caputo's, they start
with pasteurizing the milk,

a process of basically
heating it to a temperature

for a sustained amount of time

to kill off any pathogens
and bad bacteria.

- [Elizabeth] So, we're
up to temperatures

and it's ready to send out.

- [Adam] Now that we have
pasteurized the milk,

the real process of
cheesemaking begins.

We're looking at a giant
vat of pasteurized milk,

meaning most of the
bacteria, good and bad,

has been removed, and
since most cheesemaking

requires microbial magic,

we need to add some
bacteria cultures back in.

- [Elizabeth] So, the next
step is adding culture.

- [Adam] Okay.

- [Elizabeth] We use a
lactobacillus culture.

- Wait, just that little
bit for all this milk?

- It does not take very much

to do what we need
to do with it.

- So, it's bacteria
in powdered form?

- It is in a freeze dried form.

We're just going to sprinkle
the top of the milk with it.

- Okay, let's do it.

And like over
there, is this good?

- Yeah, and you'll wanna
cover the whole vat.

- I feel like Johnny
Culture Seed over here.

[soft music]

Oh, you smell it. It's
almost like bread.

It has like a
yeast kind of note.

- Yeah, it does have
a good smell to it.

- Wow, that's crazy, yeah.

That sort of thing of
a country hearth bread.

That smell is the
bacteria cultures

breaking down the
lactose sugar in the milk

and starting to ferment.

Most American mozzarella
cheesemakers cheat

by adding an acid like
vinegar or citric acid here,

but at Caputo Brothers, they
insist on making mozzarella

the traditional Italian way
using bacteria cultures.

What do we do next with all
this wonderful pasteurized milk?

- The next step
is adding rennet.

Rennet is an enzyme found
usually in an animal stomach.

- [Adam] Okay.

- So, the rennet is what's
going to set the milk.

So, it takes it from this liquid

and kinda makes it like tofu.

- Wow, let's go grab it.

Without rennet, there
would be no cheese.

They found 3,000-year-old
cheese in an Egyptian tomb,

although nobody's
dared to spread it

on a cracker and take a bite.

But cheese is even
older than that.

- Before writing, before
money, before architecture,

there was cheese.

- Cheese probably dates
to about 7,000 years ago

and it all started
with our friend rennet.

- The legend of how
cheese was discovered,

the story goes that a
nomad had milk inside

of an animal's stomach

and was traveling with it

from one place to another,

and when he arrived to said
destination went to drink

his milk and out came cheese.

- Rennet is an enzyme
taken from the stomachs

of slaughtered
milk-drinking animals,

mostly calves.

When a cheesemaker
adds rennet to milk,

the fats and proteins in
the milk clump together

as solids called curds.

These curds separate from
the liquid in the milk.

All that leftover
liquid is called whey.

The more whey that
is pressed out of it,

the harder the cheese gets.

Cheers to you.

- Cheers.
- There ya go.

No, I'm just kidding.
This is rennet.

This would be
disgusting to drink.

- Yeah, so you're gonna
take one of these spoons.

So, we're gonna add the
rennet on top of my spoon

to distribute that better
over the surface of the milk.

- [Adam] Ooh, that's cool.

- Great, so now you'll
put your spoon in.

It's like you're trying
to bring the bottom

of the milk to the top
and the top to the bottom.

- [Adam] So, you're
like folding it almost?

- [Elizabeth] Yeah.

- [Adam] We're going to give the
bacteria cultures and rennet

some time to separate
the curds from the whey,

and a little bit later we'll
see what other delicious cheese

they make with the leftover
whey from this process.

[dramatic music]

[gentle electronic music]

- [Adam] At home in Brooklyn,
New York, there's a saying.

What kind of bagel would
you like with your shmear?

And for those not familiar,
a shmear is usually

a spread of cream cheese.

And the most famous
of all cream cheese is

Philadelphia, of course.

Americans eat the equivalent
of the Empire State Building

in cream cheese each year.

It's soft, it's creamy,
you can flavor it up

and spread it on
just about anything.

It was named Philadelphia
Cream Cheese in 1880,

but if you go to the City
of Brotherly Love and look

for the Philly Cream Cheese
factory, you won't find it.

But guess where you will?

In New York.

- It was called
Philadelphia Cream Cheese

because Philadelphia was
considered the dairy area

of the East Coast or
maybe the whole country.

And so it had this
romance about it.

But it was not made there,
it was made in New York.

Go figure.

- [Adam] And it's not just
bagels that get smeared

with that cream cheese lovin'.

This super spreadable
is on or in the favorite

of our most favorite foods,

from stuffed French
toast to sushi,

from cheese balls to cheesecake,

and can you even
imagine carrot cake

without cream cheese frosting?

No way.

But speaking of whey, we're
heading back to Caputo Brothers

to continue our firsthand
look at how mozzarella is made

in the traditional
Italian style.

We've added the bacteria
cultures and rennet

to separate it into
curds and whey.

- [Elizabeth] So, it's
been about an hour

since we added the rennet.

- Right, and you can see there's

like this matte finish on top.

- Yep, so that's kinda the
cream line coming to the top,

but we're gonna see
if it's ready or not.

And the way you do that is
you stick your finger in here

and you're just gonna-

- Oh wow!

- Looks more like pudding now.

- [Adam] It's got a skin on it.

- And if you can see that
it nicely smoothly cuts.

See how that broke?

- Broke, yeah.
- Very nicely?

- Like flan.

- That means that it's ready.

- So, now that we've
established that we're

at the right consistency, we've
done our little poke test,

what do we do next?

- [Elizabeth] We're
about to cut it.

- Let's cut it.

- This is called a spino.
- Whoa!

This is what they use in Italy.

We dive this in and bring
it back to the surface.

- That's actually
quite beautiful. Oh!

So, these are the curds.

- These are the cards.

Mozzarella is a higher
moisture cheese,

so we're gonna cut these
to be a bit larger.

Do you wanna try cutting?

- Absolutely, just to be able

to use the Gandalf
staff over here.

- So, you'll go down and
when you bring it up,

turn it about 90 degrees.

- This to me is like the
cheese equivalent of the way

they would rake
like a zen garden,

except this is way more tasty.

So, how is my spino technique?

- [Elizabeth] You are
doing a great job.

- I really do mean
this in earnest.

This is so relaxing.

[metal scrapes]
Oh no!

Me speeny, me speeny!

[somber violin music]

Dude, forget "Pagliacci,"

this is the worst tragedy
in Italy right here.

Now, let's take a step back

and take a look at
another side of cheese.

We all love cheese, right?

But it might surprise
you what some people

are willing to pay
or do to get it.

Cheese is the number one
stolen food in the world.

In fact, 4% of all
cheese made is stolen.

But some cheeses are
more desired than others.

Much like a fine painting,
some cheeses take

a great deal more effort
to make than others,

hence making them more valuable.

- I think that cheese
is like fine art

because it really holds
a snapshot of time

of the environment
and the relation

of animals to humans
to the land we live in.

And when you eat that one
piece of cheese, that's it.

And you'll never be able
to experience that again.

- [Adam] Cheese is made
from the milk of everything

from Holsteins to
Himalayan yaks.

One of the most expensive
cheeses in the world

is made from an unlikely source

high in the mountains of Serbia.

- So, there's a
donkey milk cheese

that is the most
expensive cheese

that I've ever read
about at $1700 a pound,

and it's called Pule.

I myself have not bought it.

- [Adam] The reason Pule
is so expensive is because

it takes two weeks of
milking these donkeys

to make one pound of Pule.

However, all this effort
is rewarded by a cheese

that has one-third as much fat

and has 60 times more
Vitamin C than most cheese.

Those rich enough to try it
say Pule tastes like Manchego

with a deeper, richer flavor.

And so this on top here, this
liquid, this is the whey?

- This is all whey.

We'll let this sit
about 10 minutes.

The curds will knit together
and the whey will continue

to come to the surface,

- [Adam] Mmm-hmm.

and then we'll take the
whey off and make ricotta.

- [Adam] And at Caputo Brothers,

they actually use their whey
to make an amazing ricotta

which we'll get to later.

But Elizabeth is
going to let me taste

some of the fresh curds.

So, it has, it's literally

it moves like silken tofu
or the albumen of an egg.

So, I love this.

I'm gonna take a step back
for health and safety reasons.

So, it has the consistency
like a silken tofu,

but because it's milk,
it's more substantial.

I don't know, is it possible
to taste more milky than milk?

- Well, that makes sense.

Cheese is just
concentrated milk.

We've taken off all of this
whey, which is the extra liquid,

so you have concentrated
milk flavor in your mouth.

- Oh, 'cause all
the moisture's gone.

- Exactly.

- It's quite crazy.

It liquefies the moment
it touches your tongue.

It has a decadence and
a dessert-like quality

devoid of sugar, devoid of
vanilla, devoid of cream.

And all it is is just
the rennet, skill, time,

and really good quality milk.

And now it's going to
become something fascinating

and delicious, part tradition
and part modern marvel.

But this is more a
melting modern marvel,

mouthwatering melting
modern marvel at that.

I'm very excited, and
I'll be using more

alliterative sentences as
this episode continues.

[Elizabeth chuckles]

So, let's chug along

with this cheery
cheesemaking, children.

The Great Pyramid of Giza
weighs 13 billion pounds.

That's how much cheese
Americans eat each year,

and artisan cheese makers
like Caputo Brothers

can't come close to
meeting that demand.

So, we're going to a
Kroger supermarket's

cheese conversion facility
in Crawfordsville, Indiana

to check out some
of the technology

that helps get all that cheese
from the farm to your fridge.

- It reminds me of the last
of "Raiders of the Lost Ark,"

the shot of the warehouse,

and he's walking
back through there.

Just rows and rows of cheese.

[upbeat music]

- [Adam] This facility
supplies Kroger supermarkets

with literally tons of cheese

in 2,700 stores
across 35 states.

Kroger doesn't make the cheese.

Instead, they get truckloads
full of 640-pound blocks

and their job here is to
feed it into all sorts

of machines to convert
these massive blocks

into cheese slices,
shreds, and smaller blocks.

- We usually bring in about
500,000 pounds of cheese a day,

typically between 2
1/2 to 3 million pounds

of cheese a week.

In each one of these boxes
is 640 pounds of cheese.

Within two to three
weeks all this cheese

will be used up completely.

[machines whirring]

- [Adam] The facility
processes 120 million pounds

of cheese each year.

To meet this demand, requires
milk from 60,000 cows.

That's a train of cows
that could reach the summit

of Mount Everest, not
once, but 15 times.

Converting these 640 pound
blocks into slices and shreds

is no easy task and
production lead Matthew Howard

is going to show
us how they do it.

- So, let's begin at the start

of the actual
production process.

This machine takes our giant
640-pound blocks of cheese,

lifts it into position,

and it goes down the
conveyor belt over there

to our wire guillotine.

- [Adam] These big
640s, as they're known,

get sliced into slabs
then moved down the belt

to the ultrasonic knife.

[high-pitched tone screeches]

This device that sounds
like it's right out

of a spy movie uses
a series of blades

that emit high-frequency
sound waves

to slice through these
huge blocks of cheese.

The sound waves
help keep the blades

from sticking to the cheese,

and then they go into
a density scanner

which takes an x-ray of the log

to help the slicer know
exactly how to cut it.

This machine cuts more than 3
million cheese slices a day,

seven days a week,
365 days a year.

And traveling at thousands
of revolutions a minute,

this blade not
only slices cheese,

but also inserts paper in order

to separate each
individual slice.

This all happens so
fast you have to use

an ultra slow motion camera
to see this magic in action.

- We actually produce
380,000 cases a day.

All the cheese for
Kroger in America.

- [Adam] All this cheese is
getting loaded onto as many

as 40 trucks a day and
sent out to grocery stores

across America to make sure
we get the cheese we need.

Now let's get back
to making the cheese.

At this point in the process,

most cheesemakers drain
the whey and get rid of it

as a byproduct, but here
at Caputo Brothers,

they use their whey
to make ricotta.

All right, it's been
about 10 minutes.

So, as the song says, I
want you to show me the way.

- We'll know if it's
ready to whey off

if you stick your hands
in and you don't feel

those curds right at the top,

then we know we can
take that top layer

of whey.
- Yeah, I don't feel

them at all, so they've sunken?

- They've sunken quite a bit.

So, we'll take
some whey off now,

and we'll use these
strainers and pitchers.

- [Adam] Okay.

- [Elizabeth] And
strain it through

in case there's any curds.

- That good?

- Perfect, and then
you'll just put it

through your strainer.

[whey pattering]

- And again, this is
tradition, this is what was-

- This is how they
do it in Italy.

They take the whey and
then they'll recook it.

- [Adam] Oh, recooking
it, which is...

- [Elizabeth] Ricotta.

- Ricotta. I love that.

I have to say, I
was today years old

when I found out that
ricotta and mozzarella

can both be made from
the same batch of milk.

So, I'm kind of amazed
at what kind of alchemy

we're using to turn
this yellow liquid

into that creamy,
grainy wonderful cheese.

The alchemy used is both simple,

like cheesemaking in general is,

and ingeniously modern
as steam is used

to heat up the whey.

But here at Caputo, a steam
wand helps the process

work its magic.

[upbeat music]

It's this way, right?

- It goes down.

- See, you sure you
want me to do this?

'Cause I have a
feeling this is gonna

go blow my damn eyebrows off.

- It's gonna be really loud.

- All right.

And with that little lever,

I begin the crescendoing sound
[machine rumbling]

of a mini rocket blasting off.

It's a steam wand
heating the whey

and beginning the cooking
in the ricotta process.

I'm amazed at this
method of making ricotta,

and I have to see
how this turns out.

- [Adam] The story goes
that 800 years ago

a Sicilian cheesemaker
spilled some whey

into a pot of boiling water and
mamma mia, ricotta was made!

[upbeat music]

Here at Caputo
Brothers Creamery,

our whey has been sitting
for about 40 minutes

in the steam bath.

What was the whey byproduct
of a different cheese,

has turned into a frothy,
beautiful ricotta.

- If you wanna taste it,
now is the best time.

- Is it?

- When it's warm,
oh, it's delicious.

You're just gonna
take a light scoop.

You don't really
wanna dive down,

you just wanna take a
little shave off the top.

- Okay.

- Just like that.

- This is very
new. This is crazy.

- [Elizabeth] Now, it's
gonna be really hot.

- Ooh, I love that
smell so much.

[gentle bright music]

That's gorgeous.

Oh, man. It's, like, velvety.

I've never had ricotta,
like, custard before.

You've ruined me
now for ricotta.

Nice job, Caputo.

Now I can't eat any
other cheese ever.

The only thing that comes
close to eating warm cheese

fresh from the source is
eating warm cheese on pasta,

and our favorite pasta
cheese combo, that's right,

macaroni and cheese.

The first recorded
mac and cheese recipe

goes back 800 years, but
it became one of America's

best-selling brands in 1937

when Kraft Macaroni &
Cheese was developed

as an affordable meal
during the Depression.

Today, Kraft sells more
than a million boxes

of mac and cheese every day.

And believe it or not,
it's the unofficial food

of our Canadian
neighbors to the North.

The Canucks eat 55%
more Kraft Dinner,

as they call it, than
we do, and they eat it

with ketchup on top.

I got to taste warm, ricotta
fresh out of the vat,

but that was only the infant
stage of Caputo's ricotta.

I got very excited when
Rynn Caputo pulled me aside

to taste the finished product.

- I heard that you absolutely
loved eating the ricotta,

but most people don't
have access to that.

So, I wanted you to have it

once it's had a
chance to set up,

and notice it's much firmer.
- [Adam] Oh!

Look at it. Like cheesecake.

- So delicate, and
it's really creamy.

- That's ridiculously good.

[Rynn laughs]

Borders on cream cheese
or like marscapone

in terms of its smoothness.

That in a lasagna is
such a game changer.

Unlike any ricotta
I've had. It's superb.

That ricotta was amazing,

but there is this
other cheese next to it

that looks like it took
a roll in the dirt.

You know, I gotta
try that one, too.

- So, this is our
Ricotta Salata.

Instead of putting
it in the baskets,

we press it and we age it.

How long do you
think we age it for?

- Oh, you never guess

a lady's age.
[Rynn laughs]

So, I'm gonna guess.

I know nothing
about cheesemaking.

I'm gonna say six months.

- Good guess.

So, in six weeks we get this
cheese to look like this.

- So how in the hell was
six months a good guess?

Why you playin' with me
[Rynn laughing]

like this, Rynn?

'Cause the number six was in it?

Look at it, it cuts
like a birthday cake.

Okay, so I'm gonna
cut a wedge out here.

Now, wait for it. Ah!

- [Adam] That is so awesome.

And it's the same cheese.

- It is.

- Look at that, you can
see it is absolutely solid.

That's breathtaking.

So, you have to
slice it very thin

which is why I'm
slicing it on a wire.

- It's like a cheese crime.

Two ricotta come into a
bar, one was assaulted.

- [laughs] I love it.

So, go ahead and try that
and see what you think.

- Oh, that's so good.

And there's a-

- A mushroom kinda earthiness?

- I was about to say,

like a funky.
- Yeah, you get the funk.

- It's like an earthy,
salty, creaminess.

I love it. I really love it.

[upbeat music]

This finished Caputo
cheese may have ruined me

for any other ricotta,
and I got a feeling

that this fresh
mozzarella I got coming up

is gonna be even better.

Practice safe lunch.
Use a condiment.

All right, we've drained the
whey and made ricotta from it,

and what was left
behind were the curds.

Now, it's time to turn
those curds into cheese.

It's time for the mozzarella
magic to start to take shape.

- All right, so hand me a
block and you can take one.

- Okay. Ooh, it feels cool.

Okay, so what do I do?

into smaller chunks.

- [Adam] Okay.

- Maybe somewhere around
the size of a quarter.

- That too small?

- Nope, that's perfect.

Doin' what we're doin'
now, stretchin' by hand,

this is what makes it artisan.

[soft tense music]

So, the next step is we're
gonna add a little bit of salt.

So, this we kinda
just do by hand.

- Okay.

is about enough.

- We start by
tempering the curds

with a shot of 190-degree water.

Then, we stir the curds
using plastic wands

that Elizabeth and her team

lovingly call
their magic sticks.

You can already see
the mozzarella forming!

Oh god, I'm just
gonna need some nachos

and some privacy, guys.

You guys all gotta go home.

[upbeat music]

For me, and probably
most Americans,

mozzarella lives at the heart
of comfort food central.

Can you believe each
of us eats on average

about 13 pounds of it a year?

But most of us are introduced
to America's favorite cheese

as kids by peeling
those long strips

of string cheese and
stuffing 'em in your mouth.

The string cheese craze in
America is credited by many

to Francis Baker, a
mozzarella cheesemaker

in St. Cloud, Wisconsin who,
in 1977, had the brilliant idea

to package individual
pieces of mozzarella,

but he needed a hook.

The first versions of string
cheese were twisted ropes

of mozzarella that he tried
to sell to bars of all places.

Soon, they rebranded as the
perfect healthy kid snack

and repackaged so they were
easier for little hands

to hold it and became
the favorite snack food

for school lunches
across America.

Soon, other brands like
Frigo CheeseHeads, Sargento,

POLLY-O, and Kraft made string
cheese into a big business.

You can eat it any way you want.

It's a free country, but
it's called string cheese

for a reason.

- [Elizabeth] And now
we're going to stretch it.

Pick it up by the middle
on your magic stick,

and you'll be able
to stretch it.

- Tell me Caputo Brothers
is not making magic.

This is why it's
called the magic stick.

Stretching cheese, or
as the Italians call it,

pasta filata, aligns
the proteins in the cheese

and gives the mozzarella
that gooey stretchiness

that you want when you're
pulling a slice of pizza

from the pie.

It's what makes
string cheese stringy

and gives mozzarella that
gorgeous mouth feel that it has.

If this were like
fried right here,

just fill one of
these with marinara.

I just wanna do
Double Dutch with this

for the rest of my life.

[dramatic music]

- [Adam] Cheese isn't always
decadent and delicious.

In the 1970s, government
cheese was born.

And even though it
was super sketchy,

it became part of
most Americans' lives,

and we learned to love it.

- In the 1970s, prices
for milk went way up

and then they came
crashing way down.

It was really hard
times for dairy farmers.

So, under U.S.
President Jimmy Carter,

the U.S. government pumped
$2 billion into the industry.

And they used that cash to
produce more and more milk.

- [Adam] Except now
the dairy farmers

had a different problem.

They had way more milk
than they could sell.

So, the U.S. government
stepped in again.

They decided to buy up
all the surplus milk

and they used it to make, you
guessed it, processed cheese.

And that actually
caused another problem.

- Cheese has to be stored

under temperature-controlled
facilities,

and that was really expensive,

so the U.S. government
started distributing

the cheese to people
who needed it.

This was called
government cheese.

- [Adam] This vast surplus
of government cheese

was processed cheese
made from a blend

of different cheese
products and emulsifiers.

It came in gigantic
five-pound blocks.

Often, it was covered in mold

from sitting in huge
underground storage facilities

for up to 10 years.

And the taste?

The nicest thing the
government could say

about it was that it
slices and melts well.

- Now, government cheese has
a bit of a mixed reputation.

On the one hand it's
associated with hard times,

but on the other hand, a lot
of people grew up eating it.

And so, it's this
nostalgic taste

of childhood for them.

Mark Wahlberg and
his siblings grew up

eating government cheese,
and they actually opened

a burger chain called
Wahlburgers that offered

government cheese for
free as a free topping

on all of their burgers.

- [Adam] To see the milk
arrive there,

like that's the back
of the tank that we saw

when Sean delivered the milk
in the beginning of the day,

and we saw it
pasteurized, and to see it

kind of go milk to curd to
ribbons of cheesy goodness.

Seriously, this is gorgeous.

Oh, wow.

- Well, once it's
stretched, grab a clump,

- [Adam] Okay.

and you're tryin' to
work that outer layer

of cheese very thin.

So you're kind of
smoothing it, smoothing it,

and all the while,
- [Adam] Oh, okay.

you'll collect it
with your other hand.

There ya go.

with that finger as you grab it.

And you're just gonna pinch,
pinch, pinch, pinch, pinch

until you can feel it break.

- [Adam] Ah-ha.

- And put this in here?

- [Elizabeth] Yep.

This is my favorite
time to eat this cheese.

- [Adam] Really?

- Warm, freshly stretched.

- Yeah, it's just so gorgeous.

Is it okay if I try a little?

- Absolutely.

- How could I not
want to try this?

It's warm and it's
silky when you touch it.

Ooh!

[soft suspenseful music]

So good.

This has to be like in the
Caputo benefits package,

like vision, dental,
and the ability to eat

top quality mozzarella
warm and stringy

outta the stretching process.

The milk is the
first note you get.

All I can say is I love my job.

[Elizabeth chuckles]

Just like a well-oiled baseball
glove, a bottle of wine,

or Tom Hanks,

cheese is something that
gets better with age

thanks to microscopic
organisms in dank, dark places.

We've been granted
access to a cave

in a place you'd never suspect.

It's underneath
the city streets.

I can't wait to see
what's lurking inside.

- [Adam] The last step of the
cheesemaking process

is aging it,

and for that we are
descending into a cave,

a cheese cave in
the remote borough of

Brooklyn, New York,
my hometown.

Someone who ages cheese
is called an affineur,

and Crown Finish Caves
is the only affineur

in the U.S. that doesn't
make cheese, only ages it.

- In 2000 we found
this property.

It was built as a brewery
in the late 1800s.

These underground
caverns or tunnels,

they were designed
to ferment lagers.

You're 30 feet below the street

so it has an existing condition

and a history to fermentation.

- [Adam] When you see
mold, yeast, and bacteria,

it usually means it's time
to clean out the fridge,

but this humid, dark cheese
cave is like a health spa

for all those little
microorganisms to thrive

and do what they do best,
multiply, die, ferment, repeat.

This process of fermentation

is what gives most
cheese its flavor.

Ethan Partyka,
the cave manager,

might just have the coolest
job title in the world.

It's the cave manager's
job to prepare,

wash, and flip the
cheese, all to create

the perfect surface

or rind for
microorganisms to grow.

As it ages, enzymes from the
stuff growing on the rind

penetrate into the
cheese and give it

all that delicious flavor.

- [Benton] Some cheese
stays there a year,

some cheese stays there
a couple of months.

Most of it stays there
around four months.

You can Cryovac cheese,
put it on a shelf

in a walk-in cooler and
leave it there and it will,

it's not open to the
air so it's not evolving.

We're trying to help
that cheese move along

in the right direction.

So, controlling the
environment that it's in,

flipping it, letting each
side have air around it,

letting um, you know,
washing it as needed.

You're wanting to manage
that cheese to bring it

to its fullest potential.

It needs to be cared
for like a baby.

- Back in Spring
Grove, Pennsylvania,

I've pasteurized it, I've
added bacterial cultures,

and I've cut out the curds
and separated the whey.

Now that I've learned
how to stretch

their traditional mozzarella,

I asked if I could do
a taste test, my way.

[soft tense music]

The stretchiness and the
flavor of it made me wonder

if we could maybe
use this like almost,

I guess one might
say cheese clay.

Okay, let's see if this works.

I could be going down
in flames or in history.

Okay.

[tense music continues]

Oh, man, Dr. Atkins,
eat your heart out.

This is so groovy, come on.

[bright music]

Maybe mozzarella isn't your
first choice for a burger,

but this isn't your
average mozzarella.

It's creamy, a little
salty, it's chewy,

and without doubt,
the perfect covering

for this inverted cheeseburger.

Even with bacon, with
pickles and onions

and ketchup and
mustard and stuff,

you still taste that cheese.

And having had that raw milk,

that you still get all
those characteristics,

that creaminess,
that milkshake-iness,

that grassiness.

It's so good. Mm.

Over 7,000 years ago, the
very first cheeses were made.

Since then, over 1800
different varieties

of cheese have been created.

They're enjoyed
all over the world

and all throughout the
day, and the next time

you sink your teeth into
this incredible edible,

hopefully you'll be
able to understand,

appreciate, and taste
the thousands of years

of experiments, craftsmanship,
scientific ingenuity,

and sheer artistry
that go into making

this magnificent, mouthwatering
melty modern marvel.

So, whether you
slice, dice, or grate,

there is no debate that
from the cities to the seas,

America loves its cheese.