The hard working folks over at Chicago Soy Dairy have been hard at work reformulating their Teese recipe. They recently sent out some samples of a test batch of the new mozzarella recipe and i was able to put it though a few tests. Among the areas they have been working to improve are the melt and stretch.

The first thing I did when i got my hands on it was to make some pizza. An obvious choice, but a good benchmark for any vegan cheese. I am happy to report that the melting qualities of Teese are greatly improved. Where before it tended to totally liquefy into a puddle of cheesy oil, it now melts more like cheese and maintains some amount of body. Also, it now does have some stretch to it. It kind of needs to cool to just the right point to get optimally stretchy.

One use that was perfect for the new Teese was a margarita pizza. The round shape of the tube and the soft creaminess made it a good stand in for a buffalo mozzarella on the classic pizza.

I also used some to make up a batch of mozzarella sticks. I kicked up my previous recipe by using panko bread crumbs and adding vegan bacon bits to the breading. The Teese did not preform as well as I might have liked, and they were more like breaded cheese curds (but still very tasty). I may have not fried them long enough to get the frozen Teese to fully melt.