I’ve tried lancing them ahead of time, like I would with a sausage, but they still split open and spill their chizz everywhere.
Have you tried mixing in a 1/4 cup of non-toxic glue?
yeah
Then you’ll probably need to use the toxic stuff.
mmm a little for the chef, a little for the recipe
chefs can have a little toxic glue, as a treat
I heard it tastes better.
It’s unavoidable - once the cheese gets hot enough the steam will either force the liquid cheese out of existing holes, or it will make its own holes.
Make sure they are fresh out of the freezer when you put them in, as this lets the outside crisp up more before the inside becomes lava. Once you get close to the prescribed cooking time, you need to just sit in front of the oven door and watch them, and as soon as 2-3 break open, take the whole tray out
That’s actually what i would have suggested as a first.
Are you cooking them on the flat of the pan, or are you using a baking rack in the pan? They tend to do better on a rack from what little I’ve done them.
you know those splash guards for frying pans? I cook them on that alongside the frozen pizza. all the benefits of on the rack, with half of the dangers
Dang, that really should keep them from splitting. Even heat and escape holes normally do the trick.
And they usually have instructions where the temp is the same as most pizzas, so it can’t be heating up too fast for the escape holes to vent (which shouldn’t even be possible at oven temps at all, but it isn’t impossible I guess).
Only other thing I can think of is that any surface ice could make the coating cook unevenly, leading to a split where it starts out colder and stays wetter. But that’s difficult to fix if that’s what it is. But I’ve seen it happen on breaded items before.
Past that, I got nothin
I’ve got different things I’m going to try. the pizza is 18 minutes at 400°, the mozzarella sticks are 8 minutes at 475°. I like my pizza overdone so I set the timer for 10 minutes, and do the first 10 minutes of just pizza at 400°. then I add the mozzarella sticks, turn it up to 475°, and set it for another 8 minutes. I don’t wait for it to get up to temperature, but it gets there rather quickly. usually less than a minute
That’s how you know they’re done
Are you using low moisture mozzarella?
I’m using whatever Publix has in their frozen mozzarella sticks
It might work better if you deep-fried them.
No, seriously: that way, they can cook quickly enough to get crispy before the water in the cheese has a chance to boil.
yeah
Yeah that’s it ay
Are you lancing them once? Cheese has a ton of water in it so you need to keep going until the stick cries out “Et tu Brutus?”
so I tried it once the first time, that’s usually all a sausage needs, but this last time I did eight per stick and it still popped. but, I think I left them in a slightly too long this time, I’m dialing that in
Totally going to knife gang murder my mozzarella sticks next time. Got it. 🔪
Try higher heat with shorter time. Also preheat the oven first.
