History of water buffalo

The production of mozzarella is linked to the water buffalo. Plinius the Elder in his writings in natural history classified the water buffalo as ‘bubalus’ or an exotic animal living in wet and swampy environment.

It is believed that the domestication of the buffalo occurred about 5000 years ago on the Indian subcontinent.

Indian water buffalo have been derived from the wild Asiatic water buffalo, or arni, Bubalus arnee, which still survives, though dwindling wild populations are now limited to the states of Assam and Madhya Pradesh in India and in Nepal.

The Chinese domestic water buffalo has developed from the Asian primitive water buffalo whose domestication began in 3000-4000 BC in China.

Water buffalo are good milk producers and are the principle dairy animals in India and Pakistan, producing large volumes of milk of high butterfat content.

The rearing of water buffalo in the marshy low lands in the Campania region dates back to the 12th century, but it was not until the 17th century that large scale processing of milk began.
History of water buffalo

History of Mozzarella cheese

Mozzarella cheese begins in the Campania region in southern Italy and was originally manufactured from buffalo milk.

Plinius the Elder, classified the water buffalo as a ‘bubalus’ or an exotic animal, living in wet and swampy environment. Columella in De Re Rustica described a cheese that after curdling was warmed, cut, scalded in water, hand kneaded and molded in the shaped of a lump.

The first written record shows that Mozzarella was first made by the monks of San Lorenzo di Capua Italy, from sheep’s milk.

In the 16th century, when water buffalo were introduced to Naples, the rich milk of those animals started to be used.

Mozzarella cheese-making technology was brought to the US by Italian immigrants at the start of 20th century.

The cheese remained an ethnic product with a limited market until around World War II, when Italian cuisine in general and pizza pie in particular, began its meteoric rise in popularity.
History of Mozzarella cheese