Bonus question, its it just a specific type of cheese, or is it possible to make stringy versions of other types, like swiss or cheddar?
In: Chemistry
String cheese is NOT made by stretching and pulling it like rope, although that technique works for turning mozzarella into string cheese at home.
What actually happens in a dairy plant (or creamery) is that mozzarella curds are heated in hot water until they are soft, then rolled through an auger. This process, plus the heat, helps to naturally align the proteins into that stringy consistency, although the strings are NOT yet aligned in a single direction.
The next step is to push the cheese through an extruder, which is basically like a high-pressured playdoh machine. Since the massive volume of cheese gets squeezed into long, thin tubes, *most* of the strings end up aligned after it comes out of the extruder.
Finally, the pieces are cut into shorter lengths and packaged.
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