Author Topic: Mozzarella - soft vs. hard  (Read 3017 times)

waterdalemama

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Mozzarella - soft vs. hard
« on: August 29, 2013, 07:42:30 PM »
I've been making mozzarella for several years now.....I end up about 50/50 with it turning out good or not. My citric acid type always came out very very soft and my cultured type always came out hard and squeaky. I've finally had success several times in a  row following Mrs.KK's citric acid recipe! So today I decided to do the cultured type again using yogurt as my starter and letting it acidify by putting the curd into a pot that's in a warm water bath so that I could stretch it today instead of waiting for it to acidify over night. It came out pretty good, but I'm afraid its too tough and squeaky again.

So, yesterday I made a butterkase cheese using the floc. method....I've never done that before and was surprised to find that my rennet set the milk so fast that by 2 minutes the bowl didn't move anymore at all. That means I need to be using a lot less rennet if I want the floc. time to be 8-10min, right? My liquid animal rennet says to use 1/2 tsp. for 2 gallons of milk and I use fresh raw milk from our two milk cows. Should I use half that amount or even less? Could this possibly be what has been making my cultured mozzarella turn out so hard....that it needs less rennet and a longer floc. time and multiplier? Even with a 5 multiplier, a floc. time of 2 min. means it would only sit for 10 min. after renneting! I'm pretty sure I read that sitting longer after renneting helps the cheese turn out more moist. Am I understanding this all right?

WovenMeadows

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Re: Mozzarella - soft vs. hard
« Reply #1 on: August 29, 2013, 11:25:13 PM »
I use fresh raw milk as well, and I've found that I need about 2ml or 3/8 tsp of rennet per FOUR gallons of milk to get a 10-12 minute flocculation. I formerly just went by the bottle, and didn't time flocculation, and experienced hard, tough, rubbery, and/or overly moist cheeses. So probably cutting down to a 1/4 or scant 1/4 tsp will put you closer in the right ballpark rennet- and flocculation-wise.

As I understand it, the reason that longer coagulation makes for a moister cheese is that the casein network has more time to form more and stronger bonds - which later on better hold or capture more whey. Hence, a higher yielding, moister cheese.

waterdalemama

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Re: Mozzarella - soft vs. hard
« Reply #2 on: August 29, 2013, 11:54:55 PM »
That's just what I've been doing.....going by the bottle and not timing flocculation....until yesterday. Its good to know that this helped your cheeses turn out better! Maybe I'm on the right track now!