A tale of two cultures
I brought home almost 3 gallons of lovely raw Jersey milk on 12/16/14 for making feta, mozzarella and ricotta. Not much room in the cave right now, so I needed some fresh types! I was struck by the similarities in the makes and the difference in pH development in 2 cheeses each made with a different mesophillic starter. Flora Danica has much slower acid development than MM100. Feta curd with FD was kept in warmer cave, Mozzarella curd with MM100 was kept in cold frig. So here it is in sort of a table form- sorry for formatting problems:
Time Feta Time Mozzarella
2:25 Temp 90, scant 1/16t FD and lipase 4:15 Temp 90, scant 1/16t MM100 stirred in
3:35 Rennet stirred in, 16 min flocc 5:20 Rennet stirred in, 15 min flocc
4:38 2” vertical cuts 6:15 2” vertical cuts
4:50 2” horizontal cut 6:23 2” horizontal cuts
5:00 Gentle wiggling of curd 6:33 Gentle wiggling of curd
5:20 Scooped into mesh bag 6:55 Scooped into microperf form
6:20 Into ricotta basket temp at 72 Kept warm in pot at 72
9:15 PH tested 6.45 9:15 PH tested at 6.0
10:00PH at 6.0 – into cave at 55 10:00 PH at 5.84 – into house frig at 38
12/17/14 Afternoon
2:30 PH 5.1 – left on counter 2:30 PH ? On counter, too cold
3:00 PH 5.0 3:00 PH 5.0!! Time to make mozza- Success!
6:30 PH 4.85 – back in cave
11:00 Into sat brine for 8 hours