PH question for Mozzarella

[felku]

I'm currently trying to make a mozzarella. I used thermo B culture and using caldwell's recipe. In the steps it says to let it rest the milk from 60-90 after adding culture. I added the culture and so far I don't see any change in PH. The PH was 6.6 after culture and after 1 hour it still at 6.6 . Any idea in what I should do or I need just to wait?

Any advice will be appreciated.

[awakephd]

What's your milk temperature?

[felku]

90 F

Basically 2 hours have passed and still on 6.5 .7  . The recipe says to get a .2 difference or around 6.4 . Don't know if keep waiting or proceed to add the rennet.

[felku]

This have been more difficult that what I tough. At the end I manage to lower the ph to 6.4 and added the rennet. But now the ph of the curd don't want to lower. The recipe mention that the curds need to give 6.1 ph  and they still give me 6.4 . Considering how long it took me for .2 those .3 will last an eternity.

[felku]

This has been a tough fight I manage to get the ph that was require but the curds are not stretching. Don't know if keep waiting or just call this a fail.

[awakephd]

Felku,

I am sorry it has not worked for you -- I don't know if it helps any that the consensus on this forum seems to be that mozzarella is actually one of the more difficult cheeses to make. Certainly my three or four attempts have been very mixed.

Your ripening temperature is certainly good -- could try a few degrees higher to encourage the thermo, but really, you shouldn't have had this much trouble getting some pH change.

Have you used this culture successfully on any other cheeses? (Or to ask another way, any chance that this culture is bad?)

[felku]

Thanks for replying awakephd it seems this section of the forum is not very popular lol.

This is my first cheese  with culture and second in total. I realize is more difficult than what I thought but I will not quit until get it right.

ok, about the culture, I will try with a different culture since I bought 2 different from different places to try. At the end the ph lowered but there was not flavor at all and  it didn't stretch.

A thing that confused me a lot is that I bought calf rennet and the bottle says to use 1/2 teaspoon for each gallon and in every recipe I have seen it says to use 1/4 teaspoon per 2 gallon. It was confusing and it took me all day but I want to see what I did wrong in order to try again.

[Alison]

Hi Felku

It can be done, I also started at mozz. A couple of comments from my experiences

1) Long ago when I had pH strips stretch occurs at 5.1-5.3 - not 6.1. Now I test for stretch with a little piece of curd in ~boiling hot water.
2) I have used a preservative free Bulgarian yogurt as a starter culture and found I needed a cup for 5l milk (ie a lot!)
3) It can take a while for the pH to drop. To speed this up I found I either needed to a) increase the culture dosage, b) slowly raise the curd/whey temperature to 42C after cutting.
4) At the moment I make stracchino - and when I leave that in the fridge for up to a week or two it can I can get it to stretch (I suggest you leave you slow pH drop cheese in the fridge and test it daily?).

It is tricky to know what "stretch" is before you've felt it yourself. I made citric acid mozz before cultured mozz and got a feel for stretch before trying with culture.

Keep going!

Regards
Alison

[felku]

Thanks for the reply.

 At the end I did got the necessary ph but it wasn't stretching. I will try again and will use a different culture and I will increase the dosage.

[Kern]

As a general rule you must heat the mozzarella before stretching it.  This can be done in hot whey (~150F) or in a microwave.  When initially stretched it appears grainy.  Pull on it several times and all of a sudden it smooths out and gets shiny.  If it is still stretchy at this point (and it won't be if it cools too much so reheat it if needed) then mold it and drop it into ice water so that it cools quickly.  Then it will hold its shape.  If you keep it warm and keep stretching it beyond the shiny point it will get tough and stringy.  That's basically how string cheese is made.   

[cheeseslovesu]

Hi Felku,
I am totally addicted to making mozzarella! In my experience it is essential to premake your starter, a thermo mix is best, the night before so it is in a yoghurt style mix when you start making the mozzarella. You should start to have a pH drop within minutes of adding the starter at the correct temp. Within 30 mins you should be ready to add rennet.
The temp is important, between 34C and 37C. If the pH isn't dropping fast enough then warm it to the 37C.
I have posted my recipe on a previous thread so try it and see how you go.
Once you have had a success then you can't stop making it.

[felku]

Thanks for the post cheeseslovesu . The premake with starer looks interesting, can you let me know how you do it?

I tried another batch last Friday but it didn't stretch , it tasted great but it doesn't melt right. I think I want to try the premake you mentioned. Is a shame I don't have access to better milk. Only Pasteurizes and homogenized even I can't use heavy cream because is Ultra Pasteurized.

[henrikpoa]

my starter takes 6.5 hours to get to 5.2 ph.
First 4 hours happens nothing then everything in last 2.5 hours. This is normal.
Premade starter drops faster since it already contains lactic acid anough to make it drop.