OK, so my first mozzarella was a flop. For reference I attempted a traditionally cultured mozzarella, didn't understand at the time the importance of acidity for the stretching process. Hey, I was new, it was my first attempt at cheese making, and yes it probably wasn't a great choice for a first cheese to make (oh sure now you tell me) but what did I know. That was almost a year and a half ago and since then I have learned a lot (hopefully enough) and have had good results, sometimes spectacular results with several other cheeses. But the stigma of that first failure has haunted me and I have subconsciously avoided a repeat misperformance. That first attempt wasn't a waste by the way, I did salvage the curds and salted them and together with a ricotta made from that first batch it made a simply luscious lasagna. So with this history when my son mentioned that we hadn't made pizza in a while, I found myself saying, "how about Friday, I'll make mozzarella". We make all our own bread, I make cheese, tomatoes are in season, sort of, it made perfect sense at the time, but now I was all in. So here I am this morning with milk in a pot, rennet setting, wondering just what I have gotten myself in for. But hey, you fall off that bike and it's always best to get back on. Now mind you I am further complicating this by the fact that I am only verrrrrry loosly following any recipe, and approaching this make with a great deal of bravado and daring doo (whats the worst that could happen, I mean apart from the emotional scarring, the deep lingering depression, and the sense of failure) So away we go.
6/4/15
1 1/4 gal p/h milk
1/2 cup yogurt and 2 cups whey from the previous evenings yogurt batch (I want this sucka to acidify) from a re cultured several times batch originally started from a Fage Greek yogurt.
2 heaping Tbsp. meso culture
1 heaping Tbsp. buttermilk culture
1/4 tsp cal chlor
1/4 tsp calf rennet
Heated milk to 95 F, added cultures and stirred in ripened 15 minutes, yes 15 minutes, the whey lowered the acidity immediately.
Added cal chlor in 1/4 cup filtered and aged water, stirred in and added 1/4 tsp calf rennet in 1/4 cup aged filtered water.
Missed the flocculation point but it was less than 19 minutes, so will check for a clean break at 45 minutes. Checked at 30 minutes just in case and not quite there yet.
At 45 min. had clean break and cut curds to 1/2 inch, let rest 30 min.
Raise temp to 105 F over 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
At 105 F stir gently for 10 minutes and let rest for 15 min.
Drain curds for 15 min. until fully drained, no whey dripping
Return curds to water bathed pot and maintain water bath at 105 for 2 hours
Well another failure (shame, darkness, depression, self loathing). What is it with this cheese? I have generally no problem with other cheese types and yet this one keeps getting me. I haven't given up. I do after all need to get this pasta filata thing down if I am to make the others like provalone, caciocavalla. But I can only take so much failure in a given time period. I have one more save that I may try, taking the curds and doing the quick mozzarella finish with them ala microwave. If a small sampling of that doesn't work then these curds are bound for cheesecake (ah darn), a lemon coconut cheesecake sounds nice.
BTW. I salvaged the pizza day by doing a batch of quick mozzarella this morning in the wee hours, at least that worked out for me.
To be abandoned (for now at least)
John
