My cheese life is a disaster and so young

[Cut the cheese]

Good day all,

This is my first post to this site and for good reasons, I suck at cheese making. Last night was my 3rd (can you believe it!) attempt at making Mozzarella and down the drain it went, I will attempt to give you all the info I can so you can set me straight, I'm sure there are no spacecraft overhead when I try so that's a good thing!

I'm using the same store bought whole milk 3 times, Anderson Erickson out of Des Moines, IA, I got my citric acid from a health food store and an unopened bottle of animal rennet from a friend that was going to make cheese a year ago but his love of home brew and wine leave little time left.

1.5 tsp of acid into 1 cup water with 1 gallon milk, heat to 90 degrees or when curds start to form, pull off heat and add 1/4 tsp of rennet in 1/4 cup water, stir 10 seconds and cover for 5 minutes. That's as far as I get, it has yet to turn into a curd. I dumped the liquid rennet and went to the store and bought tablets last night thinking the liquid rennet was old, the results may have been a tad better but I could have sucked the whole pan up through a cocktail straw.

I am using all stainless steel, my work area is clean, I'm sick of you tube videos, can you help me out? We have a wood fired pizza oven and I just want to have more control over what I feed our friends. Thank you in advance.

Mark 

[Kern]

Welcome to the Cheeseforum.  I can tell you this from experience:  Those so called 1 hour mozzarella cheeses need way more than 5 minutes between adding the rennet and cutting.  Let them sit long enough so that they produce a "clean break"  (search this term on the Forum).  Furthermore, if you are using pasteurized/homogenized whole milk make sure that it is NOT ultra-pasteurized and plan to add some calcium chloride to the milk before adding the citric acid and rennet.  Stir in the diluted rennet for at least one minute and then let it sit until it breaks cleanly without producing milky whey.

A final comment:  All these "one-hour" cheese books are mostly written to enrich the authors who - can you believe it - often sell cheese making kits.  If you are serious about making cheese then go on Amazon and order Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking by Gianaclis Caldwell.  It costs $28.34 on Prime.  If you aren't serious and all you want to make is mozzarella then throw your cheese kit away and spend your money on store bought cheese.

You CAN improve your cheese life but you'll have to work at it.  The rewards last a lifetime.   

[Jeepyj]

I will add that if you used "Junket" rennet tablets, they are not the rennet tablets you should be using. I made that mistake recently.

[Sweet Leaves Farm]

I make the "quick" mozzarella, and you really have to get the pH down to 5.7 before you add the rennet, be careful about temperature, and your rennet must be liquid rennet and fresh. I make it all the time and it turns out every time, since I got my process down. Good Luck.

[Cut the cheese]

Welcome to the Cheeseforum.  I can tell you this from experience:  Those so called 1 hour mozzarella cheeses need way more than 5 minutes between adding the rennet and cutting.  Let them sit long enough so that they produce a "clean break"  (search this term on the Forum).  Furthermore, if you are using pasteurized/homogenized whole milk make sure that it is NOT ultra-pasteurized and plan to add some calcium chloride to the milk before adding the citric acid and rennet.  Stir in the diluted rennet for at least one minute and then let it sit until it breaks cleanly without producing milky whey.

A final comment:  All these "one-hour" cheese books are mostly written to enrich the authors who - can you believe it - often sell cheese making kits.  If you are serious about making cheese then go on Amazon and order Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking by Gianaclis Caldwell.  It costs $28.34 on Prime.  If you aren't serious and all you want to make is mozzarella then throw your cheese kit away and spend your money on store bought cheese.

You CAN improve your cheese life but you'll have to work at it.  The rewards last a lifetime.   

Thank you all, I will check my label on the milk again and I did know about up milk. I think it best to get the book and buy products from supplier of cheese making and stay out of stores that cater to all!!!

[Kern]

Caldwell lists sources in the back of her book  I'd add the following:

The Cheese Connection  http://stores.cheeseconnection.net/
The Cheese Maker          http://www.thecheesemaker.com/
Dairy Connection            http://www.dairyconnection.com/

and for controllers (temperature and humidity)

Perfect Cheese              http://www.perfect-cheese.com/


Members of some of these companies are Forum members.

[John@PC]

This is my first post to this site and for good reasons, I suck at cheese making. Last night was my 3rd (can you believe it!) attempt at making Mozzarella and down the drain it went, I will attempt to give you all the info I can so you can set me straight, I'm sure there are no spacecraft overhead when I try so that's a good thing!

Only three times?  Took me 5 to make a "good" mozz.  For the life of me I don't know why the book writers rank Mozzerella as an "easy" cheese.  Yes it's easy once you learn the ropes (no pun intended )

And welcome to the forum.  I attached the picture in celebration of your location  .