So probably like everyone else, I tried making mozzarella for the first time tonight. Everything seemed to be going very well but then it fell apart at the end. Here is my process.
1. I used 1 gallon of Aldi's 2% milk with about 1/2 pint of cream added.
2. I dissolved 1.5 teaspoons of citric acid in half a cup of water and added it to the milk
3. Gently heated to 90° F and removed from heat
4. Added 1/3 of a tablet of rennet dissolved in 1/4 cup water
5. stirred for 30 seconds and then let stand for 10 minutes.
At this point it had set enough that I was able to cut the curds into chunks. Continuing with the recipe I was using I put it back on the heat.
6. Heated it to 105° F and removed from heat.
7. removed curds from whey and drained in a strainer
At this point it was forming a nice cheese like clump and everything seemed to be going well.
I then heated some water to about 185° F and dipped the curds to heat to an internal temp of 135° F. I didn't have a fine mesh strainer and there was some loss through the over large holes of the strainer, but it still seemed to be going well, it was melting on the edges and getting stringy like melting mozzarella. I was trying to get it to 135° before stretching but then all of a sudden it just turned to liquid and at the end I was left with something like runny ricotta.
What did I do wrong?
