Mozzarella isn't my first choice of cheese. I really love long aged hard cheeses but a local farmer is giving me Raw Milk to make cheese with then give back to her. She really likes Mozzarella and Provolone, which I have no experience with.
So here's what I've done with the mistakes that I think I made. Please let me know anything that you observe that can be improved upon.
I've taken Caldwell's recipe and I use it up until I reach the curd heating and stretching phase and I've attempted to use an approach that I see a lot of Italian cheese-makers on Youtube use.
Ingredients:
1. 4 Gallons of Whole Milk
2. 1/4 tsp + 1/16 tsp of TM81 (The recipe calls for 1/4th for 2 gallons of milk, which would make 1/2Tsp for 4 gallons but I was using Raw Milk so I cut it by 40%)
3. 3ml of single strength rennet (The recipe calls for 1/4+ for 2 gallons which is 1.5ml so I doubled it.
4. Did not use Calcium because of Raw Milk
5. Did not use Lipase
Directions:
1. Heat milk to 80F. My starting pH was 6.7
2. Add culture when 80 is reached. Sprinkled and let re-hydrate for 5 minutes.
3. Increase Temp to 90F and maintain for 1 to 1 1/2 hour or until a pH of 6.4 is reached. Mine took the 1 1/2 hours to reach it.
4. Added Rennet and stirred in an up and down motion 20 times. I used a Floc multiplier of 3.5 and it set at 9:30 so 9.5 x 3.5 = 33.25
5. Cut curd at 1/2" and let rest for 10 minutes
6. Stirred curd very gently while increasing the temp to 95F to 98F over the course of 15 Minutes. I went to 97F
7. Let curds settle at the bottom of vat under the whey until a pH of 6.0 to 6.1 is reached. 30 to 60 Minutes. It took 43 Minutes to reach a pH of 6.07
8. Drain whey from curds. I used a siphon hose with a plastic colander
9. Put curds into a colander over whey or water and turn stove on lowest heat. This can also be done at room temperature but it will take longer.
10. Flip curd block every hour until a pH of 5.1 to 5.3 and try a stretch test. Mine stretched at a pH of 5.22
11. Cut curd in 1/2" cubes. I was rushing at this point because I was trying to multi-task and I made a 1/2" vertical cut in the curd block but missed the horizontal.
12. I deviated from the recipe at this point and put the curds into 90F water. The goal was to incrementally warm the curds so the outside isn't cooked while the inside stays colder.
I then added 130F water. Lastly, I added 200F water, based on this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r7p25YJQk0So several mistakes were made here.
1. I didn't know the rate to expect the curds to heat up.
2. The fact that the curds were bigger probably slowed down the rate of heating.
3. I knew going in, that I didn't have a good sense of how much/little water or whey was needed and I used too much.
I made the mistake of thinking that because the curds were melting slowly - more hot water should be added. After being submerged for a little while - the curds became too hot and started fully melting.
4. Using a rectangular vat - had me chasing the curds around because I couldn't see them underwater. Next time I will use a large stainless steel bowl and add water more slowly.
Based on the video I posted, I tried to use the paddle with gravity to stretch the curds because the first time I did hand stretching - the curds were tough. This time the mozzarella is pretty soft.
After rolling the cheese into a ball - I put it in brine for 15 minutes. 1 pound of salt per gallon.
I have learned to not cut into the cheese immediately after brining. It need time to cool.
I used this video's method of wrapping the cheese which does keep the shape. The first time I made mozzarella, all of my cheese turned to pancakes.
Lastly, I'm very please with the results except that there is a tart and slightly bitter aftertaste. I have fresh rennet so I'm not sure what it could be. Any advice would be appreciated.