Fresh mozzarella

[DeejayDebi]

Pavel I have never used ph meter on mozzarella. Just started using one for other cheese recently and I forget most of the time.

Hard to teach an ole girl new tricks! 

[justsocat]

I'm a chemistry engineer, Debi, and  this is one of the reasons why I don't use those meters. I don't want another chemical laboratory at home. Again I don't state I'm right. Everyone is free in our prison

[DeejayDebi]

I think that the look and feel of the make are more intuitive for some people than others. It's like trying to create a recipe from something you have made forever and never measured anything - it doesn't come out the same.

[Tea]

Well for me, I was determined not to use a pH meter.  I mean, cheese makers for centuries haven't used one, so it must be able to be done?  Right?
Well just when I thought I understood the cheese, everything started to go wrong.  I was having more misses than successes, and it was getting a little too expensive to keep ruining a cheese.  As I also needed a pH meter for my mead I decided to bite the bullet and purchase one.  I am hoping that as time goes, I will be able to learn from the look and feel, and that I won't eventually need the pH meter.

Fingers crossed.

[mosborn]

Tea, how do you use the pH meter for your mead?  I have two batches of mean going, and I think maybe I'd like to learn what the heck I'm doing with that.

[DeejayDebi]

I pretty much only used the pH meter for my dry aged (fermemnted sausage) but not cheese until I came here. Wayne got me curious about what my reading might be. I tried to remember it but I have made cheese for so many years without it I just always forget the darned thing. Now the battery is dead. 

[Tea]

Mosborn, yeast need certain "living" conditions for them to grow and reproduce properly.  If the pH is too low they will go into dormant stage, which can sometimes be the cause of a "stuck" fermentation.  pH should be around 3.8 or above.  Calcium Carbonate is used to bring up the pH and this can be done by adding 1/2-1 tsp at a time stirring and checking ph.  Keep adding in this increment till pH is back to normal levels.

The mead I was concerned about was just honey and water nothing else to keep the yeast happy.  Fermentation was very slow, and I was concerned that it was barely going to make 10% when the yeast should have made atleast 16%.  Check pH and it was barely 3, made calcium carbonate additions, and the yeast finally fermented out at 17%.  HTH

[mosborn]

Ahhhhhhhhhhh.   Many thanks, Tea.

Ya learn something every day -- and in my case that's good because it helps make up for all the stuff I forget every day.

[DeejayDebi]

  I was reading the topic and Teas' post thinking it sonds like beer not mozzarella. You had me confused dear! 

[Tea]

Sorry Debi, I was going to tell John to move those couple of posts if he felt they needed to be.

[DeejayDebi]

It's okay Tea I am easily confuzzled!   

[vogironface]

Tried to make mozzarella today by using the long way, not with citric acid.  It was a beautiful thing.  I had the water heated, attempts a few test curds with wonderful success.  Cut the remaining curds that had matted after cooking and added the whole lot to the water.  Within a short while the water had become milky, the curds had all basically shattered and now I am left with a pile of grainy,watery tasting cheese curds.  Will try to turn them into cream cheese or something like.  I don't understand how the curds could stretch so well as a test and then totally flop when added as a mass.  Looks like it is time to make a cheese cake. 

[DeejayDebi]

If your curds shatter you can sometimes recover them and switch to the microwave method of heating the curds. It will take longer but it often saves the day.

Try draining the curds and putting them i a large bowl (big enough to hold the curds and knead them. Nuke the curd for about 30 seconds and give it a bit of of push to see if they are soft enough to be worked. If not heat them again untill the curds are soft and pliable.

Keep doing this until they become a nice homogenious curd. Eventually this will turn into a nice stretchy mass of curd. Even works if you throw the curds in the fridge and work them the next day.

[MrsKK]

Whenever I make mozz, it is never in just 1 gallon batches.  Always at least 3-5 gallons, so there is no way that I can heat all of the curd at once for stretching and kneading.

I usually put the curd into a smallish basket and dip it into heated, salted whey for a minute or so, bring it out and try to work it.  Then it goes back in the whey for another minute, out again to work, etc.

I make up tennis ball sized mozz and brine them in a big glass jar overnight.  I've had good success doing it this way.

[DeejayDebi]

Karen just use multiple bowls. While one is warming - knead the other. This is only as a last resort when the curds shatter. I've known  a lot of people who have had that happen.