Ricotta-Second disappointment in a row

[DeejayDebi]

I've never tried using sodium hydroxide but the hard cheese and pasta filetta cheese wheys do seem to acidify over night by themselves at room temperature.

[Sailor Con Queso]

Francois - So highly acidified whey, like that from Mozzarella, is actually harder to work with? And the sodium hydroxide is used to bring the pH back up to avoid problems during heating? Could a home cheesemaker use baking soda instead? What's the downside?

[DeejayDebi]

I find mozzarella nd romano the easiest to recover riccotta from with the highest yield.

[FRANCOIS]

I made ricotta for years with vinegar and paying no attention to pH.  I only point out the caustic dosing because it seems to be industry standard.  When I first saw it I didn't understand why it was done and had to ask. 

Sodium Bicarbonate isn't that far off from caustic soda, so I would think it could work.  Might be worth a try.

[DeejayDebi]

Does this affect flavor?

[FRANCOIS]

For sodium hydroxide it doesn't.  I think it's because the caustic is so strong and takes so little to rapidly change the pH of a 500 gallon vat.  Any by products of the neutralization are massively diulluted.

[DeejayDebi]

Could be an interesting experiment. I have never checked the pH of my whey before heating just left it sit over night and then started cooking. I need to order a new probe I think I somehow accidently threw it out or with the box or something can't find it anywhere. That really stinks it was $69 just for the probe and I haven't even used it yet.