Traditional Mozzarella, pH drop

[Lennie]

I'm making some traditional mozzarella using a thermophilic culture.  I'm cooking the mat of curds now at 100F, and so far (45min) I'm not seeing much of a pH drop (currently at 6.35).  I might've got the curds up to 110F for awhile before I drained them initially, would that temp have killed the bacterial culture?  I probably just need to have patience, it supposedly takes a few hours for the drop to occur.  I just thought I'd see a somewhat uniform drop.

I see that thermophilic cultures survive to 130F so that must not be my problem.  Hopefully the pH will drop on this stuff, it'll go nicely with our meatballs for supper.

 I also took some of the wife's meatball mix and wrapped it around a frozen tube of my ricotta.  I'm going to bake that like a meatloaf and then slice it and serve with sauce.  I think it'll be tasty.  I need to use up some ricotta, I've got quite a bit now.

[justsocat]

Too late, i guess you've already drained it. At this pH mozz won't stretch. The tip is to get propper pH before you start cooking.
If you raise the temp as high as 130F you'll get rubber mozz even if you hit the final pH point

[Lennie]

The recipe says to drain and then cook the curd mass for a few hours, pouring off whey as it comes off the curd.

I'm down to pH 5.75, but its going more slowly than it was supposed to.  I just wonder why this culture is not more active?  What is the optimum temp for thermophilic bacteria?

[Tea]

For hand stretching, it is recommended that pH be closer to 5, than 5.4.  Some time the curd mass is left overnight to acidify, though I haven't done that myself.  My curd is kept at a constant temp of 43C until pH reaches between 5 and 5.4

Although it doesn't always work still.  Tried making bocconcini last week, and even though pH reaches 5, it was still a crumbly mess.  Very disheartening as I am not sure what went wrong.

How did your's turn out?

[justsocat]

I checked my table again. 130F is appr 55C, right? IMHO it's much too high. I'm curious Lennie how did it turn out?

[Lennie]

Finally have some news, and its good.  After 5 hours I got a pH of 5.32 and decided to try working a couple small pieces.  It melted together but wasn't quite there.  So I waited another 30min and then checked and the pH was 5.15.  I cut the curd into chunks and melted it in a bowl with some 170F water, then when I got a ball I worked it on a mat and kept it warm in a pot of water when it cooled off too much.  Finally I had a reasonable ball, maybe not quite as shiny and smooth as I've had in the past but it looks good enough.  Might have needed some more kneading, I don't know.  I put it in a bowl of brine to cool, I'll check later to see if it will melt.  That was quite a bit of work for one pound of cheese!  Done just in time for dinner and the Super Bowl.  Dinner includes a meatloaf with ricotta in the middle.

[DeejayDebi]

Looks like it could use a tad more heating and stretching but it looks okay. Good job being patient this can be an agrivating cheese to wait for.

[Lennie]

So more heating and stretching helps?  I didn't know if it would do anything more.  I'll certainly keep that in mind for the next one.  I knew it wasn't perfect, I've had smoother/shinier mozzs.

[MrsKK]

Heating and stretching is what makes it mozzarella...I've personally never made a cultured mozzarella all in one day.  I normally cut the curd, rinse it and allow it to acidify at room temperature overnight before trying to spin it.  Giving it that much time, I've never had any trouble getting smooth, shiny mozz.

[Lennie]

I see, I was kneading it more than stretching it.

I wonder if I could reheat the ball and stretch it some more?

[MrsKK]

I would take off a piece of it and try it.  Just heat a couple of cups of water in your microwave to about 175 degrees and swirl a 1 inch piece of curd in it.  If it will stretch well without breaking, I think you'll have good luck with re-heating and stretching the whole ball.

[Lennie]

I tried it and the stuff only stretched marginally.  Maybe my pH wasn't spot on.  I cubed the ball again and think I'll let it sit overnight at room temp, then try the heating again in the morning.  This continues to be a learning experience.

Can the pH not get too low with the traditional method?

The pieces I tried to stretch needed salt but they were tasty and had a really squeaky texture.

[DeejayDebi]

I've made blobs of not stretched mozzarella and brought it in the physical therapy classes for rehab the next day. The heat and stretching movements are good for therapy. OF course we had to use a microwave but it worked well.

[Sailor Con Queso]

Karen, I agree with making cutured Mozz, cutting the curds and letting acidify untilo the next morning. I have never had a failure making Moz this way.

Lennie, yes the pH can get too low. You should have been ready when your pH was at 5.32. The shiny texture won't happen without stretching. You probably just needed to heat it more and stretchhhhhhhhhhh.

[Lennie]

Thanks for the insights folks, I continue to learn and thats great.

I left the curds at room temp overnight then heated in water and stretched some more this morning.  I was pressed for time and didn't take a pH (not much whey anyway), and I probably should've given it more stretching.  Still, it started to look shinier and I think it was closer to the proper outcome.  I salted it as I was stretching towards the end, don't know what that might do but without salt this cheese isn't that tasty by itself.  Here's a pic of the final outcome for this project.