Hello everyone!
Well, I just finished with my second attempt at making mozzarella. Although the results are much better than my first attempt, I am still having difficulties with getting a clean break.
I continued on with the cheese even though the curds didn't seem to reach a clean break and I ended up with an edible product, it just isn't exactly a great cheese.
I used MrsKK's two day mozzarella recipe as a guide but I ran into issues and deviated from it in a couple of places.
I began with the same amount and the same brand of Homogenized milk from the store as I did on my first attempt. (Neilson Brand, 4Litres)
This time I used two large pots for a double boiler instead of having the pot of milk on direct heat. It seemed to be much easier to control the temperature of the milk, although I did turn it up a little too high at one point (about 3degrees F higher than what I was trying to get to...93deg instead of 90degrees)
I filled the large pot just past half way with cool water.
I poured the 4litres of milk into the smaller pot and then nested the smaller pot inside the large pot. This pushed the water to within 3 inches of the top of the big pot and was almost level with the milk inside the small pot.
I turned the stovetop onto lowest setting and the milk temperature plateaued at 84degrees F
I then turned the stovetop up to the next level (1) and the milk temperature plateaued at 87degrees F
I then turned stovetop up to the next level (2) and the milk temperature plateaued at 88degrees F
Then I turned stovetop up to the next level (3) and the milk temperature plateaued at 93degrees F
I removed the double boiler from the heat and to about 1 cup of warmed milk removed from the pot I added 1/4tsp Thermophilic culture powder
The cup of warm milk and culture were whisked together and added back to the pot of warm milk where it was stirred to mix the culture and milk thoroughly
The inoculated milk was left to ripen for 1 hour while held at between 90 and 92degrees F
While the milk was ripening, 1/2tsp of liquid calf rennet was mixed together with 1/4cup of cool chlorine-free water.....I had passed the water through a brita filter and then let it sit in the brita pitcher at room temperature for 24hrs and then put into the refrigerator
After the inoculated milk was allowed to sit at 90deg F for an hour, the rennet mixture was added and stirred with a slotted spoon for 30seconds.
As soon as I had added the rennet/water mixture, I started a stopwatch.
The milk/thermo culture/rennet mixture was left to sit undisturbed for 5minutes.
After 5minutes, I placed a small bowl on top of the mixture (floating) and gently spun the bowl.
At each 30sec interval, I tried to spin the bowl again until, at 7minutes 30seconds, the bowl would no longer spin.
I used a floc multiplier of 3.5 and let the mixture sit for an additional 18minutes before testing for a clean break.
At just more than 25minutes after adding the rennet mixture, I tested for a clean break. It had begun to firm up but was not at a clean break yet.
I let the mixture sit for another 10minutes before checking for a clean break again. It still did not firm-up enough for a clean break.
I let the mixture sit for an additional 10 minutes, so now 45minutes after adding the rennet, and it still did not give a clean break.
At this point I waited an additional 1.25hours (2hours total afteradding the rennet) before checking for a clean break again.
I cut the curds at just over the two hour mark from when the rennet was added. Although they cut into 1/2 inch chunks, the curd was, i think, a little too soft but they were about the same consistency as the first time I tried to make this cheese.
The curds were allowed to rest for 15minutes and then the whey was drained off through a cloth-lined colander and allowed to drain for 8hours....seemed to stop draining after 2.5 hours...pulled the cheesecloth out of colander and jiggled curds to reposition them/move them around inside cheesecloth...whey began draining again...placed back into colander and left to continue draining
The curds were allowed to drain for 8 hours.
I then tested the spin with 185degree water...curds softened and formed one larger piece from the few smaller ones put in water...slight stretch but not at all like I was expecting...would break after being stretched less than 1/2 inch
Allowed curd to drain, wrapped in cheesecloth, for additional 4hours and tested the spin again...same results.
Decided to heat/stretch/form into balls as is.
First half of the curds were cut into 1/2inch cubes and placed in a bowl.
Heavily salted water was heated to 185degrees F and poured around curd in bowl untill it covered the curds.
Began trying to bring curds together and form a single mass of cheese.
I dumped the water out of the bowl and added more hot salted water then continued working the curds together and gently stretching and folding over the cheese.
The cheese would not stretch very far no matter how warm the water.
Continued to work the cheese together with a new batch of hot salted water.
Formed cheese into rough ball and put into ice water to cool.
The cheese does not stretch very much but tastes good so I consider this an improvement from the first batch of mozzarella I tried to make.
I think everything starts to go wrong at the clean break stage. Even though when I tested the flocculation and used a multiplier, the curd was nowhere near setting at the 25-26minute marks.
I'm wondering if using calcium chloride next time would improve curd formation and clean break...
I am thinking about staying with the same type of milk and testing the recipe with some calcium chloride and if that doesn't work I will try a different brand of milk for the next batch after that.
I am hesitant to change more than one variable at a time because I want to try and understand exactly where things are going wrong.
Does anyone have any other suggestions?
Thanks!
