Gritty texture from ricotta made from whey

[cmanchester]

I am very new to the cheese making thing, but have successfully made ricotta from whole milk.  I just tried over the weekend to make ricotta out of the whey (from Mozarella).  Everything seemed to work quite well, however when I tasted it the texture is very gritty almost like there is very fine sand throughout.

Any ideas what I did wrong or what would cause this?

Thanks for any help

-Carol

[MrsKK]

What method did you use to make the mozzarella - citric acid or culture?  And what method did you use to precipitate the ricotta - heat alone or heat and acid/vinegar?

The more we know the better educated guesses we can make for you.

[cmanchester]

OK, confessing one blunder here.   For the Mozarella I was supposed to use 1 1/2 tsp citric acid and 1/4 tablet rennet.  I actually by mistake used 1 1/2 tsp tartaric acid (they looked the same and I didn't have my glasses on) and 1/4 tablet rennet.....all with 1 gal fresh high quality local milk.  The mozarella still worked perfectly.  For the ricotta I heated and also added ~ 1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice.  At just below the boil it formed the very small curds and looked just like the cloud everyone describes.  It really never floated or sunk however but was just suspended in the remaining whey.  I drained it through a fine cloth and got a little under 1 cup yield.  The flavor is very good, but the mouth feel is horrible due to the gritty texture.

Thanks for the help.

[linuxboy]

Gritty texture is due to excess acid. When you're making it from cultures mozz, the acidification happens after the curds fuse, so the texture is smoother even with the lower pH. When you're using citric or tartaric, you acidify the milk directly, and even though the pH may be the same as the cultured, the mozz is very gritty.

You could have remedied the issue by adding caustic soda solution to raise the pH to ~5.9, and then making the ricotta. Adding lemon juice actually made it worse.

[clherestian]

I was wondering what you do when mozz whey ph is too low for ricotta.  Good to know. Do you use a certain percentage solution of caustic acid? If I can't get caustic acid, can I use sodium carbonate instead?