Hello from Alaska...

[tananaBrian]

Hi,

  I actually just registered to see what I could find out for why my 2nd batch of Mozzarella was such an abysmal failure... sheesh!  I made the 30-minute Mozzarella in Home Cheese Making by Carroll and it turned out fine ...the quality of the finished product was very much like Mozzarella purchased from the store.  For me means I'd rather just buy it ...I expect quality at home to exceed what the mass producers produce, else it's not worth the hours in the kitchen.  That's just me.  Next, I tried making Mozzarella in the more traditional way, as described in Making Artisan Cheese by Tim Smith ...and man oh man, it was about an 8 hour ordeal.  I followed each step as precisely as possible, but my rennet seemed to work too slowly, the pH came down too slowly after adding it, and when the cheese had been 'cooked' at 105 F long enough, it seemed hard as rubber and refused to get stretchy when heated in a 170 F water bath ...it never did get stretchy.  After dunking in an icy cold brine (1 lb of salt to a half gallon of water) for awhile, the result was a hard brittle piece of garbage ...I threw it in the trash.  No way is it worth all the hours, back ache, and burnt hands to produce cheese like that and I did my best ...followed the instructions to a 'T'.  Oh well.  I guess for an intro, I'm starting off on a bad note, but after tonight, I'm not so sure cheese making is in my future ...except maybe the 30-minute Mozzarella followed by Ricotta that is.  That works fine.  I'd really like to be able to make a good sharp Gouda and some nice soft Stilton Blue ....but as of tonight, I'm not sure I'm starting the right hobby!  Total failure... oh well.  Please only encourage me if you think a dope in the kitchen CAN actually succeed at this business, else be honest and tell me to stick to mac and cheese out of a box...

Thanks, and hello from Wasilla, Alaska!
Brian

[Cheese Head]

Good morning Brian, that's quite an intro !

You are I think our 1st member in Alaska to so I've just added Alaska to our list of locations and added an Alaska Geographic Board in case you or others have cheese in Alaska type info to post there but I suspect you will get more requests for info on Tourism there on cheese in Alaska .

I'm not a moz maker so cannot comment but as you can see from this forum there are 1000's of different cheeses and an infinite way to make them, I am also a dope in the kitchen but practise & readings these forums sure helps as recipes tend to be way to simple which is why this place is so useful. So don't give up, long winter days/nights, great for cheesemaking, using store bought milk.

Again welcome!

PS: What's the tanana about?

[Cheese Head]

PS: On a clear day I can see that goofy Brian making cheese (now which Korea did we fight a war over )!

[dthelmers]

I've made over a dozen cheeses since I started last summer, and I was happy with all of them, but I still can't get the hang of mozzarella. I think it's not as easy as they say.
Try making a Gouda. They're fun, they mature quickly, and they're tasty, and they are definitely not finicky.
Don't give up on cheese! Just try a more surefire type!
Dave in CT

[Buck47]

PS: On a clear day I can see that goofy Brian making cheese (now which Korea did we fight a war over )!

OMG --- John I just spit my coffee all over the computer ...... Tooooooo  Funny.

Well, with Alaska added to your list - we only have seven more to go and you will have all 57 States.

[mtncheesemaker]

Don't give up! Mozz can be frustrating.

[tananaBrian]

I can see Russia from my cheese pot...

Well, I feel better.  For now I think, I'll make the "30-Minute Mozzarella" when we want fresh Mozzarella ...and I'm glad to hear that it is NOT the easiest one to make.  I'll try Gouda next time ...which I'd prefer anyway.  As far as the moz goes, I think something went wrong early in the process and that I was fighting it the rest of the way, e.g. I either ripened too long or let the rennet sit too long.  I know I had all the temperatures correct and was able to achieve very stable temperatures with my water bath... I'll read up more on the stuff and see if I can figure out what may have gone wrong (and decide if I am willing to try again... hours of backache and burned hands sure aren't encouraging)

Tanana?  I used to live in Fairbanks and the Tanana River passes through right along one edge of town.  I used to spend a lot of time on that river during the winter fishing for Burbot...

Thanks!
Brian

[KosherBaker]

Gotta agree with Dave here. Mozzarella is a bad cheese to start cheese making adventures with. As you read up the forum, you'll see just how many posts there are on problems with Mozzarella. On the plus side it should make it easier to find the solution.

Welcome to the forum.

[tananaBrian]

 

Thanks, All.  I was feeling a little frustrated after all the hours I spent on it ...dreams of my wife's lasagna floating in my head and all that ...but oh well.  Now I'm curious as to what went wrong.  It's either a judgment issue on my part (how ripe is ripe?  how curdled is curdled?) or a process issue ...like maybe the curds were 'handled' too much by my spoon when 'cooking' the curds at 105 F?  Dunno ...but I'll look into it and in the mean time will make an easier cheese instead.  I'm sure it's like bread baking, that once you develop appropriate judgment, that all goes much better.  I know that I will enjoy this forum that I found as a result of my problems, and that alone is worth it.

Brian

[Sailor Con Queso]

Brian,

Mozzarella is not a beginners cheese, regardless of the "easy" hype that you see. 30 Minute Mozz is quick, but as you found out, a very unsatisfying product. Cultured Mozz that uses natural bacteria instead of direct acidification is a significantly better tasting cheese.

So why did your cheese fail? I only have time for the short answer, so search the forum. If the cheese becomes too acidic it becomes brittle. If the cheese has not developed enough acid, it won't stretch properly. This is easy to see with a pH meter. Otherwise you have to develop a feel and instinct for the process. All of us have failed on many cheeses in the beginning. Cheese making is not hard, but there is a LOT that the recipe books don't tell you.

[tananaBrian]

Brian,

Mozzarella is not a beginners cheese, regardless of the "easy" hype that you see. 30 Minute Mozz is quick, but as you found out, a very unsatisfying product. Cultured Mozz that uses natural bacteria instead of direct acidification is a significantly better tasting cheese.

So why did your cheese fail? I only have time for the short answer, so search the forum. If the cheese becomes too acidic it becomes brittle. If the cheese has not developed enough acid, it won't stretch properly. This is easy to see with a pH meter. Otherwise you have to develop a feel and instinct for the process. All of us have failed on many cheeses in the beginning. Cheese making is not hard, but there is a LOT that the recipe books don't tell you.

Thank you for your encouragement.  I have a boat plans business that I use to generate "hobby money" ...and I'm convinced that a new curd knife and pH meter is in my near future!  In the reading that I did, I definitely believe I had pH issues ...most likely too low of a pH after ripening and after curding.  The curds were already rubbery when I was cooking them at 105 F. 

We did a side-by-side on the 30-minute quick Moz by Carroll and some from the store and they were very similar.  That either means that much of the moz from the store is likely made via a similar process, or our 30-minute moz accidentally (can't claim any knowledge here!) turned out better than it should.  I'll keep reading... and get that hardware on the way!  It's good that my cheese failed since it triggered so much learning... and finding the CheeseForum.org resource as well.

Brian

[Sailor Con Queso]

Ahhh.... new hardware. That's how the addiction starts. Welcome to our world.

[tananaBrian]

Ahhh.... new hardware. That's how the addiction starts. Welcome to our world.

BTW, I love your sig ...Stilton is very high on my list of favorite cheeses.

A couple of things that I've learned since the first failure include:

1. I had forgotten the whole concept behind timing to when the milk first starts to curd, then multiplying it by 3 (for moz) before cutting.  I think I ripened way too long, probably twice as long, and that the milk pH was probably too low.

2. My curd NEVER looked like any of the pictures that I've been looking at here.  When I made the 30-Minute Moz, the curds did ...but when I made the cultured moz, they didn't.  Note that I was using cream line whole milk (pasteurized only) and that I have since found out that nobody in Alaska makes that kind of milk ...the stuff was probably shipped up here from the Lower 48 and was getting a bit long in the tooth before I even bought it.  AND the cultured moz was made a full week after the 30-minute version, which means I'd had the milk for about 8 days before using it in the cultured moz.  The curd in the cultured version formed beneath the whey and you could hardly see it.  The whey was yellowish and the curd was sort of milky, but firmed up as it got deeper, e.g. when poking a thermometer into it.  I allowed it to curd for a looong time as well, probably also way to long, and it never did firm up very well.  It didn't cut very well either, kind of swishing around and coming apart.  The whey was pretty milky looking when I drained it too, not clear at all.

In conclusion, I think I was fighting an uphill battle to begin with and that the milk was too old, the resultant pH was then too low and was even lower due to over-ripening.  These are my guesses anyway.  The resulting curd, after heating it up to cook, was already rubbery by that point ...but I had no clue on what it should've been like.  I'm trying again on Sunday, but with local Matanuska Maid while milk ...the freshest (latest 'use by' date) available.  It is both pasteurized and homogenized, but it doesn't have the verboten 'ultra' word anywhere on the jug.  I'll call Matanuska next week and talk with them to find out how they pasteurize the milk ...the dairy is just a couple of miles from my house.  My only other option is to use milk shipped in from the Lower 48 or to use milk from a local farm ...raw milk which would require buying a cow share and having to buy more milk than we could easily consume.  Sigh.  A guy who works with my wife makes cheese and she said he "gets the milk from a farm", so he might be a resource ...who knows?  Maybe he's getting raw milk and bought a cow share and has too much milk to consume?  Might be a deal... but then I'd probably want a home vat pasteurizer like we had when I was a kid... hmmmm.

...Continuing the journey ...and will take pix this time.

Brian