Tea's Mozz failure.

[Tea]

Rather than completely derail the other thread, I decided to start another.
Any help/advice would be much appreciated, as I just wasted another lot of milk.  Only thankfully, I didn't pay for this lot.

Thursday:

20lt raw fresh cows milk
2 cups (500ml) greek yoghurt, no additives, preservatives, sugar etc.
1/4 tsp lipase
5ml rennet as per instruction.

Walmed milk to 32c whisked in yoghurt and allowed to ripen for one hour.

Added rennet and lipase, and let set.  Clean break was at 30 mins. Temps still 32c.

Cut curd 1/2 inch, gently stired and allow to heal 15 min.

Took off 4ltr of whey and reserved.  Washed with 4ltr of cold water, stired gently and drained into clothlined containers.

[Tea]

So the above is the curd that I ended up with.  This reduced a little as whey drained, but I was really excited at the prospect of lots of mozz, finally.
As the weather was cool and rainy, the temps were between 21-23 all day and night, so I left out, as this was within the range the was acceptable on the recipe.

Friday:

Next morning tested to see if it would spin, and it did.  So heated the reserved 4ltr of whey, added the cup of salt, cut one of the baskets of cheese ready.  Heated whey to 185F and put in some cheese.  Some of the cheese spun beautifull, but most of it stayed in the cut lumps, and it would not come together into one lump.  Everytime I tried to get it to form, it would squish out in everyone direction through my fingers and hands.

So put the remaining cheese into the fridge, to ripen further, as I was wondering whether maybe the middle of the cheese had not rippened enough.

Sunday:

I attemped this again.  As I had used the whey I heated water to 175F this time, (a bit easier on my hands, as my gloves were not a heat proof as I had hoped), added the salt, cut the cheese, and exactly the same thing happened.  Some spun, the rest stayed in lumps, as you can see from the pics, and it wouldn't come together at all, no matter how I tried to work in into one cheese.

[Tea]

Is the curd supposed to look like that?  Unfortunately, I didn't take a pH reading.  Didn't even think of that until long after the fact.  I am wondering whether the cheese pH was too low.  Is that possible, and what are the effects of low pH?

You can see from the pics some of the curd in the pot still with the holes in it, and I had been playing for atleast 5-10mins, trying to get it into one mass.

Any help would be much apreciated, as this cheese is still hit and miss for me, and unfortunately it is more miss than hit.  It is really one that I want to master, as it is a favourite in our household.

[tnsven]

Hi Tea. With your provolone idea, I thought you had moz down to a science.

The top picture is your unstretched but "aged" curds? If so, are those bubbles? Cause if they are, I'd bet your milk was contaminated and therefore became too acidic too fast. Your stretched curds look like mine do when I leave the cheese too long and it gets too acid.

Just some quick thoughts (cause I shouldn't be on here but rather doing some work somewhere.)

Kristin

[Tea]

I have learnt to make mozz with only fresh cow's milk.  Gave up long ago on bottled milk, as it never worked.  I have made provolone a number of times, and it is a favourite especially with my son-in-law.
But what I haven't yet mastered is a successful mozz every time.  This was a new recipe that I decided to try.

I would be very surprised, and would almost discount the milk being contaminated.  The lady who I get the cheese from is also a cheese maker, (it is part of her living), and she is pedantic about healthy cows and milk.  I only get the milk when she want a break from making cheese.  But I guess there is alway the possibility.

[tnsven]

I only mention the contamination because the top picture of your curds looks like it has lots of even holes......like contamination. This only happened to me once with a feta earlier this year. I'm not sure why but I suspect it was due to mild mastitis. My hubby isn't as good a milker as I am.

I'm not sure what recipe (I mean, where it came from) you are using but it is the 2nd time someone here has mentioned the curd washing. It just seems like that would cause a problem.....limit acidity....like in a washed curd cheese.

O.k. I'm really going to get off here now (unless you write back soon, Tea!!)

Kristin

[MrsKK]

Contamination can come from the air (wild yeasts, etc), not necessarily from bad milk.

I've had the bubbles in my mozz curd before, but it just affected the final flavor (very tangy), not the stretching of the curd.  I'm sorry I don't have any suggestions for you,just sympathy.

[Tea]

Well I did sterilize everything as usual.  What I did do though was use filtered rain water to wash the curd as it needed to be cold.  It wasn't boiled, so I wonder if that is where the contamination could have come from.    I usually use this water when washing the curd, but a salt brine is usually applied next morning.
Would that make a difference?

[nilo_669]

From what i see , the curds are way to acidic to be stretch , thats the problem if you dont have a ph meter for mozzarella making ph meter is a MUST. If a curd acidity drops to 5.2 it will definitely going to be a mess, there's no way you can stretch it.

[MrsKK]

Many people successfully make cheeses of all kinds, including mozzarella, without a ph meter. 

Tea, how did that mozz taste?  Did it ever come together so you could stretch it?