Mozzarella - High MilkFat

[AlanM]

Hello,

I would like to make a high-fat, soft, fresh mozzarella and failed at my first attempt.  I have been reading these forums and have gleaned a bit of useful information.  Here is what I will try next.  Please tell me if you see any problems with it, or if there is anything that could be improved.

7 quarts (1.75 gallons) whole non-homogenized, pasteurized cow milk
1 quart ultra-pasteurized heavy cream
1 packet direct-set thermophllic starter for 2-gallons of milk
1/4 tsp lipase
1/2 tsp rennet

1)   Heat the milk to 90 F.  Add the starter and let hydrate for 2 minutes, and then stir well.  Add the lipase and stir well. Cover and let ripen for approximately 60 minutes or until milk obtains pH 6.2

2)   Add the diluted rennet and gently stir up and down for 1 minute and then top-stir for several additional minutes to fully incorporate cream.  Cover and let set at 90 F until flocculation occurs—test with bowl.

3)   Use 3x flocculation multiple and let rest for appropriate time (i.e. if flocculation occurred at 15 minutes, then wait an additional 45 minutes). (Question:  is 3x best for a soft, but stretchy mozzarella, or should it be longer?)

4)   Very gently cut curds into 1” cubes and let set, undisturbed for 20 minutes. (Question: Is 1” the best curd size, or should it be larger to get the results that I want?)

5)   Slowly heat the curds to 100 F over the course of an hour.  Let the curds sit until the pH reads 6.0 or less.  (Question: What is the point of rising the temperature to 100 F and is it really necessary/preferable to make the softest, most cream-ridden mozzarella possible that will still stretch?)

6)   Drain the curds and keep the whey.

7)   Place mass of curds back into container and keep covered in 100 F waterbath until the curds reach pH 5.6. Drain off whey periodically. Start doing stretch test on pieces of curd as the pH continues to drop to between 5 and 5.2. (Question: Again, is 100 F really the best temperature for the results I am trying to achieve, and is it really important to drain off the whey, or would minimal handling be better?)

8 ) When test curds readily and easily stretch, pour 170 F salted whey over curds and let set until rewarmed and then stretch into a ball without overhandling. If cheese begins to cool prior to completion of forming balls, repeat pouring hot, salted whey onto it).


Please let me know if this looks good, or if there is anything that I should change to get better results.

Thank you!

Alan

[george]

I have no idea about the rest of it, but if you're using a 3x multiplier and your initial floc is 15 minutes, 45 minutes should be the total time before cutting the curd - not an additional 45 after initial floc (which would make a total of 60). 

If I'm wrong, however, someone wiser than I surely can point it out.   

[ArnaudForestier]

George is right.  45 minutes after a floc of 15 minutes would mean you're using a 4X multiplier.

[Boofer]

If you can avoid ultra-pasteurized ANYTHING, that would be helpful. Also, I would review MrsKK's mozz recipe on the forum. Use the search function to locate it.

-Boofer-

[AlanM]

Hi Boofer,

I did review MrsKK's recipe prior to posting.  I'm sure that it works and makes a great cheese, but I feel more comfortable with recipes when there are more details and explanations of why things are working, especially when I'm trying to obtain something very specific, and different than the original recipe.  In this case, understanding how PH, flocculation multiples, curd size,  temperature, and handling all relate to each other and the desired end result would be great to know.  My specific questions in the recipe above give an idea regarding what specific details are still lacking for me. 

As for not using ultra-pasteurized cream, I had read that it was acceptable, but if that is not the case, I'll try to track down something that is pasteurized at a lower temp.

Thank you to everyone for the help so far, especially regarding the clarification regarding flocculation.  I was misunderstanding how to apply the multiple. 

Any additional information regarding my initial post would be welcomed.

Best,

Alan

[AlanM]

Hi All,

Linuxboy was kind enough to send me a link to his website that had some very specific hints regarding mozzarella making.  He also noted that just adding extra fat could be a problem because there might not be enough protein in the milk to allow for proper curd formation.  So, I opted to study the protein to fat ratio in buffalo milk a little more closely and discovered that I needed to add more protein to the milk as well.  I realized, also, that buffalo milk is more viscous, with a lower percentage of water than cow's milk, so that it is not only about the ratio of protein to fat, but also the concentration of each in a given volume of milk.  This being the case, I came up with the following recipe after working through everything on a spread sheet.  It corrects a few mistakes I previously had made, clarifies some points, and incorporates several changes as well.  Please let me know if anything seems off to you:

6 quarts whole non-homogenized, pasteurized cow milk
1 quart pasteurized heavy cream
5 cups whole, dry milk powder
Enough non-chlorinated water to take liquid level up to 2 gallons
1 packet direct-set thermophilic starter for 2-gallons of milk
1/4 tsp lipase
1/2 tsp rennet

1) Mix cream, milk and powdered milk together well and let sit in fridge overnight.

2) Heat the milk to 90 F.  Add the starter and let hydrate for 2 minutes, and then stir well.  Add the lipase and stir well. Cover and let ripen for approximately 60 minutes or until milk obtains pH 6.2

3)   Add the diluted rennet and gently stir up and down for 1 minute and then top-stir for several additional minutes to fully incorporate cream.  Cover and let set at 90 F until flocculation occurs—test with bowl.

4)   Use 4x flocculation multiple and let rest for appropriate time (i.e. if flocculation occurred at 15 minutes, then wait an additional 45 minutes for a total of 60 minutes from rennet addition).

5)   Very gently cut curds into 2” cubes and let heal undisturbed for 20 minutes before cutting again into 1” cubes and letting rest for 15 minutes and then stir gently for 5 minutes straight.

6)   Slowly heat the curds to 104 F over the course of about an hour.  Let the curds sit until the pH reads 6.0 or less.  During this heating process stir the curds once every 10 minutes for 30 minutes.  If the pH is not yet 6.0 after 30 minutes, let the curds rest and fall beneath the whey.

7)   Drain the curds and keep the whey.

8 )   Place the curds in a cheese cloth-lined collander over a pot at room temperature and let sit until they reach pH 5.6—aproximately 3-8 hours. Start doing stretch test on pieces of curd as the pH continues to drop to between 5 and 5.2.

9) When test curds readily and easily stretch, pour 170 F salted whey over curds and let set until rewarmed and then stretch into a ball without overhandling. If cheese begins to cool prior to completion of forming balls, repeat pouring hot, salted whey onto it.

[Boofer]

3)   Add the diluted rennet and gently stir up and down for 1 minute and then top-stir for several additional minutes to fully incorporate cream.

There are discussions on the forum concerning stirring rennet in beyond a minute or so. You may wish to check that.

-Boofer-

[AlanM]

Boofer,

Good call.  Thanks for the tip.

Alan

[AlanM]

Well, I have some good news and some bad news. 

The good news is that this batch tastes a lot better than the last one.  It is really flavorful.  The bad news is that even down at a pH of 4.8 it will not stretch.  I feel like the protein is sticking to itself, but perhaps as Linuxboy suggested, there is simply too much butterfat in my formulation. 

I want to say that this should not be the case given that I did mimic the buffalo milk proportion of protein to fat and concentration of protein and fat in a given volume of milk, but obviously it did not work, so I am left wondering why.

One thing that occurred to me is that buffalo milk might have a higher ratio of casein to whey in its protein profile.  I have not confirmed this yet, but it seems like a possibility that could account for this problem.  Does anyone know?  Any other ideas?

Best,

Alan

[linuxboy]

What were your rennet and whey drain pH levels?

[AlanM]

6.2 rennet addition, and 5.8 drain.  Using the floating bowl method, flocculation began quite quickly and the bowl stopped moving at 4 minutes.  I was thinking that I could have added the rennet earlier--maybe at 6.4.

Alan

[linuxboy]

What's your milk like? How high of a quality? And what culture did you use?

[AlanM]

It was low-temperature pasteurized, organic, non-homogenized milk, and cream.  The culture was the C201 Direct-Set thermophilic starter from cheesemaking.com.

[linuxboy]

I suspect it was just too much fat, and pH was less than optimal, then. You don't need that high of a cream level to have good mouthfeel. If the protein hydration is high (function of pH and temp and handling and floc), the mouthfeel will be better. Try for a 55% or higher MFFB.

[AlanM]

Alright.  Well, I'll try again with less fat.  Can you tell me exactly what about the pH was less than optimal? 

As for the fat, what would you say the highest I could reasonably push it would be in terms of a ratio of protein to fat.

I was running about a 1:1.7  protein to fat ratio in terms of grams.    From what I could find, most whole cow's milk is 1:1.

Would a 1:1.25 ratio be reasonable?