Author Topic: 30 minute mozzarella problem  (Read 1982 times)

jaydi819

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30 minute mozzarella problem
« on: June 11, 2012, 04:13:09 AM »
Ok here goes nothing.. The recipe is 1 Gal milk, 1 1/2 tsp citric acid, 1/4 rennet tablet..
I add the acid to  milk cold.. Heat to apx 90 deg add rennet and stir and let sit.. I get a fairly clean break and i'm able to cut the curds.. When i'm heating to about 105-8 degrees I do notice that my curds breakdown a bit.. i continure stirring for about 5 mins after removing from the heat.. I'm able to get them together and stretching in the microwave here's where my problems start.. When I form my mozzarella into either one large ball or the smaller nuggets everything is fine.. The texture is way to creamy when eaten similar to a thick cream cheese, creamy to the point that they start to melt if I put the balls in a bowl together they will start to form into one big clump over the course of an hr or 2.. same goes for the one large ball it will start to spread out and become the shape of whatever container I have it in.. On the other hand other times I've made it it was much tougher and  more like a low moisture mozzarella.. where am I going wrong? (Prob by using the 30 min method.. But I have to start somewhere) Am I either draining too much or too little whey off during the stretching process?

linuxboy

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Re: 30 minute mozzarella problem
« Reply #1 on: June 11, 2012, 04:28:59 AM »
Moisture retention is controlled by 4 factors (please search for flocculation, and 2-3 other posts where I have posted about moisture levels specifically before): 1) set time before cut 2) Cut size of curds 3) temperature 4) Stir schedule. For mozz, the handling also makes a difference, but not between dry mozz and moist.

I suspect you are not being consistent with your curd size, or somewhere else and are losing too much moisture before fusing the curds. Also, you may be slightly overacidifying based on your texture description and citric amt (depends on milk, hard to say offhand).