Curd breaking apart after cutting (very disappointing)

[Natalie]

Hello, I've tried making Mozzarella 3 times. The 2nd time I was able to get the cheese to stretch somewhat, but all 3 times have been failures. I am making it again, but, as with the other times, the curd breaks apart after cutting. Some remain cubes, but most fall apart to quite a small size. After sitting for a while, they knit back together somewhat, with some being larger than they should be and others still being quite small.

What am I doing wrong? Is there any way to salvage the cheese when this happens? I did the "clean break" test and I think it was as it should be, but should I be leaving the curd to sit longer? Currently I'm letting it sit an hour after adding the rennet.

Also, when I stir the curds with the bamboo spoon, they break up further.

[awakephd]

Hi Natalie, and welcome to the forum!

It won't take you long, as you search around on this forum, to see that the vast majority of us find mozzarella to be the hardest of all cheeses to make. We can't figure out why it is billed as a beginner cheese - unless maybe because it is billed as giving an edible result in 30 minutes (by some recipes). I should hasten to say that there are a few folks on this forum who seem to have solved the puzzle and can get consistent results. I'm not one of them.

Some factors at work here:

1) In general, cheese is sensitive to the quality of the milk - and "quailty" here primarily means whether and how hot it was pasteurized, and whether it was homogenized. Both processes do enormous damage to the proteins and fat in the milk, making it much more difficult to get good results. Note that ultrapasteurized milk (which is often the case with organic brands) is so damaged that you pretty much can't even get a curd at all - just mush. What you are describing with a clean break, but then the curd "shattering," sounds like you are using regular (not ultra-) pasteurized and homogenized (P&H) milk. While you CAN make decent cheeses with this milk (all but one of my 110+ makes have used P&H milk), you will NOT get the idealized experience that is described in books and recipes. Curds will tend to shatter, "flocc tests" (which you may read about) will give very unclear results, and so on.

2) Again, you can still make decent cheese even with shattered curds. But the challenge of mozzarella goes way beyond the quality of the curds. The key is that mozzarella only stretches at a very narrow, specific range of acidity (around pH=5.3). When you do an acid-added recipe (e.g., the "30-minute" varieties), you have to add just the right amount of acid - which will depend on the characteristics of the milk. The traditional method of making mozzarella uses a bacterial culture to "ripen" the milk/curds; this process generates acid over time, so you have to catch it just when it hits that narrow window. In either case, you will benefit from having a good pH meter. However, you can experiment with trying more or less acid (or more or less time) to try to get it zeroed in. Someone recently shared success with the acid-added method ... after trying 12 times to get it dialled in correctly!

So, what's the alternative to mozzarella for a beginner? If you want to use acid rather than cultures, your best bet is ricotta or something like paneer. If you would like to take the plunge into cultures ... there's a wealth of possibilities, and we'd be happy to offer our favorite suggestions!

[River Bottom Farm]

Natalie what recepie are you using? Like awake mentioned mozza can take some time to get right. I would guess the curd shattering is due to the milk you are using. Addung calcium chloride will help a lot with that issue .

[Gnatale88]

Hi Natalie, and welcome to the forum!

It won't take you long, as you search around on this forum, to see that the vast majority of us find mozzarella to be the hardest of all cheeses to make. We can't figure out why it is billed as a beginner cheese - unless maybe because it is billed as giving an edible result in 30 minutes (by some recipes).

Some factors at work here:
"
1) In general, cheese is sensitive to the quality of the milk - and "quailty" here primarily means whether and how hot it was pasteurized, and whether it was homogenized. Both processes do enormous damage to the proteins and fat in the milk, making it much more difficult to get good results. Note that ultrapasteurized milk (which is often the case with organic brands) is so damaged that you pretty much can't even get a curd at all - just mush. What you are describing with a clean break, but then the curd "shattering," sounds like you are using regular (not ultra-) pasteurized and homogenized (P&H) milk. While you CAN make decent cheeses with this milk (all but one of my 110+ makes have used P&H milk), you will NOT get the idealized experience that is described in books and recipes. Curds will tend to shatter, "flocc tests" (which you may read about) will give very unclear results, and so on."

Hi new here,  I have the above problem.  I've tried increasing both calcium chloride and rennet.  2tsp. Each/4gallons. I have good flocc point.  Good temp.  Fresh cultures.  Fresh p&h milk.  How do I get bigger juicier curds?

[mikekchar]

Hi new here,  I have the above problem.  I've tried increasing both calcium chloride and rennet.  2tsp. Each/4gallons. I have good flocc point.  Good temp.  Fresh cultures.  Fresh p&h milk.  How do I get bigger juicier curds?

Basically you can't, unfortunately.  Homogenised milk breaks the fat globules and the result is that the fat coats the proteins.  This, in turn, blocks the action of the rennet.  If you can find pasteurised skim milk, then you can mix that with cream to get a much better milk.

I sometimes use homogenised milk because it's half the price of non-homogenised milk where I live.  What I tend to do is to cut early without stirring.  So for example, I might cut 15 minutes earlier than normal and then wait 15 minutes with no stirring.  Then I stir literally once and wait another 5 minutes.  Then I stir once again.  and wait 4 minutes.  Keep doing that until the curds have drained enough whey that they can be handled a bit more (usually 30 minutes).  After that I stir with my sanitised hand to get a better feel for how the curds are doing.  You can't stir with your hand earlier, though, because the curds are too fragile.  With this technique I can make pretty much anything.

I have also experimented with using up to 1/5 of the milk solids with powdered skimmed milk.  So, for example, 4 liters of milk and then 100 grams of skimmed milk powder and 10 grams of whipping cream -- no extra water.  This adds some milk solids that haven't been coated with fat and increases the milk solids per amount of liquid.  This, in turn gives you slightly better curds.  It helps a bit and I didn't notice any off flavours in doing so.  However, skimmed milk is just as expensive as my expensive milk here, so instead I just add 25% of the milk as non-homogenised milk which works well too.

But, if you want decent curds, the only route is to get decent milk: which means non-homogenised.

[DeejayDebi]

Nataile I don't know where you are located but I have heard from other cheese makers that there are areas where they sell milk in stores that is ULTRA pasteurized milk (and sometimes it has other names) and it does not say that is the case on the bottle. I don't know if this is the case where you are but I know here if I buy a gallon of milk at Walmart it will not make cheese and there is nothing on the bottle or even the expiration date to indicate why.

[rsterne]

The biggest aid I have found to getting the curds to hang together is a wooden spoon with rounded edges.... but make sure you sterilize it well each time before use (hydrogen peroxide works great)....



I have found that metal spoons cut the curds into smaller pieces too easily.... I also found that Chy-Max rennet produced better curds than the vegitable (Mucor) rennet I started with....

Bob