I am still not 100% up to speed on the science of cheese making. I know that the Mozz curd needs to acidify to a pH of 5.2 in order to stretch. I do not have a pH meter, and as a paycheck-to-paycheck hobbyist, I cannot justify buying one. pH strips of paper seem pretty unreliable to me for testing curds. I'm sure they are just fine for testing a liquid, but for checking the pH of a solid mass like a curd... I feel like they only tell you how acidic the outer-most moisture is that's on the curd. So... I have decided to just be a super old-school guy and just keep checking the curd every half an hour by taking a piece of curd from the 102-105 degree F water bath, dropping it into 175-degree water for 45 seconds, and then seeing if it will stretch.
I imagine, that whatever macrobiotic activity that was happening to acidify the curd in the 102-105 Deg. F water bath is completely killed by the 175-180 degree stretch-test liquid. Do people usually return those chunks of "dead" curd back into the batch, or just toss/nibble on them? I only make 1 lb of Mozz at a time, so if I burn through 1/4 lb of curd testing it, that will affect the end product if I keep tossing dead curds that will never acidify back into the fold. On the other hand, if I toss 1/4 lb of curd each time, I will want to make larger batches.
Thanks guys!
