Hello everyone,
Yesterday I attempted to make mozzarella again, (I have been eating too much mozzarella recently) but this time I had a different problem.
I used my two week old yogurt as thermophilic culture. I used RAW milk. I also made yogurt after pasteurizing the milk. The starting ph was 6.6. After 5 hours at 30C, it was 6.4. I decided I had waited enough and used rennet.
I then cut the curds and let them sit at 40C in the whey. Then strained the curds, put them on top on whey at 45C. At this point, the ph was still 6.4. After hours and hours it was getting late and I decided to let it sit overnight. This was after 13 hours from starting mind you, ph still at 6.4! Today, after about 24 hours, it finaly smelled acidic and the ph hit 5.1 and I stretched it and formed into balls. The curd mass had so much big eye formation it looked like emmental when i cut it to melt.
Also the yogurt, after waiting in the oven at 45C for 12 hours, it finally acidified. But it lacked the texture of yogurt. It coagulated and the whey seperated. So I went ahead to strain it , so I got a cream cheese style thing and the whey which I will be using as yogurt starter. I also made ricotta with the early whey of mozzarella. The late whey was acidic so it didnt yield anything at all. But the early whey make really creamy and delicious ricotta.
My question is, is this mozzarella safe to eat? It was made from raw milk and cultured with a weak culture. It sat at 45 degrees for 14-15 hours and at room temperature for 10 hours. I thing most of the acidification was from the culture that was present in the milk. I was ready to throw it at the garbage but I decided to ask you. Thanks for the replies.
