Inconsistencies with Mozzarella

[LakeThomas]

Hi guys, new to the forum. I am quite new to making cheese but have been enjoying it a great deal and have had very good results so far.

I am having some frustration with my mozzarella. I am using the cultured long method recipe from Gianaclis Caldwell's 'Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking' and have had hit and miss results. The flavour has always been excellent but my texture has been somewhat inconsistent with the end result often being a bit tough and chewy.

I am using fresh unpasteurised pasture raised milk from a local farmer, 20 litres at a time.
Chr Hansen TCC3
Animal rennet
Not adding CaCl

I follow her process almost exactly but find I am always a little behind on the times. I have a Hanna pH meter so I am able to keep a very careful eye on the pH throughout the process.

She specifies the target pH drop after adding the culture to be 0.2 to about 6.4 in 60-90 minutes. It takes me about 30 minutes longer than that and seems to stall at 6.5 at which point I tend to continue with the rennet.

My coagulation is a little behind, by about 10-15 minutes, but forms a good curd.

I then rest and stir as per the recipe for 5-10 minutes and let the curd rest under the whey until my curd pH is 6.0-6.1. She specifies 30-60 minutes but this can take me much longer to achieve. Could leaving the curd in the whey too long at this point trying to achieve the ideal pH be causing excessive moisture loss and a drier end result? Would I be better following the time goal rather than pH?

When I get that pH I drain and ripen over the warm pot. My pH at stretching is always 5.1-5.3 and I have no problem getting a good stretch.

To begin with during stretching and shaping I feel I was working the heated curd too hard but have recently been a lot gentler with it but still sometimes get a chewy texture. My finished cheese has a slightly yellow colour, I read on the forum this could be to do with the type of milk I am using?

I have tried a few different brines for storage including the one she specifies (0.7% salt with CaCl and vinegar) as well as a pH identical one with more salt and find the balls are going slimy quite quickly. Is there a better solution for storage?

Thanks in advance for any insight anyone can offer, I feel I am very close to having a consistently excellent cheese but something in the process is not quite right.

[River Bottom Farm]

I use the same recepie as you are (also with raw milk) usually do anywhere from 12L to 45L at a time. I use tm82 as the culture and add Lipase (helps the flavor a lot in my opinion). I usually am a little behind in the initial ripening pH like you are so wait a while longer until the pH drops below that 6.5. What is happening at that 6.5 where it is stalling on you is the milk is buffering pH (normal for raw milk) if you can get it past that stage things will speed up a lot after that.

Your moisture content can be helped along with two things: First to get a moister final product cut the curd a little bigger (retains more moisture). Second when streching I never pull it into long strings. Instead I take about a pound at a time and work it in a ball by tucking the outer edges into the center/ bottom of the ball and smoothing the top outwards with my thumbs. This way the cheese is worked minimally because you can stop working it as soon as it gets smooth and shiny.

For storage what I usually do is brine in saturated brine for 15-20 min and then dry for a while and wrap/ freeze until I need it. If you are wanting to store in brine save some whey and make brine from that (add a little calcium calcium chloride and salt)

[LakeThomas]

Thanks so much for your quick reply.

I am making another batch soon and will make those changes. It makes sense that my not waiting for the pH to drop fully at the start slows down all the other steps. Will let you know how it goes....

[LakeThomas]

So I made another batch a couple of days ago, waited longer for the initial pH target of 6.4 and then proceeded. Everything else went along according to the recipe but I cut the curd a little larger this time, perhaps 16-18mm. The curd stretch perfectly and I used the whey to make a brine this time.

Brine worked really well versus the water, salt, vinegar method and no sliminess at all. Texture was still a little on the dry side. However the biggest problem, that I only noticed today, was that when this mozzarella was heated it didn't have any elasticity? I heated a little just in a pan to test and it expelled a load of moisture that just bubbled and I was left with a small amount of cheese that didn't stretch at all. Any ideas? This hasn't happened on any of my previous batches.

Thanks

[River Bottom Farm]

Probably pH was off. You need to be streching or smoothing at around 5.3 to 5.2. Too high or too low and you will have no strech

[mikekchar]

If I'm not mistaken, I think the issue was that the mozzarella stretched *initially*, but didn't stretch after the cheese had aged some amount of time.  I *do* remember Caldwell mentioning that melting and stretching are somewhat orthogonal issues, but I can't remember if she had any advice about melty cheese that doesn't stretch.

On the other hand, given that it did stretch once, my guess is that the pH actually rebounded after the initial make.  In another post I described how the curds can buffer the pH quite a long time after the initial acid is introduced (which I can't seem to find now).  In it I linked to an article where they state that it is common for mozzarella to jump up from 5.1 to 5.3 or 5.4 after a day or two.

If it's the case that the pH is rebounding on you, I can think of a couple of possible solutions: 1) reduce the ripening temperature and take a longer time to hit the target pH.  This should allow you to work through more of the buffers, resulting in a smaller rebound.  2) Aim for the low end of the stretching pH -- 5.1 instead of 5.3.  It gives you more room to rebound after you are finished stretching.