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Mozzarella - another culture, another problem

Started by scasnerkay, July 07, 2013, 06:05:23 PM

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scasnerkay

Thinking of lovely caprese salads, I tried again for soft mozzarella and did not succeed. Ten hours after adding the starter, I was able to get a weak stretch.  It looks like mozza for pizza. I tried using Thermo C due to it having ST and LH which are supposed to be good for making mozzarella. However, in my attempt at making the mozza softer, I did not heat above 90 degrees, having read this somewhere..... But the acidification took way tooooooo long. Maybe it was not warm enough for that culture type to become active?
And my pH meter seemed not to be reliable in spite of several re-calibrations. The packet of culture has been stored in the freezer and is one year old from the packing date. So it should not have been too old I think.
So I may try again, though with only one gallon so as not to use so much milk up. I think I will use the same culture, and heat to 104 degrees with the thought of the culture becoming more active.
I think my pH meter needs a 3 step cleaning as recommended on the forum with soapy water, lens cleaner to remove proteins, and low pH cleaning solution.


Traditional Mozzarella # 4

Ingredients:
2 gallons pasteurized, non homogenized cream top milk pH 6.6
¼ tsp Thermo C
1/4 tsp lipase in ¼ cup water
½  tsp calcium chloride in ¼ cup water
1.5 ml  veal rennet
2 generous teaspoons salt (dissolved in 2 quart of reserved whey)
Flocculation multiplier: 3.5
pH target to rennet  6.4, target to drain 6.1, target to stretch 5.1

Cleaned and calibrated pH meter before make.

1:00  Milk to temperature at 80 degrees, stirred in starter after it rehydrated for 5 mins. Raised temp and held at 86 degrees
2:30 Temp 87,  pH 6.5 Increased temp to 90 degrees to try and speed up acidification.
3: 05 Recalibrated meter, and tested milk at pH 6.3.  Lipase stirred in, CaCl stirred in
3: 10 Rennet in, with flocculation in 13.5 mins, time to clean break about 45 mins with multipler of 3.5. 4:00 Curd was cut in 2 inch squares, rested 10 mins, then cut at 1 inch, rested 10 mins, then very gentle stirring with breaking up larger pieces.
4:25 Temp at 87, and pH at 6.2  Occasional gentle slow stirring. Heated back to 90 degrees.
5:40 Temp to 90 degrees, pH 6.0 Drained into cheesecloth lined strainer, then kept warm in pot over some whey. Turning curd mass occasionally.
7:00 Tested a piece of curd in hot water.... No stretch. Whey pH testing at 6.5.
8:30 Tested a piece of curd in hot water.... No stretch, and again whey pH testing at 6.5.  Cleaned and recalibrated meter and heated the pot to move things along....
10:00 Tested a piece of curd in hot water... and a little bit of stretching!  Pushed probe into curd with pH reading of 5.4. Whey pH reading 6.2.  Tested small bit of curd in hot water, and it seemed to stretch okay.
11:00 Half of curd wrapped and placed in freezer. Other half cut into short ½ inch strips and placed into bowl. One quart of whey which had been heated to 180 degrees with the salt added, was then poured against the side of the pot with the curds. After about 5 mins the curd was difficult to gather into a ball and though it did stretch somewhat, it was not shiny like I have made before. Probably the pH was not quite low enough.







Susan