Mozzarella

[nootdutch]

Hi All,
I tried to make mozzarella, I looked at a few youtube vid's and gave it a go.
The curd however failed to stretch, and it was kinda lumpy/ grainy. What went wrong?
Bear in mind this was the first attempt: .
The temp gauge is for jams and jellies, the gauge does not go below 60celcius, so the 32 c was a bit of a guess!
The curd set perfect as in the video's, but failed to go into a dough type substance when heated up.
Any advise appreciated
Thanks from stormy Ireland

[John@PC]

Hi nootdutch.  Your's looks a lot better than my first Moz witch basically dissolved into the hot water.  It will probably be as tasty as mozzarella but without the elastic properties.  There are some good pointers on the forum here that should help you with your next effort.  Only thing I'll add is that with mozzarella you want to be patient and test the stretch at intervals until it's ready.  A pH meter, while not necessary, does help.

[Kern]

Top O' the Morning, nootdutch.  I think that the biggest fraud in the cheese making world is the one that some of the "60-minutes to learn to make you first mozzarella" kit makers pull on the unsuspecting public.  Mozzarella is a Pasta Filata cheese.  This is the Italian way to say stretched curd.  Both the timing and temperature have to be spot on.  I got one of the kits for my birthday 5 months ago.  The first go produced kind of a cross between ricotta, cottage cheese and heavy cream.  The second produced a decent mozzarella but nothing better than I could buy at my local market for about half the cost and 1/10th the time.  But, I thought I had arrived!  Me, the king of cheesemakers!  So, I went out and bought some low temperature pasteurized whole cream top milk for over twice the price of the rot gut P&H milk I used on the first two.  I turned this liquid gold into a disaster:  I made mozzarella "string cheese".  It was tougher than the chops off an eight year old Irish sheep.  About the only thing that could be said about it is that you could knot the strings together and tie things up.

Dude, mozzarella, like all Pasta Filata cheeses is a very tough thing to make right.  That's why most of the folks who haunt the Forum don't make it.  In fact, during the five months or so I've been a member of this austere group I've never seen anyone except new cheesemakers try to make it!  What does that tell you?   

At any rate my new Irish friend go out and spend a little money on some equipment and cultures and make some real cheese.