Mozzarella in Savannah, GA

[Linkman81]

Hello friends.  My name is Brandon, and I'm from Savannah, GA.  I like to think of myself as a recipe investigator or detective.  Lol, dumb I know, but that's the best way to describe it.  I enjoy taking a Saturday and tinkering in the kitchen taking notes and trying different recipes and ingredient variations until I have unlocked the secrets of many popular foods from KFC's spice blend, to TV dinner Salisbury steak.  If I like it, I enjoy researching the current ideas and copycat recipes on the internet to get a good starting place but sadly, most are only about 80% close.  That last 20% though is where the magic happens and why these recipes are so closely guarded.  Anyway, that's my passion and hobby, using my senses to figure out how they made something taste that way.

As a young man, having worked as a cook in a Mexican restaurant, an American Fair restaurant, and my favorite a privately owned Italian restaurant....I grew a strong appreciating for cheese, but more specifically rich, full fat, salty, mozzarella cheese.  A year or two ago, I gave a try at making mozzarella with the help of forums similar to this and youtube.  I was disappointed that my cheese basically turned out nothing like what I had grown to love.  Instead what I got was something that tasted exactly like the milk I used to make it, with the texture of cheese.  It was slightly salty, but still very "milk tasting."  This was very foreign to me.  I quickly did some research and learned that this is what fresh mozzarella should taste like, but I wasn't concerned with this "fresh" taste, I wanted what Americans know as mozzarella.  The stuff you put on pizza, the stuff that is prepackaged as "string cheese."  I wanted that.  The flavor I'm looking for is very similar to full fat mozzarella string cheese.  What is the secret to this taste.  Does fresh mozzarella lose it's milky taste with age?  Do you need to add more of some sort of acid to gain that slight tang taste in most cheeses?  I really am a rookie at this and would love some direction.  I have done many searches for this on the internet, but have always came up short.  I found your forum, and I would've searched for the answer myself, but this forum is a bit overwhelming with it's scale.  LOTS of different areas to choose from based on many different variables, so any help in finding the correct thread would be much appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

Brandon
Savannah, GA.

[reg]

Morning Brandon, the flavour you are looking for has everything to do with the type of animal the milk came from and the cultures used to make the cheese. Buffalo milk is totally different than any cows milk and there are a ton of different cultures on the market.

BTW I have never had the good fortune to make a decent mozz yet and believe me I have tried !

[gathwaegl]

Hello from Atlanta!

I haven't had the pleasure of making any mozzarella yet; however, I hope to try by year's end. I hope some of the archives or some of the more senior members can help you in making your cheese.

Either way, welcome!

[awakephd]

There are a couple of things you may want to experiment with, assuming you only have cows milk to work with. First, if you used a 30-minute mozzarella recipe, i.e., one that adds citric acid to lower the pH, it will be quite bland. Not much you can do to improve it.

However, if you use lactic bacteria (generally thermophilic bacteria for this type of cheese) to gradually lower the pH, you will get a good bit more flavor. If you want yet more flavor, add lipase along with the lactic bacteria. And either with or without lipase, if you let this mozzarella age for a few days in a light brine, it will continue to develop flavor as the enzymes left from the bacteria continue to work.