Questions regarding ph and starter culture

[Choubix]

Hi guys,

I seem to be on track to a stretchable mozz!

I had to cheat to reach a ph of 6.4 using some acid as my cultures didnt seem to do their job...
I used a yogurt/kefir starter (I didn't have thermophillic culture...)

Is that normal that it take forever for Ph to drop? (most recipes I see call for a ripening time of 1h tops)

- is it a rule that renneting for most cheese has to be done at around d ph of 6.4?

Thank you

[Rain Frances]

Hi Choubix,

I'm in the same boat about the Mozza - hoping to make one that stretches!! But I used Thermo as my culture with no acid.

I started my Mozza yesterday and I was using Caldwell's recipe, she stated 6.0 as the ph for ripening the curd after cutting it. Her recipe said "60-90 minutes" - mine took two and a half hours to hit 6.03.

I'm on the last "in the pot" stage, waiting for the curd to lower to 5.2 and it's been sitting warm for 16 hours now (not much sleep last night lol)...the PH is currently around 5.4 so I still have time to wait before it reaches the magic number for stretching.

Mind you, this is my 6th try in the last 3 weeks, and I'm getting frustrated! I hope you have better luck! I will see if my luck has changed, hopefully in the next 4-8 hours!!

Rain

[AnnDee]

Hi guys,

I seem to be on track to a stretchable mozz!

I had to cheat to reach a ph of 6.4 using some acid as my cultures didnt seem to do their job...
I used a yogurt/kefir starter (I didn't have thermophillic culture...)

Is that normal that it take forever for Ph to drop? (most recipes I see call for a ripening time of 1h tops)

- is it a rule that renneting for most cheese has to be done at around d ph of 6.4?

Thank you

I rennet when the milk drop .1 from the previous PH level. So if in the beginning the milk has PH 6.8, I rennet on PH 6.7. This happen usually in 30-90 minutes depending on the type of recipe I am making and cultures I use. I feel PH 6.4 is a bit too low.

[FooKayaks2]

Anne,

I remember Caldwell talking about putting the curds in the fridge to slow acidification if you are in the situation you are in( wanting to go to bed) then reheating curds to temp again the next morning.

I can't remember if this was in her book ( I can't check as we are away at the moment) or if on a podcast I listened to she was on. I believe the podcast was cutting the curd.

Good luck.

Mathew

[Choubix]

Well: curd went to a ph of 5.2

I broke them apart and dumped them in warm whey (180f).
They didn't make a mass that u could stretch. They stayed in their curd form...

Any idea of what could have gone wrong?

Thanks!