Brining buffalo mozzarella

[Steve Denvir]

Hi everyone, new guy here. I was able to score some raw water buffalo milk and am going to try my first batch of mozzarella.

I've read enough and watched enough video that I'm comfortable taking a kick at it, but I'm still confused about storage.

Am I best off using the whey? Will there be enough to cover the cheese or will it need to be supplemented? Should I be using a brine?

And finally, how long can I reasonably expect the mozzarella to last in the fridge using these solutions? Pardon the pun :-)

And if anyone's got any hints/tips/red flags, I'll be happy to hear about them.

Thanks in advance

Steve

[awakephd]

Steve, welcome to the forum!

If you have done any searching for mozzarella on this forum, you'll see that many of us consider it to be one of the hardest cheeses to make, since it is very sensitive to getting the pH just right for the stretching. Let us know how it goes for you - hopefully you will be the one to prove us wrong!

As for storage, the key issues are matching the solution both in pH and in calcium levels. If you store it in plain water or brine, the cheese will start to feel slimy as calcium is leached out of the cheese. You can add acid and CaCl to brine to get to the needed parameters ... but on the other hand, the whey from the making of the cheese already matches the pH and calcium levels.

I'm afraid I don't know the answer as far as how long it can last in the fridge - hopefully someone else will chime in!

[River Bottom Farm]

It will last in the fridge in plastic wrap for about a week. In brine (made with whey to balance pH and 1tbs calcium chloride per gallon of whey) will last about 3 weeks. If you want it to keep longer than that wrap it in plastic and freeze it for as long as you want.

[Susan38]

Hi!  I'm still trying to perfect mozz...I have had some reasonable success but results are often a bit harder than I would like.  Then I recently stumbled across this forum post, and watched the second video link...aha!  It's a joy to watch this cheese maker gently work the curd...I have been, by comparison, "manhandling" my curd.  I hope to try this stretching method out in the near future...mozz is definitely in the near future as the garden basil is in its peak and vine ripened tomatoes are readily available...yum.

https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,15924.0.html

Good luck with your mozzarella!  And wow, how wonderful you have access to buffalo milk!!!!!