165 F pasteurized-only cream line milk good for cheese? Also for mozzarella?

[tananaBrian]

Location: Anchorage, Alaska ...land of scarce variety in milk!

The best milk that I can find around here is Organic Valley pasteurized-only cream line milk.  Virtually all else available is ultra-pasteurized.  The Organic Valley web site says that the milk is pasteurized at 165 F, but I also emailed them for verification.  Is this milk suitable for making cheese?  How about for making mozzarella?  If not, then I guess we just don't have milk that we can use... without doing a 14 hour round trip drive to Northern Lights Dairy in Delta Junction or buying a cow or goat share for raw milk.

Thanks,
Brian

[Sailor Con Queso]

"Organic" almost always means ultra pasteurized. They do not have to state that on the label. In this case, it sounds good. Cream line would also indicate that it's not homogenized. That's even better. Try it and see what happens.

[tananaBrian]

Their web site says that they DO put "Ultra-Pasteurized" on their products if they have been.  But ...are you saying 165 F pasteurization is OK?  I'm going to run a 1-gallon batch of 30-min moz this weekend... see what happens.  I figure that if it works for that, then it should work for most anything, right?

Brian

[Sailor Con Queso]

165F is "normal" for pasteurized milk. Low temperature (145F) pasteurized would be better, but is harder to find. In most cases homogenization does more damage than pasteurization. ULTRA pasteurization is a different story. This milk should be fine for anything you want to do.

[tananaBrian]

Update:  I call the company and talked to them, and they said that with their temperature control, that the actual pasteurization temperature for this product ranges from 161.5 F to 180.0 F.  I also met a co-worker of my wife's that has a cow share ...$15/week for 4 gallons of raw cow milk.  I might do something like that too, but need someone else to help consume the excess milk.  Fortunately a friend of mine that grew up drinking raw and/or home-pasteurized milk (like we did during my early childhood) sounds like he might be up for a 50/50 deal on the cow share if I go that route ...one day at a time!  I'm giving the milk that's the topic of this thread a try tonight...

Brian

[tananaBrian]

Update:  I call the company and talked to them, and they said that with their temperature control, that the actual pasteurization temperature for this product ranges from 161.5 F to 180.0 F.  I also met a co-worker of my wife's that has a cow share ...$15/week for 4 gallons of raw cow milk.  I might do something like that too, but need someone else to help consume the excess milk.  Fortunately a friend of mine that grew up drinking raw and/or home-pasteurized milk (like we did during my early childhood) sounds like he might be up for a 50/50 deal on the cow share if I go that route ...one day at a time!  I'm giving the milk that's the topic of this thread a try tonight...

Brian

Another update...

  The 30-Minute mozzarella worked great when following Ricki Carroll's latest recipe (on her web site).  In this recipe, the curds are cut larger and when heating to 'stretchy' temperature, you heat to 135 F.  Worked great, although I do have some questions concerning the curds.  Pix and questions later tonight.

Brian