Mozzarela, Direct Acidified - Lemon Juice Amount

[DETERMINED]

Hi I am going to try a 30 minute mozzarella, the boys want pizza for supper. If I use lemon juice for the citric acid how much should I use per gallon of milk?
{using natural strength realemon concentrate}

[Tatoosh]

How did that work for you?  I want to make the 30 minute mozzarella myself, but my current rennet is way out of date.  I tried once and it failed miserably.   I have read two different recommendations for the lemon juice in place of citric acid powder.  First one said 6 tablespoons lemon juice per 1 tablespoon citric acid powder, but I didn't have high confidence in the author, it seemed authored by one of those "paid for by the word" articles popular with inexperienced ESL ghost writers.  The second site said replace 1 teaspoon of Citric Acid powder with 4 tablespoons of lemon juice.  Which is what I used.  My mozzarella failure I lay at the feet of my out-of-date rennet. 

I used lemon juice to do a Queso Blanco cheese last night (again with buffalo milk) and I had good success.  I used about 2 ounces of fresh squeezed lemon juice for 1 liter of carabao (buffalo) milk, adding it in slowly until the curd separated.   

[DETERMINED]

Here is what I tried
3 gal milk
9 teaspoon realemon {concentrated lemon juice}
1 rennet tablet
3/8 tsp lipase

start warming milk ,add lemon juice,add diluted lipase 1/4 cup water,heat to 90 F add diluted rennet,heat to 102F ,let sit half hour,cut curd ,let rest 5-10 minutes drain curd into a bowl then nuke for 1 min work out whey nuke 45 seconds work out whey nuke 45 more and work in salt at 1-1.5 tsp per gal of milk make balls and put in cold water to set.

It did work but it really was mediocre at best, it stretched OK but did not melt as good as I like to see. For the time it takes next time I will use the conventional method.

[Tatoosh]

Well, as has been pointed out to me, mozzarella is not necessarily easy to make.  So far I have had zero luck.  I found a recipe for it on-line that looks interesting.  Instead of lemon juice, it uses cultured buttermilk, then rennet.  I have some starter for cultured buttermilk coming from the USA (I am in the Philippines) and I hope that will turn out a presentable mozzarella.  I was shown a few recipes for Queso Blanco that use either buttermilk or yogurt along with the lemon juice.  While not a mozzarella, it does go well with mozz on top of a pizza, imho.  I have had a bit more luck with with the Queso Blanco.  I am curious what the difference in acidity, if any, is with the reallemon concentrate compared to actual lemon juice. 

In the Philippines they have a lemon common found in the market that is green, not yellow.  But similar taste to the yellow lemon that is the usually found in the USA.  I bought a couple of the standard yellow lemons (much more expensive here) and tested them with litmus paper against the green local green lemon and they both displayed the same acidity.   

I suspect the more traditional recipes that use starter along with lipase develop more flavor but take a lot more time to make.  But I hope, in the future, to my hand at many of the short and longer recipes.  I will have to wait awhile before I can get both the temperature sensitive starter and lipase shipped to the Philippines.   

Did the mozzarella you make get the shine when you stretched it that they talk about  using the more traditional mozzarella methods? 

[DETERMINED]

Maybe it is just luck but mozza has worked everytime for us, good stretch, shine, melt, flavor etc.
We have made it with commercial starters as well we have had very good results using our homemade yogurt for a starter, we use raw milk.
Regarding the Realemon the bottle says natural strength, I don't know if that refers to taste or acidity.
We use vinegar for Queso Blanco and cottage cheese with good results.