micro vs whey stretching

[chewie]

forgive me if this has been asked/discussed before.   I am not finding it in a search.   last fall I was ripping my hair out with failed mozz.   well, some kind soul said it might just be too late lact. milk.   musta been, as I've now done both recipes I tried last fall with huge sucess!  yeah!

with one caveat....if I heat the curd by micro, I get those opaque stretchy 'threads' I hope for.   they are gorgous and I even made string cheese logs with it, was a beautiful thing.   but, if I heat with whey, it gets this odd looking texture like a ball of rubber bands, won't stretch too far and looses enough whey that the final ball looks less white.   (I have my own dairy goats, and make all my products with that)   kinda mushy texture.  the whey was around 170, 175*.   

so what gives here??   flavor is good on both, but of course, the looks/texture of the perfectly smooth round white 'stringy' stuff is what I"m after.   I would rather not use micro. 

I did add salt to the whey, per the recipes.   seems like any water used in that last stage turns what was good into not so hot.   btw, the two examples I list here came from the same batch of curd, cut in half, one whey'ed, one micro'ed.     

TIA to anyone who can help me resolve this one.   I am just happy at this point that I did make mozz a few times now, and my chevre is crazy good!   ricotta too!   and, if there is a 'cheater' version of cheddar, or some type that's good on burgers, eggs, etc., could you post link/send me this recipe?  I do not have a cheese cave and really don't know when that will happen.   thanks again

[dthelmers]

...and, if there is a 'cheater' version of cheddar, or some type that's good on burgers, eggs, etc., could you post link/send me this recipe?  I do not have a cheese cave and really don't know when that will happen.   thanks again

I've been making Caerphilly using a longer flocc multiplier and a larger curd cut size. At 3 weeks it has a nice cream cheese kind of flavor, but at 4-5 weeks it gets more like Cheddar. I've used it in macaroni and cheese and grilled cheese. I make it about every other make now.

[Alison]

Hi Chewie

I make both culture and direct acid mozz from Ayrshire cows milk, and in the beginning when I was still struggling to get the curd to spin I also noticed a better result from micro over whey especially in store bought P/H Ayrshire milk. Question- Do you monitor the pH? I did find that I could spin in the micro at a higher pH (even as high as 5.6pH) than in whey. Perhaps something to do with the rinsing effect of hot whey (that is speculation...!). The other factor that may have a role is the level of firmness of the curd at the spin (but here I'm in the dark: after draining I spin "sort of when the curd feels right"). I suspect that you could spin less firm curd in the micro before getting a spin in hot whey.

Hope that helps a bit
Regards
Alison