I've basically been following Fankhauser's recipe for pasta filata using cow's milk for a number of years, and until recently my cheese was rubbery and not fit for eating fresh but it wasn't at all slimy and it was good enough for grating and melting. Then recently I realized that if I made my cheese with as much milk still warm from the cow that the fat wouldn't separate before the curd formed, and that's led to a great improvement in the interior texture of my cheese but the exterior is now slimy. My biggest pot is 8 gallons, and I typically have 3-5 gallons of fresh warm whole milk from the morning milking. For the rest I use skimmed milk, because the fat just seems to separate back out anyway. The cheese isn't slimy when I make it, but after brining for less than 24 hours it is. Can anyone give me any advice on how to minimize the sliminess? Thanks!
The sliminess is usually a mismatch in calcium levels or acidity of the brine. The easiest way to fix it is to make your brine with the whey from the cheese.
Thank you! I've been mixing water and whey together, according to Fankhauser's recipe, but I'll try straight whey for the brine.
Like Mike said use straight whey but also add 1tbs calcium chloride per gallon of whey (brine) to balance the calcium levels or the brine will leach calcium from the cheese and you will also end up with slimy cheese