Hello everybody!
I have recently started to make mozzarella. I have had ok result using the quick citric acid method but haven't had good results using the culture method.
I used Thermophilic culture. When I bought it I didn't know the difference between DS and not DS. I tend to try first and read why it didn't work right after ;) So I made a mother culture. I do not have a ph meter (that will be my next investment) so I made the cheese by testing for stretch through out the "cooking" process. Only once was i able to get a bit of stretch using the culture method. Often it got crumbly and sour before stretching(too much acidity maybe?). I'm going to get some DS culture and try that in case the problem was with my mother culture. I'm having tonnes of fun with this and cant wait to get mozzarella going consistently so I can move on to provolone :)
This is the last batch of citric acid mozzarella.
Quick question before I start my next batch. How much Thermophilic DVI culture should I use with 1 gallon of store bought milk?
1/4 teaspoon DVI. You cheese looks very nice.
Great thanks Christy. I'm going to try again tomorrow :)
About to add the rennet on my next attempt. This is first try with dvi cultures.
So while it didn't turn out perfect I'm happy enough with the results to try a provolone.
Looks really good to me hon - go for the provolone!
Thanks DeejayDebi, I hope to tackle that this week!
Hi,
I have 4 attempts to make mozzarella and i do not get to the curd consistency. All I get is a soft moist cream.
I normally add thermophilic 1/8 teasp. and 1/2 rennet tablet for 1 gallon store bought milk. Plus my PH goes about 4.50. What I am doing wrong? (I guess more than one...). Can you guys help me?
Can you please start another thread and post exactly what you're doing? Offhand, I would say you are not draining at the right pH. Also, mozz should never go below 4.9, preferably not below 5.0, or it will turn to mush.
Hey linuxboy,
I've been following the recipe on this site with success now but I was wondering, I cut the curd drain the whey and keep warm to lower the ph. What would happen if I just cut the curd and let it sit a while. Would it develop the acidity in the whey?
Technically yes, but you do not want this to happen if you want a great mozz. The big part that makes mozz and pasta filata cheeses work is the slow acidification of a fused curd. Both parts are important. If you were to acidify quickly, like with a citric acid mozz, it won't be that tasty. Similarly, if you were to acidify individual curd bits, what happens is that you have fewer calcium bonds to break. Or more correctly, you'd need to do two things, first fuse the curds together, when the curd outer edges already have depleted bonds from being in the whey, and second, to stretch them all out. It's not that easy to do both, maintain a moist cheese without losing fat, and get it to come together in the appropriate way when the pH is low.
What you could do to speed things up is to drain the whey slightly lower than ideal, around 5.9. That would still let the curd mass sit long enough and fuse, and you wouldn't have to wait very long before you could stretch.
My personal preference is a 1/2" curd size, 3x floc multiplier, low temp under 100F, and whey drain around 6.1-6.2. Just the right balance between fused curd, moisture, stretchiness, and time to completion. I rennet at 6.35-6.4 for mozz - I preripen a little to save time during cheddaring so I don't lose too much moisture.
Wow thanks for that great reply!
Lots of great info to try to incorporate into the process for next time.
Quote from: linuxboy on May 10, 2010, 10:13:22 PM
I preripen a little to save time during cheddaring so I don't lose too much moisture.
I'm sorry.
"cheddaring"?
I did not know that this was done for mozzerella
It's not true cheddaring in the sense that you don't pack curd into slabs, cut slabs, stack, cut, restack, recut, etc. But for a cultured fresh mozz, you drain the whey at 6.0-6.1 and pack the curds into cakes, then let them sit in a warm vat until the pH is right to mill the curds. So it's kind of the same - you leave the cakes in the vat and let the acidity develop like you do for cheddar. Sorry for the confusion.
What I meant is that if you drain at a high pH (6.3, or even 6.2), and then leave it in the warm vat for a long time, like 5-6 hours, it will dry up and lose whey, and you may get this low-moisture pizza-type mozz, which is fine for pizza, but not so great for a caprese salad or fresh nibbles :)
I have another question linuxboy.
The recipe says "Place the curds into a double boiler with the bottom pot filled with water maintained at 105 F / 40.5 C"
Is there an optimum temp the curds should reach to acidify?
Temp depends on culture acidification rate. If you ask your supplier for the manufacturing spec, they will give you a chart that has acidification curves... usually 3-5 at various temps, from about 85 to 105 for meso, and 90 to 115-20 for thermo cultures. We might have them in the library here as well. You can use those curves to target the rate of acidification so that you hit your time targets and your pH targets, and that they correspond to the ideal make process you have designed after taste testing of the final product. That's the commercial approach, anyway, when striving for a consistent product.
The short answer is that the fastest acidification for meso bacteria happens at 103-104F, and 115-20F for thermo. If you leave them at room temp, the curds will eventually acidify, so the tradeoff is time to completion.
K great thanks again!
Will there be a difference in flavor if I acidify at room temp vs 104F?
I haven't found a huge difference. The moisture content by that time is determined by the floc multiplier, curd size, and fat content, so it should turn out about the same.
My trick to a soft mozz is to use high fat milk (4-6%), 1/2" curds at 3x, low temp cook, and letting the pH get all the way down to near 5.0, and then handling gently during stretching, not kneading but pulling.
Thanks linuxboy. Its going to take a while to get this just right. I still need to get a ph meter but unsure which one to get. Been reading through the threads on the subject.
Is there a good mozz recipe floating around for the soft caprese salad type mozz?
try mine:
https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=3749.0;attach=8138 (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=3749.0;attach=8138)
Updated at:
http://www.wacheese.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=48:traditional-mozzarella-howto&catid=43:moderate-cook-temp&Itemid=66 (http://www.wacheese.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=48:traditional-mozzarella-howto&catid=43:moderate-cook-temp&Itemid=66)
Need to up the fat content and have a curd heal to get it soft. It will be very close. To get a true mozz like they make in Italy you not only need the right milk but the right mixture of bacillus and cocci-shaped bacteria. I include both temp ranges, but let me know if you need clarification to make it easier :)
Thank you linuxboy. I have 10 gal of raw jersey milk in my fridge that I have been milking and I really want to make something we can eat right away-- you would not believe the cream content on this cow. It's insane. I'll let you know how it goes.
A regular mozz recipe takes a while... 4-6 hours for the acidity to build up to get a good stretch. But that lovely jersey milk makes for some outstanding, tender mozz. Good luck!