Now that I have understood how cheese works from this forum I decided to revisit mozz, which I had mixed success with last year using the citric acid approach.
I did 5 gallons and kind of winged the whole thing, referencing various recipes, including Linuxboy's from the WCG site.
For culture I used some fairly old buttermilk (from actual butter, the cream had been cultured with Aroma B) and some meso 2 and thermo B, as I am trying to use them up. I refrigerated the curds overnight and when I got to them today (about 16-17 hours) they were around PH5.2 ( I was too lazy to calibrate).
Anyway, here they are (some of them):
Looks great! I know mozz should be white, but I love that lovely yellow tinge from good cow's milk :)
one thing that could have been better is, out of laziness, I just used my hard cheese brine. I am assuming this is not proper because in 20 minutes the cheeses became quite salty. maybe they were just too small for that amount of time?
Are they salty evenly throughout? When you toss in a brine like that it takes several hours for the salt to become distributed. I often will add salt to the hot whey and stretch the mozz in the salty whey, and then put into a pickle instead of brine. Helps me hit that 2% salt target faster for more immediate consumption.
Well I put them all in water and now they are nice. I used to salt the melting water or whey but the recipes I saw recently did not say to, and I was not sure if there was an advantage to the brine. Now I know, thanks.
Never made a difference for me. I think it winds up being about a 6-10% concentration in the hot wash, and I pull and form quickly so what happens is that the individual curd pieces soak up the salt, and then come together and are just perfect for fresh eating.
Wow! Those look great. I am working up the nerve to give Mozzarella another go. I just need to jump in and do it.
Very impressive. I want to try again. Nice pics.
-Boofer-
after a day I am very pleased with these. The previous mozz I made would get mushy on the outside if left in water, but this stuff is the real deal. I used it and the ricotta I made from the whey to make stuffed shells today :)
Lovely looking cheese - great job!
Very pretty mozzarella. Well done!
how did you get the braid into it?
just by stretching like a rope and then quickly looping it, pinching the loose ends together on the underside. I found it easier than getting a ball to seal on the bottom.
When I have made mozz, I always had a problem sealing the bottoms too! I always wondered if it was just me!
Wow really impressive pictures, Mine always looks like squashed plops.
I'll have to try the braided look. My solution to the funny bottoms on balls of mozz is to put it back into the hot whey for a minute to soften it, then put it on a flat surface to smooth out the crimped bottom. Then into the cold water to set up.
They end up like really thick pancakes or flattened biscuits, though, instead of balls. while it doesn't affect the flavor, I'd prefer your pretty braids.
I definitely had some pancakes and funky balls going too. It has been paining me to cut the knots up for use. But a 4-6oz hunk of mozzarella, however pretty, has limited serving applications.
When your doing mozzarella bals when you dne and want to seal the bottoms I just hold them in the hot whey for a few more second to resoften and give them a few squeezes and they seal up nice.
Those little knotted balls are an inspiration! I'm going to have to make more and practice!
I found these videos inspirational before I started Mozz.
http://www.youtube.com/user/GibsonCom?feature=pyv&ad=4298619036&kw=making%20mozzarella#p/u/0/LLm7VGhP50Y (http://www.youtube.com/user/GibsonCom?feature=pyv&ad=4298619036&kw=making%20mozzarella#p/u/0/LLm7VGhP50Y)
Chef Whitney Demos Fresh Mozzarella (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZLjNsoSD7I&feature=related#)
Vito's mozzarella cheese-making facility. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u89HWogCynQ#)
These people crack me up! They aren't making cheese they are forming it, but they do have some good forming techniques.