I had a big problem with a Parm make (daughter to the E.R.) and ended up with about 8 lbs of Mozzarella.
We will eat it, as it taste great, the problem is that we won't be able to eat it before it goes bad.
What are my options on storage?
I plan on freezing some of it, what I'm wondering is how long can i keep it in the fridge in a brine, and how saturated should the brine be?
Thanks Jaspar
I've never kept mozz in brine because it just seems to melt, so I can't answer that one for you.
I freeze up my mozz about a week after making it, using all that I can or want to in the meantime. I then allow it to defrost a couple of hours to grate it - it grates better when still partially frozen IMHO.
You should try using a small piece in an acidic pickling brine for a week or two and see what happends,
If it holds the rest of your cheese should still be in a condition to do so.
When I was younger my parents would buy big blocks of cheese from the store, grate them, and freeze them in plastic bags. When we wanted to add a bit of cheese to our soup or make a pizza, we would just take the amount of cheese that we needed out of the freezer and use it right away.
Naomi
Thanks everyone I think I'll freeze it.
Quote from: Jaspar on May 24, 2011, 12:10:48 AM
I had a big problem with a Parm make (daughter to the E.R.) and ended up with about 8 lbs of Mozzarella.
We will eat it, as it taste great, the problem is that we won't be able to eat it before it goes bad.
What are my options on storage?
I plan on freezing some of it, what I'm wondering is how long can i keep it in the fridge in a brine, and how saturated should the brine be?
Thanks Jaspar
Easy solution here and anyone making Mozz with culture can do this. Make very large curd batches of 4-8 lbs
When the curd is ready at the final pH for stretching (just do the hot water test for this) Break it down into 1 lb chunks and freeze. Do not stretch it before freezing.
When you want mozzarella cheese just thaw as much as you need overight in the fridge then do the stretch just as you would with fresh curds.
This is better and fresher than freezing the stretched curds