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I've had a few goes at making mozzarella now with mixed results. My last 2 attempts however I've had really milky whey. I won't talk about my previous attempt much as it was a complete flop, but this one mostly turned out into something resembling mozzarella.

I followed this recipe to the letter : https://www.greenlivingaustralia.com.au/cheese-making/free-recipes/30-minute-mozzarella/

I let the rennet do its thing for 20 mins and got what I thought was a clean break.  But the whey could almost have been put back into a milk bottle and pass as milk.  I've attached a photo of the left over whey. I felt my curds were better this time but am still not happy as it wasn't the clear whey I'm expecting.

As I side note, I attempted to use the whey to make ricotta but got maybe a teaspoon of curds out of it at the end

Mozzarella is a finicky cheese to make you have to keep trying and fine tuning your recepie along the way. I think you didn't let the curd heal enough after it was cut. Next time wait 5 or 10 min after cutting then gently start your stir  and heat schedule. Don't heat quickly either. You want to bring the temp up slowly so the curd can heal and expel whey without loosing calcium and milk solids. Also did you use the recomended calcium chloride?

Thanks for the suggestions, I will try that next time. I did use the calcium chloride as I'm pretty sure my previous attempts weren't set properly after 10-15 mins. Thought it might help. Must admit I had to eyeball half of a 1/4 teaspoon as I done have an 1/8th one

An eyeball measure on calcium chloride is fine. It's. It that fussy it just needs to be there in pasturized milk

I may be wrong, but I don't think there is any downside to adding too much calcium chloride.  Any excess calcium ions that don't get used to bond the casein will end up in the whey.  As for the chloride ions, you are already adding a boat full in the form of sodium chloride -- and again, it's likely to end up in the whey anyway.

Quote from: mikekchar on July 02, 2018, 06:33:24 AM
I may be wrong, but I don't think there is any downside to adding too much calcium chloride.  Any excess calcium ions that don't get used to bond the casein will end up in the whey.  As for the chloride ions, you are already adding a boat full in the form of sodium chloride -- and again, it's likely to end up in the whey anyway.

According to Caldwell's Mastering Artisan Cheese: "Too much [calcium chloride] will cause a reverse effect on coagulation and can lead to a hard cheese and a bitter taste in the cheese." She recommends a maximum of 0.3 ml of calcium chloride per litre of milk.

That's very interesting. 0.3 ml per litre of milk is 0.65 grams of CaCl2 dry weight assuming a fully saturated solution.  1 mole of CaCl2 is about 111 grams.  0.65 grams in 1 litre is about 0.006 molar (or 6 mM).  A google search (which has a link that's too ridiculous to share) has informed me that the taste threshold for CaCl2 is somewhere between 1-50 mM (depending on the individual).  So indeed it seems that it could create bitterness that's discernible by some people.  I'm very surprised!  I quite sure I can't taste it at very low levels (I've tried before).  I may be a poor taster for that.

Quote from: mikekchar on July 03, 2018, 08:33:54 AM
0.3 ml per litre of milk is 0.65 grams of CaCl2 dry weight assuming a fully saturated solution. 

The 0.3 ml per litre is for a standard solution of 32-33%.