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Mozzarella problems Dryed Curd and can't lasts longer then 5 days-it get spoiled

Started by siriva, May 05, 2019, 12:40:53 PM

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siriva

Dear Cheese lovers, I'm a new member on this forum, and little new in cheese making. I really love to make Pulled Curd cheese (it us so relaxing to me). 2 Month ago I get to idea to start my cheese business, because the people who tried my cheese love its taste..
But, like every newcommer I have some problems and doubts. If someone can help me, I would be so appreciate.
Let I start..
I make my Mozzarella on that internet receipt - 30 min Mozzarella without microwave.. (citric acid, rennet in unnchlorinated water, milk) And always when I make it with fresh milk from farm, gets perfectly.. Sometimes I have a lot milk from farm and I let it in my freezer for month or two.  When I get that  frozen milk and thy to make a cheese with it, all steps pass well except last one - when I need to puled curd and form cheese. On that last step curd start to crumble, became drained and start to decay in the pot with hot water. That is my first problem. I do not know what to do, and why its start to behave like that? I understand that problem is probably because milk was frozen so long... But I do not know what to change to get puled curd.

My second problem is with last of cheese... My idea is to make Mozzarella cheese with tastes (herbs, drained fruits, truffles, mushroom, nuts, etc...). And to pack that cheese in dried shape without water, only in package. In Serbia I can't find to buy food wax, so I make my package with gelatin. But, problem in not gelatin package, If I left cheese unpacked (only that "naked" if I can express myself like that)  in the fridge, after 5 days, cheese start to be clammy and stinky and in the end some microorganism get on it surface (white and green, sometimes and grey colonies)...  I was thinking to coating cheese with fungicide solution? Or to coat cheese with white vinegar solution? Maybe that will gave the results?

If someone  can help me, I would be so thankful.

River Bottom Farm

#1 don't freeze the milk it ruins the structure of the milk for streched cheeses.
#2 I freeze mozzarella it comes out of the freezer about the same as it goes in. If that is not an option save some whey back and add 1tbs calcium chloride to one gallon of whey then submerge the finished cheese in this brine and store it that way

awakephd

Welcome to the forum!

I echo River Bottom's suggestions. Keep in mind that by definition mozzarella is a fresh cheese; it is not intended to be stored for a long period of time. For a longer-storage pasta filata (pulled) cheese, you might look at making provolone.
-- Andy

siriva

Thanks for suggestions.
I know now that I must not freeze milk if I want to make Mozzarella. But, I still have  a lot of milk in my freezer (nuclear disaster supply :-)), and I need to use it. It will be a pitty if i left milk to collapse. I tried to use less citric acid. Still got the same result - dryed crumble curd. So that milk in no longer suitable for Mozzarella.
Could Provalone cheese be made from freezing milk?
Here on the forum I found a lot of different Provalone cheese receipt. Is it hard to make that cheese for our beginners in cheese world?

About Mozzarella savings. While I surfing on the internet fo find the solution, i run to Babybel cheese. They make Mozzarella in small piece (17g) and pack it in wax and foil.
That gave me the hope. If they find the way to save Mozzarella and sell it in big market store, I will find my answer to store it without brine.
I will try some thing that I got on my mind, and if someone know the solution what Babybel knows, I would be grateful if share it with us.

mikekchar

I think provalone will have the same problem as mozzarella in terms of using frozen milk.  Stretched curd cheeses are all quite difficult to make for beginners in my opinion.  If you don't get the pH just right, it doesn't work. 

As for Babybel, I'm pretty sure it's not mozzarella (or any kind of stretched curd cheese).  To be fair, I haven't had it since I was a kid (so we're talking 40 year here!), but it's just a fresh young cheese in wax.

I think my one piece of advice if you want to start making cheese professionally is to spend some time making different kinds of cheeses so that you know how to deal with problems.  Cheese is a *live* thing.  It literally has things growing in it.  Things can, and will, go horribly wrong when you sell that kind of thing.  For a long time I thought about opening a brewery (I've made beer for several decades).  I visited a lot of small breweries.  Frequently people start selling beer, but they don't have enough background in how to deal with problems.  They will get a bad batch of beer and have to throw it away.  And then the next batch will be bad.  And the next batch.  Pretty soon they are out of money and they close down.

I don't want to sound negative, but I really recommend spending a few years to learn your craft before you start to invest money in a commercial setup.  Don't worry so much about what you will finally produce.  Just make cheese.  Learn about it as much as you can.  Go and travel to visit some other cheese makers if you can and get advice -- especially about the business side of things.  Once you feel like you can make any kind of cheese without having any kinds of problems, *then* start planning what you are going to do commercially.

Of course, I never did open my brewery.  I was all set (I even had a building and had lined up all the equipment) and suddenly I thought:  What do I like about making beer?  Is it showing up every day, working in a factory to produce a large volume of the same thing over and over again?  Or is it being creative and making something new every time.  I realised it was the latter and gave up the brewery.  I feel I was really lucky :-)

River Bottom Farm

Provolone would be worth a try. The easiest fresh cheese you could probably make with frozen milk would be feta. Baby bell cheese is not streched and is close to a Gouda or even a processed cheese in terms of moisture content and make style.

awakephd

Yep, what Mike and River said.

I especially like your last paragraph, Mike - this is the reason I absolutely refuse to accept money for various odds and ends of machine work or welding that I do - these are hobbies, not my job, and I don't want them to become my job!
-- Andy