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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