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I'm about to attempt my first mozzarella tonight and before I get started I've got a couple questions.

I have 8L of fresh raw cow's milk, liquid rennet and DY17 thermophilic culture. The culture is dry and pre-measured for 8L of milk but do I need to dissolve it in water first? 
The rennet says to use 0.2 to 0.5 ml/L.  Any advice on which end of the range to start at? I was thinking I'd start with 0.5 (4ml) which is 4/5th of a tsp.  Seems sort of high based on some other recipe's I've been reading here.  But, maybe this is more dilute. 
Should I add cream to up the butter fat?  The last milk report put the butter fat at about 4%.  I don't want to complicate things too much so maybe I should just start with whole milk only?

I'll post pictures of the process here as I go along but I wanted a bit of clarity on the process first.
Thanks

Dissolve the culture in the milk after it's been warmed.  Sprinkle it on top, wait a few minutes until it dissolves, and then stir in.  The rennet; my guess is that it would be better to start in the middle range.  I would go with 1/2 tsp for 8 liters of milk.  If the floc/ clean break time is longer than it should be, then increase the rennet next time.  Since it's a mozz make, I wouldn't add extra cream.  I generally use whole raw milk for my mozz, and have a bit of floating butterfat in the whey. 

Will you be able to measure pH?

Quote from: Cloversmilker on April 12, 2012, 07:36:33 PM
Will you be able to measure pH?

Yes, I have a pH meter that I use for homebrewing.  I just calibrated it.  I'm gonna use DeeJay Debi's recipe from her website.  I bought syringes to accurately measure the rennet.

Another point I forgot to ask about clarification.

On the bocconcini thready down a bit, it talks about leaving the curd overnight in the fridge and then taking it out for an hour before stretching.  On DeeJayDebi's site, it says to let the curd sit at room temp overnight.  Which is correct?  Fridge or counter overnight?

You want to stretch when you reach the correct pH; this will take longer if you refrigerate it.  If you are planning to wait overnight before doing the stretching, I think you will want to refrigerate.  I don't have yet have a pH meter, so don't know pH targets.  I test in hot water to figure out when curds are ready to stretch.  Some day I'll get a pH meter.  They sound a bit techy though.   

Well, here's what happened.  Please let me know where I went wrong.

My milk heating in the sink.  Hitting 104 wasn't that hard, staying there was.


This is the culture I had.


Sprinkling it on the 104F milk.


My rennet.


I went with 3 ml of rennet, just a bit more than 1/2 way in the range.


After 10 mins, I think I hit flocculation.  Note the ring where I moved the bowl.  This wasn't in the directions but I wanted to learn as much as i could during this process.


An hour later, I pulled out the thermometer and I think this is a "clean break".


The cut curd.  Should I have cut these on an angle?  They were mostly long rectangles.


I let them sit for 1/2 an hour before stirring.  pH at 15 mins was 6.4  After 1/2 an hour I stirred with a whisk.  No pictures.  But, the instructions called to stir for an hour.  I took this to mean stir once in a while over an hour.  I wasn't going to stand there for an hour stirring.  What is the right thing to do?

Drained the whey and added 1 gal of 104F water.  Again, some instruction questions.  It says to turn them every 15 mins.  For how long?  Also to do it while draining the whey.  Seems a bit hard to grasp for me.  Do you drain and then turn?  If so, how do you keep it warm so it knits together?  pH of the whey at this stage was 6.2  Kept the whey for stretching tomorrow.

Braaaiiinnnsss!!!


The final result.

Tomorrow, the stretching begins...

Here's my comments: 
You waited to cut curds 1 hour after floc time.  That corresponds to a multiplier of 7.  (10 x 7 =70 total minutes rennet to cut).  That's about twice the typical multiplier.  You can see this in the whey release post cutting.  The high multiplier should give you a moist and tender cheese.  (Hopefully not too moist.)
Cutting curds:  Yes, you want to cut diagonally down across the pot so that you dice up those long strands of curd.  Ideally the curds should be cut to about the same size so that they release whey evenly.  Logistically, it may be easier to do the diagonal cuts first and then the perpendicular ones.  The curds don't seem to slide away from the knife as badly. 
The curd turning:  the curd should be fusing into a mass that you can slice up tomorrow before stretching.  The turning evens the process out.  You've turned at a few 15 minutes intervals; should be okay to leave overnight now.
Congrats on getting a good start on your first make.  Hope all goes well with the stretching.   

Quote from: Cloversmilker on April 13, 2012, 05:26:37 AM
Here's my comments: 
You waited to cut curds 1 hour after floc time.  That corresponds to a multiplier of 7.  (10 x 7 =70 total minutes rennet to cut).  That's about twice the typical multiplier.  You can see this in the whey release post cutting.  The high multiplier should give you a moist and tender cheese.  (Hopefully not too moist.)
Cutting curds:  Yes, you want to cut diagonally down across the pot so that you dice up those long strands of curd.  Ideally the curds should be cut to about the same size so that they release whey evenly.  Logistically, it may be easier to do the diagonal cuts first and then the perpendicular ones.  The curds don't seem to slide away from the knife as badly. 
The curd turning:  the curd should be fusing into a mass that you can slice up tomorrow before stretching.  The turning evens the process out.  You've turned at a few 15 minutes intervals; should be okay to leave overnight now.
Congrats on getting a good start on your first make.  Hope all goes well with the stretching.   

Yeah, I had read that 4 was the right multiplier for mozzarella but for this initial attempt, I wanted to follow the recipe exactly and it said to cut after an hour.  Cut 1 hour after I added the rennet, not 1 hour after flocculation so it was 60 minutes and if I understand correctly, that would be X6.  Still too long I guess. 
The curd is a lump today, a decent amount of water has drained into the bowl.  How do I measure the pH of the curd?  Do I take the  pH of that water? 

The curd is out, warming for an hour or two (depending on how long this conference call that I'm ignoring goes).  Then I'll try to stretch.

Forgot to take the pH of the water before I dumped it.
Added a test piece to boiling water.  It doesn't really want to stretch at all.  Just a lump of curd.  So, I am going to leave it on the counter for the day and try again later when I get back from my afternoon errands.  Taking the advice to wait and be patient.

Again, how do you measure the pH of the curd when it's all hard?

Any back up recipes for using curd that won't stretch?

Quote from: gmac on April 13, 2012, 03:10:33 AM


I let them sit for 1/2 an hour before stirring.  pH at 15 mins was 6.4  After 1/2 an hour I stirred with a whisk.  No pictures.  But, the instructions called to stir for an hour.  I took this to mean stir once in a while over an hour.  I wasn't going to stand there for an hour stirring.  What is the right thing to do?

Keeping the curds at 104°F gently stirred for about an hour. Over stirring will make a tough cheese so be gentle and just keep the curds from sticking for now.


It says to turn them every 15 mins.  For how long?  Also to do it while draining the whey.  After an hour drain and save the whey from the curds and maintain the 104°F as you drain. Add 1 gallon of 104°F tap water to the curds, stir gently and Flip the curds after about 15 minutes to get them to fuse together - the objest is just to get them to fuse together at this point - then drain..

THEN - Place the curds in a bowl and let them sit over night to develop to the proper acidity.
Next morning remove the cheese cloth. The pH should be about 5.0-5.4

Quote from: gmac on April 12, 2012, 08:59:40 PM
Another point I forgot to ask about clarification.

On the bocconcini thready down a bit, it talks about leaving the curd overnight in the fridge and then taking it out for an hour before stretching.  On DeeJayDebi's site, it says to let the curd sit at room temp overnight.  Which is correct?  Fridge or counter overnight?

Place the curds in a bowl and let them sit over night to develop to the proper acidity.
Next morning remove the cheese cloth. The pH should be about 5.0-5.4 Didn't say leave them at room temperature but I should have said "them sit in the fridge over night for clariity. I always refrigeratate even if it takes a bit longer to warm up to temperature.

It's about 20 hours later and they won't spin. I"m going to leave them longer and see what happens but so far, they won't melt in hot water.  What have I done wrong?  Guessing it's a pH thing.  Different culture? 

Somehow your ph dropped to low.

I tried last night again and its getting stretchier. I measured the pH of the little water that was still coming off and it was 5.7 so I wrapped it in plastic and into the fridge again. I refuse to abandon this one until it turns green and gets hairy.

LOL Well that's good! I just checked your culture again and that is definately the wrong cultuture to use but it should give you some form of cheese. Hopefully it doesn't dry out before it gets done. You may have a big batch a halumi!