Mozzerella Temperature Question

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mosquitocontrol

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I got the mozzerella kit from AHS and tried my first batch a few weeks ago. The curd separated but was more the consistency of ricotta and I had to strain it in cheese cloth overnight to get any solid type of cheese. I know its not optimal, but I used Whole Foods 365 milk with calcium chloride which I saw worked for others on the forum.

One question I have, is what part should I be measuring the temperature from when heating? It seems the curd insulates itself and stays at a much lower temperature then the surrounding liquid. I heated until the absolute center of the 'curd' hit temperature. Should I be measuring the surrounding liquid temperature instead? The instructions regarding this part weren't very clear.
 
I've had that problem as well and I blame it on store bought milk that is more and more pasteurized....

I'm trying to find some less processed milk before I try anything else...
 
I figured it was either the milk or the temperature. It just baffled me how the middle of the pot could be 30-40 degrees lowest than the surrounding liquid and nothing like this was mentioned anywhere in any instructions. I'm going to try one more time today with using the bulk temperature rather than the lowest. And if it still doesn't work I guess I'll have to wait until the summer if I can find a quality local milk.
 
Add me to the list, I tried making mozzarella once and got the same ricotta cheese looking stuff.

I am also waiting to get some fresh milk from a farmer like AZ IPA. Being a complete novice about cheese making I have no advice.:(
 
I'm letting a batch sit after the 105 warm-up, and I was looking for the same answer.

I couldn't get the congealed mass in the center to warm up above 95. I finally killed the heat and moved on to the next step. If we're only heating the whey outside the curd to 105, that would be much, much simpler.

I'd love to hear someone from AHBS chime in...the instructional video wasn't clear on this point, either.
 
Question for all of you. Have you tried low temp pasteurized milk options? I see the Whole Foods 365 Organic milks are high temp pasteurized (not ultra pasteurized, but still high temp). Here locally we have a few options that are low temp pasteurized, so I am thinking this is a better option for most cheeses and wanted to find out if you had found and tried something low-temp pasteurized with similar results.
 
I'd consider looking up some places like http://www.cheesemaking.com/goodmilklist.html. It's more difficult in Michigan since all milk has to be pasturized to be sold, unless you find some ways around it. I hear about people buying milk for animals, shares, etc.
If your whole foods doesn't carry one of your local providers (which I'd be surprised by), then you'll probably want to look to a source to low temperature pasturize your own.
Once I'm ready, I'm fairly sure I'll be using Calder's, unless I can source some from distant relatives. (Zingerman's deli uses Calder's for many of their cheeses and most places in my area use it as well.)

Additionally, it appears that the site mentions that it's due to the ultrapasturization all right. That because the milk was pasturized close to, or at the ultrapasturization temperature that it causes the small curds. They recommend just using it as a spread of sorts, or in something else and using a milk that is not ultra pasturized.

Disclaimer: I visited a Zingerman's tour to watch some of their cheesemaking processes (and get some free gelato) and they had kits by this cheesemaking.com company. If you're in the Ann Arbor area, I recommend peeking in during their tours, it's pretty simplistic but next time I go, I'll probably ask them some questions.
 
The low-temp pasteurized milk we have locally (it is still homogenized) worked "ok" for mozzarella. I wasn't able to get it to the stretchy state that the recipe I used called for, but taste and production wise, I was pretty content with the outcome and blame some of it on my lack or patience and experience. I had good curd formation and whey break, but I didn't get the curd mass to come together as well as recipe instructions indicated and when I heated the curds to get them to come together and stretch, I wasn't able to really get them to stretch. I may not have had the water hot enough or it may not have acidified to the proper level yet, I am not sure.

I found a local raw milk source (laws are more favorable in IL than some other states) so I may still give that a try for comparison.
 
I found an answer to my question: on the second heating to 105F, you heat the WHEY to 105, not the curd. Trying to heat the curd that high was causing my curd to break, leaving me with something that was closer to thick ricotta than mozzarella.

Thanks to AHBS telephone support!
 
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