First Mozarella Failure

[Owly055]

I more or less followed Ascher's instructions for slow mozarella. Formed the cheese into a couple of molds, and after they were fairly well formed, set them in their own whey on a seedling mat to sour overnight..... mistake! In the morning, I began regularly testing bits of curd in hot water, and it never achieved ANY elasticity. Tasting them, I found a lot of tang, so I presume the PH was two low, though litmus paper suggested that it was in the approximate range needed. I finally gave up, placed the cheeses in saturated brine for a couple of hours, and they are now in the fridge in a plastic container that's loosely covered firming up. It'll make feta ..... the cheese I eat most anyway. It has a lovely tang. I've played with numerous variants on feta since I started making cheese to get different flavor profiles. The whey made more of my "super ricotta", with a smooth silky spreadable texture, and a richness achieved by adding butter and whole milk while heating, and being drained only enough to achieve a moist spreadable character. The tang from souring the whey adds dimension to ricotta that you never find in the commercial product.

 

[shelly_belly]

I tried to make some mozarella from some milk from Aldi's but the curds would not firm up. The resultant whey did make some good ricotta. My wife made a lasagna with it and it was much better than any she had ever made previously with store bought ricotta.

 

[passedpawn]

The tastiest mozz is made using a culture and lipase. But as you pointed out, if you let it go to long the pH will get too low. I've done this myself, and the curds will not melt and become elastic. That elasticity is very dependent on pH, and without a meter it's gonna be hard to do it with cultures without a lot of failures.

pH of 5.8 is the magic spot for me. Consider making mozz with citric acid (probably lemon juice would work, too; if I try that, I'll post the exact amount to use to achieve the pH). Use the following recipe and I can almost assure you'll have success ( nice mozz in an hour or less). When done forming your mozz ball, drop it into a pan of water so it'll cool quickly (if you lay it down, it'll go pancake).

https://www.reformationacres.com/2015/05/how-to-make-mozzarella-cheese-the-easy-way.html

I've got a fridge full of mozz balls. I froze a few of them and I'm gonna shred them this weekend.

 

[bernardsmith]

Are you sure that 5.8 is the sweet spot for Mozarella? I thought the pH had to be between 5.2 and 5.4 (which is really why a pH meter is needed - the "sweet spot" is really a spot and not a wide range and litmus papers are not so good with spots as they are with ranges. Outside the sweet spot (too acidic or too alkaline) the cheese will not stretch. Mozarella , in my opinion, is one of the most difficult cheeses to make.

 

[passedpawn]

Are you sure that 5.8 is the sweet spot for Mozarella? I thought the pH had to be between 5.2 and 5.4 (which is really why a pH meter is needed - the "sweet spot" is really a spot and not a wide range and litmus papers are not so good with spots as they are with ranges. Outside the sweet spot (too acidic or too alkaline) the cheese will not stretch. Mozarella , in my opinion, is one of the most difficult cheeses to make.

I've made a bunch lately and measured with my pH meter. So, that has been the spot for me. It's stretched great and made perfect balls.

Though, once I got it working I didn't experiment with other pH's. I'll get it down where you recommend and try that next time.

 

[Owly055]

I'm experimenting with my failed mozarella rounds. One is going into the Sous Vide, starting at 100F in a vacuum sealed bag. I'm going to gradually raise the temp up to 150 over the course of the day. Hoping that will change the texture. At that point the microbial ripening on the interior will have been stopped and killed. It has of course never been raised to mozarella making temps, so it's still very much alive and ripening.... in the fridge. Once it's removed, I'll cool it over night, and begin washing it with my home grown geotrichium culture and keeping it at brie ripening temps to try to encourage mold formation. This one is actually only about a half round, as I've been breaking off pieces and using them, and it was the source of my test pieces when I was trying to make mozarella. It already is quite acidic though not excessively. What I'm hoping is to get the geotrichium to grow and ripen the cheese from the outside.

Though I've given up brewing, I have never and never will give up experimenting.............. we won't talk about my success rate ;-) With beer it was actually quite good. Cheese is proving more interesting and challenging. I'd love to have a comprehensive guide as to the effects of the numerous possible process variations.
H.W.

 

[passedpawn]

With cheese (and maybe beer), I've decided there's only two outcomes: edible, and not.

I recently made feta and it turned blue. It's gonna go into salad dressing So.... success ?

 

[Owly055]

With cheese (and maybe beer), I've decided there's only two outcomes: edible, and not.

I recently made feta and it turned blue. It's gonna go into salad dressing So.... success ?

I'd call it a success............... I intentionally made "fetazola". I don't think there are any rules to cheese making unless you are trying to adhere to a style. I also vary the time before brining, and do other variations to change the sharpness. My next batch will use Flora Danica and propionic shermani only as cultures, be salted rather than brined, and will be aged under olive oil at room temp, so it probably can't be called Feta. It should be more on the order of an unpressed Swiss.... What would you call it? As you know from my brewing, I have a tendency to "go rogue" to use your words.
H.W.