Mozzie failure !

[yotmon]

Hi everbody, tried to make Mozzarella twice now and failed both times. First go I realised that I didnt have any citric acid, so used the juice of half a lemon. I didnt get a clean break until the day after, but when i added the curds to the hot whey they disintegrated, blending back into the whey.
The second attempt used citric acid, but again no clean break occurred. The milk was heated to 31c and the rennet is a fresh batch. A coulple of hours later, the curd had formed but didn't look firm enough. As I thought, it broke on trying to remove it from the whey. As a salvage job I added it to another batch of whey from a successful fromage blanc, left it overnight then brought it to the boil and strained it over a cloth to obtain a ricotta type cheese.

What am I doing wrong ? I Took the milk temp to 88f (31c) and waited for the clean brake which should have occurred within 15 mins - but it must have been over 2 hours before the curd set, albeit not enough. Any suggestions would be appreciated. thanks, Ste.

[wheels]

Yotmon,

We don't seem to major on milk and cheese lately, but we still have members who know about these things! Can you give them more detail - source and type of milk, recipe, method etc. The more you can tell them, the more they will be able to help.

Phil

[yotmon]

Thanks for the reply wheels. I'm using full cream milk (blue top) from aldi as a 4 pint serving. I was following rik's recipe on here in the cheese section, but can't seem to get past the first stage. After heating the milk to 88f I added the amount of citric acid and followed the instructions on the rennet (at least 4 drops) and then waited for the 'clean break'. On the recipe' it says that this will occur after 15 mins - mine never. It took at least a couple of hours before any curds were formed and they were not solid enough to separate from the whey. My first attempt had to be left overnight for a good curd to be formed, but when i returned it to the hot whey, it just disintegrated. As I mentioned in my previous post I also made a 'fromage blanc' which was fine, so I know that the rennet I'm using is doing it's job. But the reason I bought the rennet was primarily to make Mozzarella as I enjoy a good homemade pizza at least once a week.

[Snags]

Check this out and see if you are doing anything different.
http://media.theage.com.au/food/cuisine ... 45943.html

[yotmon]

Check this out and see if you are doing anything different.
http://media.theage.com.au/food/cuisine ... 45943.html

cheers for that - I'll have a gander and see if I can find the solution.

Thanks, Ste.

[mitchamus]

check the best before date on the rennet ...

& also -

Did you add the rennet drops directly?

or to a couple of TBSP of water and then add?

[onewheeler]

A thought: is the milk you're using homogenised (and does it matter for mozarrella)?

Martin/

[DiggingDogFarm]

Use raw milk for best results.



~Martin

[wheels]

I saw this:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2012 ... ozzarella/

...and thought of you!