She Made Me Mozarella

[walkerstone]

Hi Folks,

Julie & BaWS I'm sure you'll be happy to hear I confessed everything to my wife.... and she made me make mozarella first so..

We got to making and in our little adventure we panicked on the first batch thinking it wasn't working and ended up dumping out perfectly good curds.

Then on the second batch everything was going great until I started squidging and pressing off whey from the microwave and I think I over-drained it. (anyone else?)

I know Moz is a pretty bland cheese anyway but I'm guessing it shouldn't taste of just milk?!

Can anyone else offer any feedback on the moz taste? I know ffemt128 said that it tasted much better than shop bought but mine was pretty dull.

I used full fat non-homosenised milk.

Also the whey I was left with is very yellow in colour and still quite milk looking..

I used the recipe from here to make it.

Other than that I've finished building myself a press and a nice mold has arrived in the post so depending on how fiercely she roars I'll either be trying a farmnhouse cheddar or getting adventurous and going for blue.

 

[milbrosa]

Mozzarella that is made without added lipase is pretty bland and will taste pretty much like milk, based on my limited (two attempts) experience. I also found it to be a difficult cheese to make. Eventually I will try it again, but with added Lipase.

Using non-homogenized milk is always a good choice, since homogenized milk often doesn't form as good a curd. Low temperature pasteurization is also good. UHT (Ultra High Temperature) pasteurization prevents good curd formation too, and should always be avoided.

Did you add Calcium Chloride (CaCl2)? You don't need it for raw milk, but pasteurization and homogenization both reduce the calcium in the milk. Adding CaCl2 helps with good curd formation.

The whey from milk with high fat content will usually look yellow and somewhat milky (but not like whole milk) because of the excess milkfat in the whey. Mine always does, even when I get very high yield from the milk. I make Ricotta from it. After making the Ricotta, the whey will look green and will be more clear looking. The green color is due to riboflavin in the milk.

Blue cheeses are challenging, and the blue molds are very aggressive and persistent. If you make blue cheeses, I recommend you have a separate aging area for them or you'll get cross-contamination on your non-blue cheeses.

The farmhouse cheddar is a good choice. Better, in fact, than Mozzarella, in my opinion.

 

[walkerstone]

Thanks for the input, I'm sure it was fine, worked well the pizzas so no complaints Not sure what the pasturisation temp was for this milk, bottles gone now so I can't even check, I'll find out on the next one!

I didn't add any CaCL2 but will gve that some thought next time, I couldn't use the whey remnants to make Ricotta as I'd used citric acid to make the Moz

I've got my starter culture ready now so I'll be onto the next one soon enough.

I read somethwere (I think that recipe) that milk powder can be used. Will that also work in other cheeses?

 

[milbrosa]

I've read that powdered milk plus added cream can be used to make certain cheeses that are normally made from skimmed milk. But I have no experience with that, so I don't know how you'd go about doing it.

Tim Smith mentions it in his book, Making Artisan Cheese, but it's a very brief mention. He said it could be used for quark and cottage cheese, but he gave no recipes.