557305 Sun Sep 14 12:05:45 -0700 2008 17 31 Home Cooking 0 4034174 My first attempt at making cheese just failed miserably. Followed the directions to the “T” on a standard Mozzarella recipe and it just didn’t firm up after adding the rennet. The recipe called for ½ tab, and when that didn’t work after several hours (recipe said it would firm up after 1 hour), I tried to salvage by adding another ½ tab. Still ended up with a sloppy mess rather than something I could cut into cubes before draining. What went wrong? Sun Sep 14 12:05:45 -0700 2008 121803 SpareRib 1 4034321 What was the recipe and procedure? Did you add an acid? Almost always it's citric acid. It's an essential. What was the temp of your milk? Should be 90 degrees F. Did you cut through the barely-set milk, acid and rennet mixture while it was still in the pan? You usually do this about three times, allowing the mixture to rest between cuts. You have to maintain the 90-degree temp while doing this. At this point, the mixture will look like cottage cheese. The "cottage cheese" is then put into cheesecloth and then hung and drained. After four hours, it's solid lump. But it's not mozz. Did you stretch the curds? After the solid lump is drained, it's cut into cubes and these are heated in hot water. Then you sort of gently mush all the curds together until it forms what kind of looks like super-elastic pizza dough. Then you stretch that, over and over, just like pulling taffy. Stretching is similar to kneading bread -- it forms the structure. Here's where the acid is important. Acid to mozzarella is like gluten to bread. Can't make bread without kneading, can't make mozz without stretching. Stretched mozz goes back into hot water, then into a container. Allow to cool at room temp, then refrigerate. Done! Did you go through all these steps? It sounds complicated, but it's really a snap. And then you have fresh made mozz as beautiful and tasty as any in an Italian food store. Please post your recipe ingredients, and paraphrase the procedure as best you can (to avoid copyright issues.) We can pick it apart then, if necessary. I hope you haven't thrown your "mozz" out. You just haven't finished it yet, and it's fine to make mozz over several days. Hope this has helped. Sun Sep 14 13:20:44 -0700 2008 4034174 18222 maria lorraine 2 4034620 Maria, thanks for offering to help. No, I did not use citric acid with the recipe I had. Instead I made a "starter" using live yogurt and milk. This process appeared to work very well. The problems started when I added my "starter" to a gallon of milk that was warmed to 90 degrees. I let the mix sit for "1 hour to ripen" then proceeded to add 1/2 tab of rennet. This was supposed to sit for another hour at 90 degrees after which time the curds should have thickened/set. This did not happen, so I left the mix and went to bed expecting to find it "set" this morning. Still nothing but soup. That is when I added another 1/2 tab of Rennet (to try to salvage the whole thing) and even after several hours of leaving this mix, again it did not set up at all. The recipe was supposed to continue with my cutting the set mix into cubes and draining/straining through a cheesecloth but the mix I had wouldn't cube or go through a cheesecloth (it just blocked the whole thing up because there was no distinguishable curd from whey). I actually did try to see if I could smoosh the mix together to see if if would "hold together" before I finally gave up and dumped the whole mess. What I am thinking is that perhaps my yogurt starter (which presumably produced lactic acid rather than citric acid) just wasn't getting the job done. Perhaps I should try again using citric acid instead. I did throw it out, because to my mind I have already been working it for several days and it wasn't something that I felt I would eat at this point even if it did 'come together'. Basically, there were no curds or cottage cheese to stretch, it was just like a slightly thickened cream in consistency. Very odd. Sun Sep 14 15:51:37 -0700 2008 4034321 121803 SpareRib 3 4034765 If it's any comfort, nearly everybody fails at mozz the first time. I am sure that the acid in the yogurt culture was not powerful enough. Citric acid is always the acid of choice for mozz. Buy it at the health foods store or at cheesemaking or winemaking stores. 1-1/4 tsp. per gallon of milk. BTW, that's a lot of acid. I used ascorbic acid when I first learned to make mozz, but I'd never choose it now -- it's a little weak. I'd guess that your starter culture was many times weaker than the ascorbic acid even. What kind of rennet did you use? Liquid rennet is a lot better than capsules, but I don't think we know how well your rennet works quite yet, because you didn't create an acidic environment where it could "do its stuff." Sure, try again! So here's the way I build it: 1. milk + citric acid -- warm to temp (then add optional Th culture + lipase*) -- let sit one hour 2. with mixture at temp, add rennet and let sit 15 minutes -- it will have coagulated by this point, and you will be able to cut it. This is like drawing a knife through thick custard, but it will turn into liquid-y curds. *Practically everybody I know who makes mozz a lot also adds a thermophilic culture and lipase enzymes to the citric acid and milk. The Th culture helps with acid, and the lipase helps make the mozz taste more like mozz. Lipase enzymes are animal enzymes so vegetarians may not want to use them. You don't have to add them, but it helps make a more mozz-y tasting product. You might want to do a little research on mozzarella making online, and read other procedures. I've given you the classic procedure that nearly everyone uses. I've found it's unbelievably helpful to see it mozz made in front of you by someone who knows how to do it. It's good to see what the milk looks like when it's first coagulated, and the curd-stretching. Is there an Italian grocery around you or do you know an Italian family or Italian chef or "charcuterie" person who makes his own mozz? Call around and ask if you could observe. You may have to wrap your head in a bandana or wear a hairnet (SOP in cheesemaking), and look/be pro-kitchen clean, but go for it! Sun Sep 14 17:16:34 -0700 2008 4034620 18222 maria lorraine 4 4034862 Thanks so much for your input. What you said confirms what I thought was going on. The whole process appeared to stall when the yogurt was supposed to produce enough acid to break the milk down into water and solids. I'm going to take your advice and give it another shot with citric acid this time around. Get that thing jump-started! I will certainly look into lipase, and I have a bunch of the thermophilic culture left over in the freezer. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks again. Sun Sep 14 18:00:26 -0700 2008 4034765 121803 SpareRib 5 4035338 Don't give up. You should have seen my first batch. I made lots of little white rocks. I think Maria will get you going. Pablo Sun Sep 14 23:59:05 -0700 2008 4034862 119411 paul balbin 4 4678909 i was reading your instructions and i had a question. me too i tried to make mozzarella last week and failed to do so :-( you say to add the citric acid in the milk, warm it and then wait 1 hour before adding the rennet. if i do this my milk will have already coagulated by the time i am to add the rennet. what should i do? cut it, mix it with the whisk and then adding the rennet? thanks for the help Wed May 13 00:06:19 -0700 2009 4034765 292234 steppan 5 4689752 Steppan, I responded to you via email offsite. You don't have to wait an hour after adding the citric acid to add the rennet. When you add the rennet is more a function of the temperature of the milk. The method in the following recipe is to add the citric acid as you're heating the milk very slowly. Once the milk temp hits 88 degrees F, you stir in the rennet. http://www.dispatchkitchen.com/live/content/food/stories/2009/05/13/whey.html?sid=101 Sat May 16 13:10:03 -0700 2009 4678909 18222 maria lorraine 1 4035737 I'd agree with Maria_lorraine that your lactic acid mixture wasn't enough. Definitely try with the citric acid. I never use any thermo cultures or enzymes in my mozza - only milk, citric acid, and rennet (I usually use tablets) and I never have any trouble UNLESS (and here's my second guess with your first batch) the milk has been ultrapastureized. Check your milk by actually calling the dairy (or dairy collaborative) that produces (or distributes) your milk! Even organic milk can be ultrapasturized, and no matter what you do, ultrapasturized milk will not turn into cheese. Since it's not always properly noted on cartons, you can have UP milk w/out knowing it - as was the case when my mozza started failing last year. I was using the same milk I'd always used, but the dairy had started UP, but hadn't changed their labeling at all... Good Luck!! Mon Sep 15 07:33:16 -0700 2008 4034174 188918 bflocat 2 4036057 Wow, thanks for that piece of advice. I will certainly take all of your advice for my next batch - I will master the Mozz!!! Mon Sep 15 09:11:38 -0700 2008 4035737 121803 SpareRib 3 4091889 Great thread. Report back please! Wed Oct 08 17:11:16 -0700 2008 4036057 13900 kevine 1 4037520 I can't see this mentioned elsewhere in the very helpful comments from others... what milk are you using? I've tried making mozzarella with normal supermarket milk, and it just didn't work; the curds wouldn't firm up, fell apart. Now I always use non-homogenized milk (try a farm or a health food shop), and I don't have a problem. Mon Sep 15 16:28:01 -0700 2008 4034174 10431 Gooseberry 2 4093006 I'm reading Barbara Kingslover's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and I'm just at the point where she talks about cheesemaking. She specifically mentiones to check your milk to make sure it's not been ultra-pastuerized. Thu Oct 09 08:08:53 -0700 2008 4037520 12144 CeeBee 1 4038159 This link might be helpful. Even my first batch was delicious! http://www.cheesemaking.com/store/pg/21.html Mon Sep 15 20:50:02 -0700 2008 4034174 59258 smtucker 2 4092571 I've made the 30 minute mozzarella recipe on the cheesmaking.com website many times, and it's come out great every time. Thu Oct 09 02:35:00 -0700 2008 4038159 124908 jeanmarieok 2 4694507 I used this recipe to make mozzarella over the weekend. It turned out ok but I have some questions. When heated to 90 degrees (actually it was closer to 95), it didn't become custard-like as shown in the picture. The top was more like a bunch of curds floating in whey. When I inserted a knife into the mixture, I could feel some amount of tension at the bottom of the pot so there was definitely something I could cut through. So I did, even though it probably wasn't necessary because the whole thing was pretty loose so I don't think I needed to cut it to release the whey. It didn't have much flavor. I'm sure I added enough salt at the end but it just tasted milky and not very cheesy. Even tasted it as I went to make sure I had enough salt. I used good quality organic milk. Should I add lipase for more cheese flavor? How much are you supposed to stretch it? Do you stretch it to the max once, then bring it together or do you stretch, bring it together, then stretch it again? I tried to do the latter but it had cooled too much and I had to microwave it again. Every time I microwaved, it got little grainy patches (hot spots) so I stopped. Anyway, I didn't think the end product was stringy enough. Also seemed like the more I stretched, the more difficult it became to bring it back into a ball and get it shiny. About an hour after eating, my husband and I both experienced a little stomach discomfort. Nothing major and didn't last very long but I'm sure it was from the cheese. We are not lactose-intolerent and have never had problems with store-bought mozz. What could have cause this? Any input would be appreciated as I intend to try it again real soon... and this time I'm going to make ricotta from the whey instead of dumping it.... I had almost a gallon and didn't know what to do with it and no room in the fridge. Mon May 18 12:04:41 -0700 2009 4038159 10401 soniabegonia 1 4038216 My first attempt was a disaster. It was a gloppy mess that never formed into a distinct solid. In my case the problem was ultra-pastureized milk. According to my recipe, pastureized milk is fine, but not ultra pastureized. However, I later read that milk which is shipped long distances is frequently ulta even when it is not mentioned on the label. I made my second batch with local milk, still pastureized, and it worked perfectly. Mon Sep 15 21:30:50 -0700 2008 4034174 86221 lulubelle 1 4089342 Great read! Thank you so much for the information - hopefully it will set me up for success. Much apprecaited! Tue Oct 07 17:59:56 -0700 2008 4034174 230139 breakmel1