Sunday 15 July 2012

The Whey of Cheese: Fresh Mozzarella (take 1)



Making Mozzarella


It has been 1 year since I've had a cheese press, necessary bacteria, plastic and cloth cheese clothing-- all of the trappings of a cheese-maker in training.  Honestly?  I've done very poorly at it.  Every. Single. Batch. Has. Failed.  It's been pretty depressing, so I haven't written about it.  Ashamed?  Maybe a bit.  Frustrated?  You betcha.  

Honestly though, it's not always easy to balance the acidity and temperature and figure out how to cure it all.  I'm not even trying to make a complicated cheese, but the easiest: mozzarella.  I blamed the stove, I blamed my mood, I blamed everything I possibly could.  Fact is, this cheese making, well it's a bit of a science and I'm used to fiddling and adjusting, which is not the proper approach when a few degrees centigrade can ruin your whole batch.  To-date the most frustrating part has been that I haven't really understood why the cheese failed.  So I will blog it, in an attempt to adopt a more scientific approach.  

Today I decided that I would cheap out a bit.  I'd make it easy.  I did the easy mozza recipe: milk, rennet, citric acid.  Normally-speaking, using citric acid is an anathema: the acid comes from the lactic acid produced by the bacteria, it's deep in the whey.  I opted out because I thought previous problems I had were culture-related acidity issues.  Today I knew the acidity would be correct and I could practice stretching the cheese.  What did I learn?  I learned that some of the other cheeses I made, they probably would have made the cut, but I didn't know what I was looking for.

The problems today resulted from never having used citric acid before and I think I added it too late.  I dropped the acid in around 90F and the milk went to curdle immediately before rennet was in.  So, it curdled, but the rennet couldn't coagulate half the batch.  Now, it could be that this was too little rennet, liquid was too warm, too little curing time, but the standing hypothesis shall be timing.


Here's what I did today:


12 liters of milk (3 gallons)
3/4 tsp rennet (not quite to top)
1.5 tbsps citric acid


I heated the milk to 90F (30C) and added the rennet and the acid.  It curdled, immediately.  After 30 minutes of the solution curing, I checked the temp and it had risen to 100F, which is far too hot for cheese at this early stage of the curing.  

Today, I did not achieve a clean break on the curd, not even close.  And, that clean break is an essential step in curd development..  I was ready to toss the whole batch, had my hands on the handles, but when I reached down a bit further in the pot, I discovered that some of the curd had developed deeper down in the cheese (which is partially why I think it might be attributable to quantities.  I heated the curd, however, in the microwave (god forbid, right?  But, I had to try something).  I heated in in 30 second intervals, allowing the curd to divest itself of excess whey that was part of the coagulation problem.  After multiple heatings and kneadings, the curd began to stretch and I was able to knead it until it formed shiny elastic balls of mozzarella.  Stretchiness was a problem in previous batched, and is attributable to a lack or overabundance of acidity (issues I could not have identified earlier without the PH meter) or, I suspect, that I was not aware of how much kneading might be necessary.

Stretching the cheese, however, was an entirely new adventure (one that I thought previously would be the most difficult part of the process).  Once the cheese was hot enough it became malleable.  Today I learned that losing some of the whey makes it easier to stretch the cheese.  So, lesson #2: wear rubber gloves.  $#!t is hot.  Press the ball up through an open fist, letting it balloon out the top and pinch it closed on the back end.  If you pinched off a tiny piece, just bust it up and put it into the next ball.  Float them in a brine immediately after shaping.  If you place them on the counter, they will flatten out.

Today, it stretched enough from the microwave with the cheap-arse citric acid method.  Hot-water and bacterial culture methods to come later this summer.  

Caprese: Tomatoes and Basil from the Garden, hand-made Mozzarella, Olive Oil


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