# Sudden Mozzarella Failure



## redgate (Sep 18, 2008)

I have been making mozzarella cheese off and on for several months now, with pretty good success. I have made molded mozz, string cheese, etc. Now, all of a sudden, every batch I make is a complete failure (typically I wind up with something like ricotta). I can't for the life of me figure out what I'm doing wrong all of a sudden. I bought some pH papers, but can't find any info on WHEN to test the pH. I have tested it throughout the process, finding the acidity increases as time goes by. To give you an idea, I a following the Ashley English recipe:

Mix 1 gallon milk (I use whole goat milk) and 2 tsp citric acid and begin heating. Mix 1/4 tsp rennet (I use a concentrated version) with 1/4 cup cool water. When milk mixture reaches 88*, pour in rennet mixture. Heat to 104*. 

She says to let it sit for 15 minutes, but my curds are fully formed by the time the temp reaches 104*, and the few times I have let it sit, the batch fails due to being too acidic (I think). In fact, I have even found that if I use the scoop-curds-out-of-whey method, the first half of my curds have worked well, while the second half turns into Ricotta-type--again, I assume from sitting in the whey and becoming too acidic. It is possible I have overheated slightly, as, depending on how the thermometer is positioned, the top may read 104* while the bottom reads 110*. I'm baffled.

To make matters worse, I am supposed to be teaching a class on how to make mozz in 4 days, and I just can't get it. What am I doing wrong? Too much citric acid, perhaps? (Even though that's what the recipe calls for). Any help would be greatly appreciated.


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## chewie (Jun 9, 2008)

first, I am NO expert. but, the recipe might be dealing with cow's milk. your thermometer might be off, gotten dropped or something? your goats might be eating something differently than before?

for my mozz, one tsp per gallon is all that's needed, using raw goat's milk. 

I mix 5 gallons milk with 5 tsp. citric. heat to 91*
add a 'heavy' 1/2 tsp thermo b culture
sit one hour (or more!) then add 3/4 tsp. veal rennet (diluted with water)
sit for 20 mins to an hour at most, cut curd, sit 10 mins, stir and start to heat to 102*
let it alone for a while then into a collandar to drip some whey off, maybe half hour to hour. then start heating whey, taking small hunk and nuc'ing it to see if its ready to stretch--if so, cut the lump into cubes, dump into hot whey, stretch, salt and I put into a loaf pan (fills it) to mould it. this way I can cut it into 3-4 blocks to freeze and it makes a nice shpe to grate too.


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