Making mozzarella @ home

[Fat Guy]

Steve Sharpson sells it on his website. http://thecheesemaker.com/cultures.htm It's the 100% Chymosin Liquid Rennet-

Just ordered 4oz.

[dockhl]

Interesting........my daughter sent me this link a few days ago ( Best Part Trick-- 30 min Moz )

http://www.simplebit...ute-mozzarella/

I haven't tried it yet.......

Tried it last night with the same results as Fat Guy

[TheTInCook]

Tried it last night with the same results as Fat Guy

What did it look like when you added the citric acid but before you added the rennet? Did you get little curds floating in milk?

[Fat Guy]

Yesterday we received a 4 oz. bottle of 100% Chymosin Liquid Rennet from thecheesemaker.com. Either it is superior to the vegetable rennet we were using before, or Trader Joe's makes better milk for cheesemaking than anyone else. Since we changed both variables today, we can't be sure, but I suspect the rennet is responsible.

In any event, while we will backtrack and try to isolate the real weakness in the earlier process, we are now clear of the curd-coagulation problem. We can successfully coagulate curds.

Making decent mozzarella from the curds is still an elusive goal, however. Today's mozzarella came out like a pressed loaf of dry cottage cheese. The earlier successful attempt was too much like cold butter. This is the area where we need some instruction, and soon -- the science fair is coming up on Saturday.

[TheTInCook]

Been reading some of the science on the direct acidification method. It appears it is key that the milk be very cold <40 deg F when adding the acid. I think that this is where both Fat Guy and I failed.

[Fat Guy]

I haven't found that adding the citric acid at lower temperatures makes a difference.

[TheTInCook]

I haven't found that adding the citric acid at lower temperatures makes a difference.

Interesting. My milk was room temp when I added the acid, and it curdled some of the milk immediately. My final result looked a lot like yours.

I'll try a 2qt batch with the last of my milk.

[LindaK]

Last year, the cheese magazine Culture ran a story from an 11 year-old kid (supposedly) who shared her secrets of making mozzarella.

And while it won't be in time for your science fair, Murray's in NYC offers classes in making mozzarella: info here.

[Fat Guy]

Using the 100% Chymosin Liquid Rennet from thecheesemaker.com and retrying with the first type of milk we used, I was able to make mozzarella just now. So, having isolated every variable we could isolate, it seems the most important one was the rennet.

Now I just need to figure out how to make cheese that doesn't suck.

[Paul Bacino]

Cool..

I have been following your work..I have the vegetable rennet.. but kinda got freak out when I saw it had Propylene Glycol, fermentation of Mucor Mieller ( sp ) and sodium propionate..

I was expecting extracts of vegetables? But I know.... MC has gotten me over that issue.

Gonna look into your stuff!!

[Fat Guy]

The science fair was today. I'm trying to figure out the best way to post the presentation. Stand by.

[Fat Guy]

So this is how the display board looked, roughly:

We used different brands of whole milk. We found that some brands worked, and some didn’t.

We heated the milk to 85 degrees F.

We added citric acid, which curdles the milk.

When the milk heated up to 100 degrees F, we added ½ of a rennet tablet, which coagulates (brings together) the curds. We used vegetarian rennet.

After we added the rennet, we allowed the milk to rest for 15 minutes. Then we separated the curds from the whey (and we recited Little Miss Muffet, and laughed).

We scooped the curds out of the pot and pressed them to get the whey out. We heated the curds in the microwave to get more whey out. Then we kneaded the curds and made a ball of cheese.

With attempts 1 through 4 we did not succeed! We tried 3 different brands of milk with rennet tablets. We ended up with something like ricotta cheese (which was yummy on pizza and in baked ziti).

It was very frustrating, but I did not want to give up! We were worried we wouldn’t figure this out in time for the science fair.

Success! We made mozzarella cheese. It took us 5 tries to get our first success. We did that with Local Milk (a brand of milk) and rennet tablets.

After so many failures we thought maybe the rennet tablets were the problem. So we switched to liquid rennet that my dad ordered on the internet from a lab. We repeated the first milk we had tried, and a new brand. We ended up with more ricotta.

On Friday, May 18, the day before the science fair, we still had only 1 success out of 12 tries. We were very frustrated and disappointed (and our refrigerator was full of ricotta!). Mom said “Why don’t you go back and do exactly what you did the one time you succeeded? Use the Local Milk and the rennet tablets, not the fancy mail-order liquid rennet.”

We were successful! We made 5 new balls of mozzarella cheese – all on Friday, the day (and night) before the science fair!

Please try a sample of our mozzarella cheese. It is the most expensive mozzarella you will ever taste. It took us approximately 16 gallons of milk to end up with these 5 pounds of mozzarella, but we did it!

[jsmeeker]

I was at Whole Foods today and needed milk. I happened to spot milk from a fairly local dairy that was low temperature pasteurized and non-homogonized. As I was drinking some of it, I looked up what exactly was involved with low temperature pasteurization. It talked about the temp and time (145 F for 30 minutes). And talked about enzymes too. That made me think of this thread. I re-read through it and saw that you did use some milk from a local dairy. (I think that is the Local brand milk pictured above) I looked at that their and website and it simply said it was pasteurized.

I wonder how well it would have worked with the milk I picked up today.

I think this was a cool experiment. You learned a lot about variables. Things that are variable that you probably weren't thinking would be. Like milk. I think most of assume that milk is more or less a commodity item.

[Fat Guy]

The website for the Local Milk product has one more specific comment about pasteurization, buried in a different FAQ answer:

"What’s the difference between your milk and organic milk?

The biggest difference between our milk and any other milk is that it’s fresher and tastes better. Most organic milk has a 60-day shelf life because it’s ultra-pasteurized, while our milk has 17-day pasteurization. Organic milk is more about the farmer’s agricultural practices and how the herd is fed than the purity or quality of the milk. In terms of the use of antibiotics, we believe that when a cow gets sick, you should remove it from the milking herd and treat it, and once it’s healthy and the antibiotics have been washed out of its system, return it to the herd. Organic farmers don’t have this option and must remove the cow completely. If they choose to treat the cow, they can’t return it to the herd."

[andiesenji]

Excellent presentation!

Congratulations on your (very expensive) but satisfying result.

I found some of my notes and I used Trader Joe's milk for a couple of batches.

[jsmeeker]

The website for the Local Milk product has one more specific comment about pasteurization, buried in a different FAQ answer:

"What’s the difference between your milk and organic milk?

The biggest difference between our milk and any other milk is that it’s fresher and tastes better. Most organic milk has a 60-day shelf life because it’s ultra-pasteurized, while our milk has 17-day pasteurization. Organic milk is more about the farmer’s agricultural practices and how the herd is fed than the purity or quality of the milk. In terms of the use of antibiotics, we believe that when a cow gets sick, you should remove it from the milking herd and treat it, and once it’s healthy and the antibiotics have been washed out of its system, return it to the herd. Organic farmers don’t have this option and must remove the cow completely. If they choose to treat the cow, they can’t return it to the herd."

Interesting. My google searches for low temperature milk pasteurization gets lots of hits. When I get one for a dairy, they all seem to specifically say their milk is low temperature pasteurized and give the specific temp and time. I wonder what Local is really doing. Bases on limited research, I would say if they were really doing low temp pasteurization, they would actually tout by directly mentioning it.

[Fat Guy]

I've made an inquiry. We'll see if they answer (the Farmland people didn't).

[Fat Guy]

Here's the scene at the science fair:

[Shelby]

Very cool. Out shines the volcano I made using baking soda and vinegar by far

[slkinsey]

21 CFR § 1240.61 Mandatory pasteurization for all milk and milk products in final package form intended for direct human consumption.

(a) No person shall cause to be delivered into interstate commerce or shall sell, otherwise distribute, or hold for sale or other distribution after shipment in interstate commerce any milk or milk product in final package form for direct human consumption unless the product has been pasteurized or is made from dairy ingredients (milk or milk products) that have all been pasteurized, except where alternative procedures to pasteurization are provided for by regulation, such as in part 133 of this chapter for curing of certain cheese varieties.

(b) Except as provided in paragraphs ( c ) and (d) of this section, the terms "pasteurization," "pasteurized," and similar terms shall mean the process of heating every particle of milk and milk product in properly designed and operated equipment to one of the temperatures given in the following table and held continuously at or above that temperature for at least the corresponding specified time:

145 deg. F (63 deg. C) for 30 minutes;

161 deg. F (72 deg. C) for 15 seconds;

191 deg. F (89 deg. C) for 1 second;

194 deg. F (90 deg. C) for 0.5 second;

201 deg. F (94 deg. C) for 0.1 second;

204 deg. F (96 deg. C) for 0.05 second; or

212 deg. F (100 deg. C) for 0.01 second.

( c ) Eggnog shall be heated to at least the following temperature and time specification:

155 deg. F (69 deg. C) for 30 minutes;

175 deg. F (80 deg. C) for 25 seconds; or

180 deg. F (83 deg. C) for 15 seconds.

(d) Neither paragraph (b) nor ( c ) of this section shall be construed as barring any other pasteurization process that has been recognized by the Food and Drug Administration to be equally efficient in the destruction of microbial organisms of public health significance.

UHT processing is technically not pasteurization, and is 275 deg. F (135 deg. C) for 2 seconds, plus some special filtration and aseptic packaging. Most "low temperature pasteurized" milk is treated at 161 deg. F (72 deg. C) for 15 seconds. The 30 minute treatment at 145 deg. F (63 deg. C) is for batch, rather than continuous processing.

[Fat Guy]

The Local Milk people emailed back to say they do 165F for 18 seconds.

I think in addition to using a lower temperature than some others, their product is just better. I get more, better-tasting curds from a gallon of their milk than from any other I tried. Most others wouldn't coagulate enough to form a mass of cheese. The ones that would didn't develop proper texture. That's quite aside from flavor and yield.

[andiesenji]

I have an automatic electric pasteurizer (2 gallon) which I used when I was able to buy raw milk. It raised the temp of the milk to 145°F. and held it at that temp for 35 minutes. It has an "agitator" that slowly stirs the milk. The whole process took fifty minutes. The heating coils are around the sides as well as in the bottom so the milk is heated evenly but the agitator is to make doubly sure.

I bought mine many years ago from Sears "farm supply" catalog. Lehman's sold the same one until just a few years ago but I haven't seen one for ages, except occasionally on ebay and they are pretty beat up.

Edited May 22, 2012 by andiesenji (log)

[pkeibel]

Not every milk works. Check here for details and which producers do work the best http://www.cheesemaking.com/store/pg/239-FAQ-Cheesemaking-and-Milk.html. I found it works best to use raw milk

[Shalmanese]

I have an automatic electric pasteurizer (2 gallon) which I used when I was able to buy raw milk. It raised the temp of the milk to 145°F. and held it at that temp for 35 minutes. It has an "agitator" that slowly stirs the milk. The whole process took fifty minutes. The heating coils are around the sides as well as in the bottom so the milk is heated evenly but the agitator is to make doubly sure.

Have you ever tried using it for sous vide?

[andiesenji]

I have an automatic electric pasteurizer (2 gallon) which I used when I was able to buy raw milk. It raised the temp of the milk to 145°F. and held it at that temp for 35 minutes. It has an "agitator" that slowly stirs the milk. The whole process took fifty minutes. The heating coils are around the sides as well as in the bottom so the milk is heated evenly but the agitator is to make doubly sure.

Have you ever tried using it for sous vide?

No. I've been served a few sous vide dishes and really didn't care for any of them. Perhaps it was the texture or something in my head that just didn't equate the food with my preferences.