r/cheesemaking

After seeing yet another confusing post about mozzarella using vinegar and milk, I decided to write this short post, also because just last night I made mozzarella with citric acid and this year I've already successfully made fiordilatte mozzarella (with natural acidification) with both raw milk and pasteurized but not homogenized milk.

And a few years ago when I started trying, I too had been convinced by fake YouTube videos that mozzarella was simple and that there were strange shortcuts, only to then fail when put to the test because things didn't work (and we will also see why they seems to work for the guy in the video).

This post isn't meant to be a simple recipe but rather a sort of FAQ on why some things work and others don't, I will still explain the basics for the citric acid mozzarella since I never made a post about it (ps. by the end of my post I actually basically also wrote almost a complete recipe for fiordilatte mozzarella too since I changed some steps compared to the past).

If you want a recipe I made several post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/cheesemaking/comments/1jsxh6c/my_first_scamorza_aged_cheese/

https://www.reddit.com/r/cheesemaking/comments/1tzpio2/i_think_i_discovered_the_secret_to_make_super/

With that out of the way let's start.

- Why Mozzarella require rennet? Why cannot I use vinegar?

- Mozzarella is a cheese made from the acidification of the curd, the only way to separate the curd from the whey and the ricotta (that I know at least) is rennet and a temperature of about 38°C

Vinegar, lemon juice and any other form of acid will acidify the curd but will only separate at a temperature close to 90°C, and at the temperature the ricotta part will also separate with the curd.

That will make the curd really weak and will create a rough dough that will not always stretch and even when it will stretch it will require you to work it a lot and will end up super dry and tough as a rubber ball. It will probably taste funny too, vinegar is strong after all and you need to use a lot of it, the rubber ball will taste only like vinegar in the end.

If you try with lemon juice instead it can also fail because the acidic content of lemon can vary a lot.

In both cases you can make a cheese that you can like... but it will never be mozzarella, it will not taste as mozzarella, and it can fail too.

So the best thing you can do is buy rennet (most rennet are fine, you can even make your own if you really really want) and use it to make real cheese.

What you also need to understand is that you will need a really really small amount of rennet to curd a lot of milk 1:10000, that's like 0.4ml for liter of milk... and as long as you keep the rennet in the fridge it will never expire since it's really really salty. I got my first rennet batch 4 years ago, I'm still using it. So just buy it once and forget about bad cheese for years.

I got it in a pharmacy/drugstore near me, not sure if that's the case outside of Italy but you can also get it online for sure.

- Can I make quick mozzarella instead? What do I need?

- Quick mozzarella is basically the only easy mozzarella and the only one you can make with supermarket homogenized milk without any issue. The basic idea here is that you can acidify the curd with citric acid instead of waiting for the curd to acidify naturally.

But this is still cheese not ricotta or a combination with ricotta (like cacioricotta or paneer) so you need rennet.

Also to be able to reach the perfect acidification without making the curd super acidic you need citric acid, with citric acid the same amount/liter of milk will get you there every single time. I got it online since for a while pharmacy don't sell food grade citric acid anymore here in my town... not sure why, but it was not expensive online and like rennet you need really small amount.

For this I suggest you get a scale to measure really small amount (like 0.01g) since you will need it for both the rennet and the citric acid (and it's cheap like 5€), a thermometer (same as the scale).

You will need 1.2g of citric acid/liter of milk and you should use 10x the amount of water to dissolve it first before adding it to the milk (basically if you got 1.2g of citric acid use 12g of water to dissolve it before adding the acidic water to the milk).

With that out of the way the rest of the process is the same as regular mozzarella, just a lot faster:

- Heat the milk to about 38°C

- Add rennet

- Wait for it to form a solid clean cut (with citric acid that's crazy fast, like 5 minutes)

- Cut once, wait again (about 10 minutes), cut another time smaller, wait again (about 10 minutes)

- It should already be able to stretch fine with salty water at 85°C (about 35g of salt for liter water)

It will start stretching at 5.60 ph much sooner compared to mozzarella fiordilatte, and that's why even homogenized milk (that got a really weak curd) can survive the heat. At that ph mozzarella fiordilatte do not stretch at all.

- stretch and fold until smooth in salty water and mozza (cut by squeezing the mozzarella between thumb and forefinger and tearing it with the other thumb and forefinger of the other hand)... the idea is to do this process with gloves so it's not really easy but it can be done.

- Shock in ice bath (salty is better so while it rest it still absorb a little bit more).

- To store it just oil the surface with good olive oil and wrap in plastic wrap in the fridge

- Why not use a salty preserving liquid like mozzarella sold at the supermarket?

- I'm not sure what they add or what ph they use but if you don't get the perfect preserving liquid your mozzarella will start to lose the skin or will get soapy. Using the olive oil and wrap method it will deform a little bit but it will stay really good for a few days no issue at all.

- Mozzarella fiordilatte (or di bufala if you are using buffalo milk), why it's better? What do I need to know?

- Mozzarella fiordilatte use natural acidification so it will taste a lot better, more complex, and will not require citric acid.

But it will require decent milk, at a minimum it should not be homogenized or the curd once it reach the correct acidification will dissolve in 85°C water.

The best kind of mozzarella can only be made with raw milk, the final result will be firmer but still soft, the texture will be stretchy and stringy and you can even make the best kind of scamorza with this mozzarella.

If you prefer a softer mozzarella pasteurization will help with that, but you should not go to far if you are doing it at home... just remember that it will get softer because the curd will get weaker so if you go too far the curd will dissolve like in supermaket milk.

Once you got a good/decent milk add yogurt to it. The reason why we add yogurt even to raw milk that should already have inside the good bacteria to acidify the milk properly is to avoid taking a chance with bad bacteria or just unwanted bacteria to grow instead. We need thermofilic bacteria to grow.

And I suggest you to use yogurt from the supermarket, I started with homemade greek yogurt that did work but it can also fail because the bacteria can be different and actually work against you. If you use always the same brand of white regular yogurt you can always reach the same result. I suggest about 75g of plain yogurt to 5 liter of milk (you can make less but since you need to keep stable temperature for hours in this recipe using at least 5 liter will make everything easier).

Once you reach 38°C before adding the rennet wait about 30 minutes, this will give the thermofilic bacteria from the yogurt a start. After that add the rennet after you make sure that the temperature is still 38°C (you can go up to 45°C but you should stay in that range so do not overdoit).

Add 0.4/liter of milk of rennet (for 5 liter 2g).

Wait for a clean cut, without citric acid you will need to wait a minimum of 45 minutes. But wait more if you need, the cut should be clean, the curd should be really stable.

First cut and wait again (about 15 minutes), it should start to separate.

Second cut and wait again (about 15 minutes) and gently collect the curd... I started to do it with multiple ricotta mold to avoid loosing too much moisture in this stage.

The good thing is that you can use the whey to make ricotta too (that's only possible with mozzarella fiordilatte, the citric acid whey is not good for ricotta) the bad thing is that it's not always possible since the natural acidification already started and it can be too late.

(for a recipe and all the infos about ricotta look here: https://www.reddit.com/r/cheesemaking/comments/1rtdwip/after_a_while_finally_whey_ricotta_again/ )

At this point you just need to mature the curd, you can do it under whey (if you decide that you don't want ricotta) or under water... in both cases you need to keep the water/whey warm. If you got water just use warm tap water and change it every once in a while (just check the temperature with you thermometer).

The magic number is 43-45°C.

The best thing to know is read it with a ph meter (this is cheap too) and once it reach 5 you start to stretch (it should not go under 4.8).

The window is not large and you will wait hours for it to mature that's why I suggest you to get a ph meter or you will need to try little pieces every once in a while until it stretch.

Still do this test once you reach the correct ph.

Once the curd stretch without breaking and smooth you can make mozzarelle.

You will only need 15g of salt for 5 liter of milk because in this case the basic flavor will already be really good (even if you forgot salt here you will not regret it).

They can be stored in the same way with olive oil and plastic wrap.

That's all, if you have any questions, please ask.

Sorry if there are any mistakes but since english is not my main language I regularly make them expecially in long post like this one, just tell me and I will update it to correct any mistakes.

Hello, general question or couple of questions, I figured I'd reach out here although I'm sure part of the answer lies in data. Entirely tempted to buy a fancy $500 ph probe right now, so any recommendations toward a cheaper one that works well for testing liquid and solids is welcome!!

My situation is this. I've made cheese twice recently with the same source of raw goat milk. Both times I've made cheese with two days worth of milk. My guess is that, while the folks I get it from are attempting to cool it quickly by flash chilling in a freezer for 20 minutes, that it isn't getting cold fast enough and it's beginning to acidify by the time I get it home for cheesemaking.

What makes me think this, is largely that for both cheeses I have made both last week and today, my rennet has flocculated seemingly much faster than it should, and although both times I cut my moisture locking time down based on fast flocculation, even so when I went to check for a clean break and cut curd, it was already cracking away from itself, which isn't something I've experienced a ton before this. Besides this texture at cutting, the curd texture has largely seemed as it should.

The second part of this is that I have gotten some fairly cloudy whey out of both the feta and the tomme that I made, but especially the tomme. And on top of that, my yields have seemed a little low. I know there is seasonal fluctuation based on diet, and animal health, and where in their milking cycle the animals are. As far as I am aware, about 1lb/gallon is average with sheep milk yielding more cheese. My feta batch was made with 3.5-4 gallons of milk and ended up about 3.25 lbs, my tomme however was 5 gallons of milk and made closer to 3.1lbs of cheese.

As previously stated, I know I'm in need of more data, even to ask for help without it seems silly but here I am. I did not add calcium chloride as the milk I'm using hasn't been pasteurized. I did not dilute rennet in water before mixing, the book I've been using most, successful cheesemaking, recommends not diluting unless you're making batches larger than 25L.

Thank you for any solutions, ideas or further questions directed at me. I submit to the mockery I deserve for asking questions without key information 😅.

I made a tomme today. Unfortunately I only have ph test strips which are not hugely accurate for now. Ph meter is on the list. My plan was to make a brine with the whey, however, not thinking very much I assumed the pH of the whey would decrease around the same timeline as that of the cheese, which is targeted to be around 5.1 in the morning. Of course this evening when I checked my brine ph it was already closer to the low 4s as near as I can tell. I immediately thought that of course that makes sense because that's largely where the lactose is so that is feeding the LAB faster. My question is....should I use the low ph whey and add salt to make a brine? Should I dial the ph back by adding distilled water, then make a brine with that once I've gotten close to the ph of the cheese? Or should I just scrap the whey altogether and make a brine from water and some vinegar and salt this time, and maybe make a whey brine in the future. Advice is appreciated. Pictures of the cheese to come in the morning, seems to have turned out well though!

Tldr, should I salvage my acidic whey for brine, or just better luck next brine....

I have been making kefir cheese for a while now, but I always eat it fresh. I have never aged cheese before. Do you have any recommendations? I would appreciate being directed to any free resource on aging cheese. Plus, I am open to books on traditional cheese making (i.e., without coagulants bought at the store).

Working on my fior di latte game for use on Neapolitan pizza baked in a 1000° wood fired oven. I'm getting consistent, repeatable results with an end product that tastes better than I can purchase locally. While it’s not dry/rubbery, I feel it could have better moisture/milkiness and want to understand the variables that can get it there. Generally following NEC recipe with thermophilic culture and vegetable rennet.

I weigh everything and have a pH meter I trust. I use sous vide for precise temp control. I keep final curd size to 3/4-1 inch and don't over stir. I'm comfortable with the stretching phase and understand the minimal handling, shiny surface and folding/whey capture process.

Milk is low-temp pasteurized (148°) from a local dairy farm and I have no issues with coagulation or yield. No calcium chloride added.

Here are some variables that I feel may have an impact.

Temperature - Been heating the milk to 100°F. I’ve seen other recipes call for 85-95°. What's preferred?

pH for Rennet - been adding @ 6.5. Seen other recommendations between 6.0-6.5. Big range. Confusing. Why?

Flocculation Multiple - 12 min floc time target. Have used 3X and 4X multiples. Feel 4X retains a little more whey. Thoughts?

Looking for advice on where I should start my next attempt. I prefer to alter one variable at a time, the area that you think will have the biggest impact would be great.

All advice is welcome and appreciated. I wouldn’t have gotten this far without the great info and help offered on this board.

I am a pre-beginner if you like, and I like more info before I pour gallons of milk into nothingness.

I want to start with a Halloumi and the Ricotta from the whey project, which seems doable to me, and I want to eat the results, yum.

I have the book recommended here, "Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking," and so far I am understanding it ok -

The book recommends a double boiler, with a strainer basket also later on, to scald the Halloumi in the whey.

I don't have one, and they are fairly pricey to get big enough for a gallon of milk and headroom for stirring, etc.

• Is a double boiler essential?
• What tool/equipment did you NOT have and needed - recommend your best items?
• What were your biggest traps when you started making cheese that you think can be avoided?
• Any other comments to help?

I am in North Carolina, nearish to Charlotte, and I will be starting with pasturized local cow's milk (but not ultrapasturized!) and may be able to get goat milk soon from a friend with a milk goat. I could possibly get raw cow's milk, but I'd have to pretend it's not for food purposes, and my Autism/ADHD has a lot of trouble lying about anything. (ridiculous but true)