next »

[m_pizza]

Hello,

Ive been making mozz from cows milk for a while now - citric acid and rennet added to the milk, and then stretching the curds in salty water. Its worked fine and the mozz is not bad at all, but I would like to move on to bufala mozzarella as I heard it stands up better to high heat (my current cheese always burns a little at least)

I do have access to unhomogenized buffalo milk but when I try making mozz out of it, it just doesnt seem to work properly. The curd seems fine if a little dry, but even nearly doubling the citric acid, I cant get the curds to spin properly and stretch....I have on occasion managed to just about get a few balls of mozz but they taste very curdy and no where near as good as the cow one...

If anyone has experience with making bufala di mozzarella or knows anyone who makes it and could ask, I would be really, really greatful.

[pacoast]

I've almost replied to your post several times, but didn't because you didn't give enough details to more than guess at what is going wrong with your Mozzarella di Bufala. But as no one else has replied; the three most common problems that I have seen people make are not using hot enough water to soften & melt the curds into proper filatura strings or elongated curds. Not having sufficiently acidic curd in the first place or trying to use UHT milk. A dry curd to me would suggest problems with the starter & bulk fermentation.

IMO, bacterial starter gives much better results than citric acid. After the milk is curdled, drained & fermented, you would typically shred the pasta & then steep in 95C water to form the strings or elongated curds. If the water isn't hot enough it won't soften the filatura & spin properly.

.

[m_pizza]

Hello,

Thank you for your reply. Sorry, I wasn't very detailed with the procedure I use.

For cows milk mozz (which works fine) i used unhomogenised milk from the supermarket - I use 1 gallon of milk, mix in with 1.5tsp citric acid, bring to 88-90F max, add the equivalent of 1/2 rennet tablet  (in the form of rennet powder), stir for 1 minute and leave for 10 mins, then slice up, heat slightly and stir, then seperate in a cheese cloth/sieve, hang up to drain for 1/2 hr before cutting up and adding to 185F salted water and stretching till smooth, and then dunk in cold brine.


For buffalo mozz (again from unhomogenised milk) I have tried everything from 1.5tsp to 3 (!) tsp citric acid , decreased the rennet slightly to 3/8ths of a tablets worth, but nothing seems to work. I am beginning to think that as you said, good buffalo mozz will be impossible without a thermophilic culture. Does anyone know where this can be obtained in UK?

[pacoast]

Thanks for the details. Using bacterial starter makes a lot better quality cheese, so I encourage you to try that if you can find it in the UK. But I've made it with just citric acid (a long time ago) with OK results.

This is how I did it without starter. But first try to find an alternate source for your buffalo milk (if possible). Unhomogenised milk is ideal, if you had homogenised milk, I might suggest adding calcium chloride to compensate. UHT milk never works well. Add the citric acid to the milk & heat the milk slowly with stirring to prevent scorching. Once it reaches about 88°F, dissolve 1/2 rennet tablet in 1/4 cup water, then add to the milk. Continue stirring until the milk reaches 105°F. Remove from heat and let sit for about 20 minutes, covered. (If you were using starter you'd let it ferment for about 3 hours). Then drain as much whey as possible & shred the curd.

Now you need to add very hot water to the curd, about 200°F to form filatura strings. My guess is that you are not using enough heat in this step. Stretch and pull the cheese with a cup & paddle to form one big ball. Then move to a cool water bath, shape & pickle.

.

edited for better clarity