Mozzarella 3

From SackWiki

Level of difficulty:

This recipe is an additional adjustment/improvement over Mozzarella #2 with an addition of calcium chloride (CaCl), which aids in curd formation of store-bought milk. I also increased all quantities in order to get more yield.

Ingredients: 

  1.5 gallon whole milk (fill to the rivets on my 2-gallon pot)
  2 tsp citric acid
  5-6 drops CaCl
  3/4 tsp rennet
  1.5 tsp salt

Procedure:

  Mix citric acid and CaCl in 1/4 cool water and stir into cold milk.
  Heat at Med+1 on stove until 88F.
  Mix rennet in 1/4 cup cool water and pour immediately into milk.
  Stir thoroughly 45 seconds with slotted spoon.  
  Let sit until temperature is 100F.
  Turn off heat.
  Let sit for 10 minutes to set. (Temperature held at 100F)
  Cut curd into 1" cubes.
  Scoop curds to colander and drain.
  Transfer curds to bowl and microwave 1 minute.
  Stir/knead to distribute heat.
  Microwave 30 seconds.
  Stir/knead to distribute heat.
  Microwave 30 seconds.
  Add salt and stir/knead to distribute heat.
  Stretch and pull until shiny and smooth. 
  Form into balls and toss into ice water to cool.
  Store wrapped in plastic wrap in fridge.

Attempt #1 - March 2, 2007

Overall satisfaction:

This new recipe (with added CaCl) did fantastically. I also get more comfortable with every batch, so I think my technique improved as well. The curd set up nice and firm (but still didn't form cubes... more of a scattered mass). The whey looked great. The draining was easy and I was very careful to make sure to drain out as much as I could before heating, to make sure I didn't end up with ricotta-slop, like I've had before. I also got the best stretching I've ever had, and was literally kneading and stretching the cheese like dough. I made about 50 1" balls of cheese, which I stored in ice water. It tasted AWESOME right after it was made, but when I pulled them out of the water later, they weren't as good. Still okay, but had sort of a milky coating. I washed them later and ate them and they were tasty. I need to figure out how to store them properly... in the grocery stores, they are always in water, but that doesn't seem to work for me.

Photos