Post by josiegirl on Aug 30, 2020 17:33:18 GMT -5
Well I'm to the end of my rope with cheesemaking, I was already frustrated so decided to take a break during canning/harvesting season but decided to try quick mozzarella again since I had no clean jars to put the milk in this morning. Also, I want so badly to have fresh mozzarella with my tomatoes and basil. I shouldn't have even tried! Towards the end of stirring instead of having curds, they meld together to form a mass, and during stretching its just impossible to get a good stretch and its just so tough. I've tried the traditional long version of mozzarell and quick mozarella like 4 times each. Each time I know immediately when cutting the curd it's not right because it looks so much firmer than what I've seen on videos of stretching mozzarella(traditional kind) where the curd is soft and almost crumbles. The only nice creamy soft cheese I've managed to make has been feta. I know I've posted about this before but figured I'd try again because this problem is so persistent. The curd goes rubbery it seems no matter what I do. Even ricotta does this. I've tried cooking to a lower temperature, higher temperature, less vinegar, citric acid, flocculation method(not for ricotta of course). When I add less vinegar and cook lower it is a little less firm, still not ricotta-y but passable, but it doesn't leave behind whey it leaves behind milk so I don't think its the amount of acid I'm using. When I add the amount of acid a recipe calls for, it instantly forms a firm mass. What on earth would cause this? Is it possible there's some quality about her milk that just doesn't make good cheese?? I dabbled in making cheese for a few years before we got our cow and have made simple fresh cheeses with good success many times so I'm not a total newbie . And after trying various cheeses over and over with her milk I really don't think its something that I'm doing wrong. Especially when something so simple as ricotta turns out like that every single time. We got a milk cow because I wanted to make cheese and it simply isn't worth the cost of keeping a cow for just milk and yogurt and butter, as much as I love that..... OK maybe it is anyway but I NEED to figure this out.