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Looks like curd is shattering on you. Are you checking floculation time at all? If not maybe look it up on you tube sometimes called spinning bowl test that can help you determine if you are getting the right amount of rennet to begin with and how long to let the curd set before cutting depending on your type of cheese. Also waiting for 5 to 15 min after cutting before stirring and stirring berry gently to begin with helps. Other than. That I would suspect maybe the milk is from late lactation cows as that can cause curd shatter also. Still will make for good cheese even if it is shattering but not quite what you are looking for
I use a fair bit of wood for draining and aging on. (Even stirring) E coli and botulism don’t grow well on wood to begin with. The other main thing with wood is it gathers/ harbors good bacteria that fight off any harmful bacteria so I try and leave things alone to promote that when I can (just wash drain board and stirring spoons with soap and water. If you have a board with mould worked into it (such as a shelf) the best thing to get rid of that is actually baking soda and water. This changes pH suddenly and kills the mould.
The recepie used there is similar to chevre which is typically made with goats mulk but is very tasty made with cows milk also!
1)use 1/10 of typical rennet amount to make this cheese (it sits over about 12 hours to coagulate) to do this dissolve capsule in 20 table spoons of water and use 1/10 table spoon of this per L of milk.2) I drain mine in a cotton (muzlin) pillow case and drain for about 8 hrs then take it out and divide it up then roll it.
3) I store chevre in the fridge for 1-2 weeks (watch for mould or off flavours)
4) chevre fits the bill but others would be “farmers cheese Wich is made with 100F milk and vinegar or lemon juice to curdle the milk and then drain it. Or I use this recepie: http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2012/10/how-to-make-cream-cheese.html to make cream cheese for cheese cake or spreads.
It does somewhat but not enough to matter. Your cheese should still turn out fine. Hope it goes well for you!
Thermophilic (Thermo) culture is active at temps above 100F Mesaphilic (meso) culture is active at temps below 100F. If you interchange them the recepie will not usually turn out because your cooking and ripening stages will be at the wrong temps. That said you can try and adjust temps and make some cheese but it won’t turn out the same as the cheese in the recepie. If you are ok with experimenting this is ok but you may turn out some off tasting or textured cheese in the process. A mixed culture is usually going to yield ok (maybe not perfect) results if you follow temperature recommendations in your recepie as the meso or thermo culture will dominate depending on temperature.
Yes to both. A 10L cheese would probably weight about 2.5lbs so use that and the recommended weight to get a press weight per lb then apply it to your cheese weight. The time factor will be less important but a smaller cheese will acidify a little faster so you could reduce time by 10% maybe?
It should work ok. You will end up with a ridge around the top of the finished cheese that you can trim off with a sharp knife. If you decide to make another follower to fit better plastic cutting boards work well and are cheap
This is the recepie I use all the time http://fiascofarm.com/dairy/feta.html Haven’t had trouble with it as long as I leave it sit and heal/ acidify long enough. See the troubleshooting at the end of the recepie for more tips on preventing softening in the brine. The lipase recommended is really helpful to the flavour. I use mm100 culture in mine plus the Lipase.
T-cheese. Your pH meter question is probably best answered by a quick search on cheeseforum.org. I have a cheapo from makecheese.ca it works but takes some fiddling. I would look for one that has a probe that can be inserted into the curd/cheese as they work better than the style that just test on the surface from what I have heard. As for calibrating and general use also check out other forum but keep in mind it’s not that complicated. The meter will come with calibration fluids you mix with distilled water and keep clean in a jar for a long time before replacing. Just keep the meter probe clean before using the solutions. For traditional mozzarella the meter only gives you an idea when the cheese is ready (usually around 5.3) but you still have to test strech before you know for sure it’s ready.
Chris I haven’t made quick mozzarella in a while but seem to remember it took About 2 tap dissolved in water and stirred into warmed milk. You should start seeing strings of curdle start catching on your stirrer soon after. I also remember changing citric acid supplies a couple times and was down to 1/2 once and up to 4 tsp due to the different strengths. For quick mozzarella don’t bother getting a pH meter. Only get a pH meter if you start doing traditional mozzarella where you don’t use citric acid but rather add culture and acidify the curds over a number of hours.
With ricotta the point is to curdle with acid so no real curds are formed. Depending on if you are using whey or milk you will get high yield or low yield all you will see is grains of ricotta looking like sand. Just follow your recepie for temperature and then drop the vinegar or acid in from high so it flows all thru the pot. Once the ricotta is formed strain thru a cloth to collect it
Sounds like the fetta is softening in the brine right? Without knowing your recepie it’s tough to know exactly what is going on but here is my experience with it. First the cheese is made and hung to dry and age for a day or 2. Then cut into squares and salted. Then it must sit out and heal for 2 or 3 days. Stir the pieces once a day so they dry and he’ll properly or they will soften in the brine for sure. Second think you can do is either save whey from the cheese mke in the fridge or use a little vinegar in your brine to equalise the pH of the cheese and the brine. Also can try adding calcium chloride to the brine to help with the softening problem. Personally I let my fetta heal for 3 days and use just salt and water for my brine and the cheese doesn’t soften
T Cheese if you do keep trying traditional mozzarella invest in a pH meter otherwise you will never know when to strech. Mine always streches around 5.3 Also I prefer it with lipase (traditional mozzarella that is) and it usually needs about 15 min in saturated brine or it really has no taste
As T cheese said mozzarella is tricky to get right. The 30min will sometimes take a lot of experimenting with to get it right. This is usually because of citric acid strengths being different in every bottle of the acid. That said don’t give up! I don’t have your recepie so don’t know how it goes exactly but when you add the citric acid and stir you should see the milk start to clump into strings a bit. These clumps will stick to your stirrer. If that doesn’t happen you need more acid. This is where the acid is causing the milk to curdle and the strings you see will eventually be what makes the cheese strech. At this point you usually add you rennet and let the milk set until you get a clean break. This will likely take about half an hour then you cut the curd and let it sit for about 10 min to heal then stir a bit while heating slightly to get the whey to separate. Drain the curds and gather them together etc. Heat in the microwave and they should get to a strechy stage if all goes well. Keep experimenting with small batches untill you get it to work. The calcium chloride might help if your milk is pasturized. It will only help with curd strength and curd yeld though not strech so don’t expect miracles from it
