March 31, 2010

Mistakenly Melty Mozarella

So here's a question for my cheesemaking friends:

At my urging, a family member recently made a mozzarella using Ricki Carroll's starter kit.  She and her husband used whole milk, but used a different process for heating than the microwave shortcut (not exactly sure what they did...but they were trying to be "more traditional" about it). 

She served the cheese last night at a dinner party, and after it came to room temperature, it was almost melted.  It had the consistency of the inside of a brie or camembert... It was a gooey blob!

She made the cheese about ten days earlier, and had kept it in the fridge, sealed in plastic wrap.

Upon tasting, it was obvious to me that they didn't add enough salt.  I'm thinking that since salt helps expel moisture from the curds, without enough salt it had too much moisture remaining.  But would that be enough to cause it to melt at room temperature?  What else might cause this cheesy conundrum?

2 comments:

  1. This happened to my last batch of mozzarella after only a day in the fridge. I'm almost certain it's a pH issue, since I made this batch without my meter (needs a replacement tip, damnit).

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  2. Hi Jeremy,

    First, sorry for the late reply...

    Second, I've made 30-minute Mozz many times without a pH meter, so I guess I'm just lucky that I haven't encountered this issue (until my Aunt had the problem).

    However, I did get a pH meter for my birthday, and I'm super-excited to test it out.

    What pH level are you striving for, and at what point in the process do you test? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! :)

    Thanks,
    Andrew

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