Hi All…

Below are my conversation with Nabil.  Would love to share them with you.  Hope it is useful for any of you…

From Nabil to me
fresh yogurt means new box (manufactured within one or two days)
as u have pH meter, u have no problem, when the pH drops to 6.4 add rennet (but i have to hold the milk at 34C)

add one tablespoon per 3 liter of milk

yes stretch the curds and place in whey salt solution

to get the best solution to save ur mozz, is to use its whey just before u stretch the cured, heat the whey to 75C then cool it, and add salt

any salt ok BUT the salt should have not be iodized (normal rock salt is perfect)

in starter way of doing mozz, the pH should be between 5.2 and 5.00 u need to test a stretch every 15 minutes between this pH until u get perfect long shiny curd when u stretch it. remember if ur curds when bellow 5 u will not be able to do mozz with it

regards

ps. i love u ask this questions in forum so people can learn as well smile

From me to Nabil
Hi Nabil,

  Thank you for your info.

  Fresh yogurt means non pasteurized yoghurt? How much yoghurt should I use?  How long should I keep it before i add rennet into it.  I don’t think there is starter available here in Indonesia.

  What do you mean i have to make the ball a week in advance?  You mean, after becoming curd I have to stretch them straight away and leave it for a week before consumed?

  Last time i made bocconcini, I put it in whey solution, but the surface of the cheese is so soft, nearly dissolved with the whey.  What should i do to get a firm bocconcini?

  What type of salt i should use in brine?  Is sea salt ok? I’ve been trying to get kosher salt, but it’s not available.

  My cheese pH is 5.9.  What is the ideal pH for mozz?

  Thanks again..

  Warm regards,
  Suzy

      hi again

      first of all, raw milk has its own bacteria which make it acific with time, cheese makers add starter to speed up the process. if u r using pasterized milk then u have to add starter.

      now, i never tried the citric acid method, as it will make u get less cheese from the milk, this mothod is a 30 minutes shortcut to make few balls of mozz.

      i recomend u use starter, simple fresh yogurt makes the trick. i will send u a book which will teach u how to make mozz pasta filata cheeses. see this link also

      http://www.google.com/url?q=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasta_filata&ei=MroXS6vMOaCInQPS9v3hAw&sa=X&oi=spellmeleon_result&resnum=1&ct=result&ved=0CAcQhgIwAA&usg=AFQjCNGrNFnA3Ymvbq-Och-YjC9-JHsBIg

      the rate should be 12kg out of 100kg milk or so, it is all depends on how moist you like your mozz.

      actually i mastered this cheese, and i love it to be very soft, pilable and when u cut it, it pumps with little white liquid.. yummy

      the best way is to make ur balls a week in advance, by streaching them, u will get to texture before more acid is develop, othwerwise the curds will not spin (streached)

      the milk is same whereever u go, but the taste will be diffrent beased on the herd and what cows eat

      keep in touch
      Nabil

Hi Nabil,

        My hubby and I tried to make mozzarella from local fresh raw milk.  Loves the cheese too much, so we decided to make it.  I have few questions for now.. I don’t know whom to ask, and it seems like you’re the cheese guru..

        We use citric acid apart from thermophylic culture.  I don’t know what is thermophylic culture, and what it does to the milk.  And what’s the different with citric acid?

        Last week, we wanted to make about 10kg of mozzarella, giving away for xmas presents.  After the curd was formed, we put in sealed container and chilled them. We began the stretching process on the third day.  But the cheese was too acidic.  Is it because we stored the curd too long?  Do we have to stretch the curd straight away?

        Also, from 100 liters of milk we could only get 8kg of mozzarella.  Is this normal?  I thought the ratio would be much higher…

        Please help!!

        Oh.. I added you in my msn messenger (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)).

        I live in Indonesia.  I don’t know if the milk here is different from the rest of the world.

        warm regards,
        Suzy

I checked the pH of the raw milk i bought.. it’s only 4.0. My understanding is that citric acid will make the milk even more acidic.  Is that right?  So, how i could increase the pH milk to 6.4?

Welcome to the group !!!
By adding yogurt and let the process take place will raise the PH unless u want to do it chemically (citric acid).

Pininfarina….
The first thing that I would do is the check the calibration on the Ph meter you are using. Fresh milk should test at very close to 6.6 so if you have a reading of 4, something is amiss.
The two causes that I can think of are either your meter is out of calibration or you milk is not fresh. Hopefully some others will chime in here as well, with their ideas.
Neil…...
If I’m thinking correctly, adding the yogurt will actually drop the Ph even lower than it is now. Both the yogurt and the Citric acid will increase the acid level but the Ph will lower.
Hopefully I’m thinking correctly here.

Oh and Pininfarina…...welcome to the forum.

Dave

The other problem could be the probe, they have a shelf life of a year before the tip has to be replaced, even if it is not used, I got that info from the manufacturer.

Neil - 05 December 2009 04:19 PM

Welcome to the group !!!
By adding yogurt and let the process take place will raise the PH unless u want to do it chemically (citric acid).

Neil , Raising pH !!! by adding yogurt , i think u miss type or u miss understand the question

u can never raise milk pH, u can only decrease it

As Dave said here, it is imposilbe that your milk pH is 4, why? because pH start to curdle by itself @ pH 4.7, so @ 4 it would be think yogurt..

check your pH meter !!

LOL, probably due to the -20 temp we have now, winters here finally

Neil - 06 December 2009 05:23 PM

LOL, probably due to the -20 temp we have now, winters here finally

lol

-33 now, real cold, have stiff fingers typing here until the room heats up.

Finally.. we made a very nice mozzarella last weekend… yummyyyy….

I still don’t know how to make smooth and firm bocconcini though.  Last time we made it and put it in brine, the surface of the bocconcini turned soft.. nearly dissolve…  And it wasn’t soft and smooth…

Please help me on this.

Thank you guys for all the help.

pininfarina - 10 December 2009 05:07 AM

Finally.. we made a very nice mozzarella last weekend… yummyyyy….

I still don’t know how to make smooth and firm bocconcini though.  Last time we made it and put it in brine, the surface of the bocconcini turned soft.. nearly dissolve…  And it wasn’t soft and smooth…

Please help me on this.

Thank you guys for all the help.

the surface turned soft is because you used wrong brine, as i said, the brine must have calcium and correct pH (SAME AS CHEESE)

so the best best way to go , is to use the very same whey of the same cheese (just before you stretch the cheese) , get it to 80C for seconds, and chill it, do not add water, just add salt

regarding bocconcini , i have no idea about this cheese sorry

Thanks all of you for all the info.

I haven’t had a chance to try again. My hubby has been offered a job in Papua New Guinea, so we’re busy packing things up.  I certainly hope they have fresh milk in affordable price so i could have fun making cheese there.

nabil, Boccaccio if I remember right is bite size mozzarella balls, about an inch wide and higher water content then regular mozzarella.

Pininfarina, u just got here LOL Hope u can still be active .

Bocconcini - [bohk-kohn-CHEE-nee]
1. Small nuggets (about 1 inch in diameter) of fresh MOZZARELLA. Bocconcini are generally sold packed in WHEY or water. 2. Italian for “mouthful,” referring not to size, but to the appetizing appeal of dishes described in this manner. Therefore, in Italian cookery, the word bocconcini may be attributed to many dishes. For example, bocconcini di vitello alla crema is a rich preparation of veal chunks cooked with wine, butter, egg yolks and whipping cream. A less rich, but equally tempting, dish is bocconcini Fiorentina — pieces of veal or beef sautéed with garlic, onions and herbs, sometimes with the addition of tomatoes.

© Copyright Barron’s Educational Services, Inc. 1995 based on THE FOOD LOVER’S COMPANION, 2nd edition, by Sharon Tyler Herbst.

Boccaccio - Giovanni Boccaccio, 1313-1375
The Italian poet, Giovanni Boccaccio was most probably born in Tuscany, the illegitimate son of a merchant of Certaldo, who launched him on a commercial career, during which he spent some time at Paris. As a young man, Boccaccio abandoned commerce and the study of canon law. At Naples he began to write stories in verse and prose, mingled in courtly society, and fell in love with the noble lady whom he made famous under the name of Fiammetta. Up to 1350 Boccaccio lived at Florence and at Naples, producing prose tales, pastorals, and poems. The Teseide is a version in ottava rima of the medieval romance of Palamon and Arcite, which was partly translated by Chaucer in the Knight’s Tale, and is the subject of Fletcher’s Two Noble Kinsmen. The Filostrato deals with the loves of Troilus and Cressida, also in great part translated by Chaucer. After 1350 Boccaccio became a diplomat entrusted with important public affairs, and a scholar devoted to the new learning. During this period, in which he formed a lasting friendship with Francesco Petrarch, Boccaccio, as Florentine ambassador, visited Rome, Ravenna, Avignon and Brandenburg.

In 1358 he completed his great work, the Decameron, begun some ten years before. During the plague at Florence in 1348, seven ladies and three gentlemen left the city for a country villa and over a period of ten days told one hundred stories. In graceful Italian, Boccaccio selected the plots of his stories from the popular fiction of his day, and especially from the fabliaux which had passed into Italy from France, the matter being medieval while the form is classical. Boccaccio’s originality lay in his narrative skill and in the rich poetical sentiments which adorns his borrowed materials. The two great tendencies which run through European literature, the classical and the romantic, work together in the Decameron.

The influence of the Decameron on European literature has been lasting, not merely in Italy, but in France and England. Chaucer and Shakespeare both borrowed from it. The Decameron has also been the subject of poems by Keats, Tennyson, Longfellow, Swinburne and George Eliot.

During his last years Boccaccio lived principally in retirement at Certaldo, and would have entered into holy orders, moved by repentance for the follies of his youth, had he not been dissuaded by Petrarch. Boccaccio died at Certaldo, December 21, 1375.

The best Internet resource on Boccaccio is The Decameron Web at Brown University.