I am disapointed, i tasted my 3 weeks old, and it has bitter test

i am terrebly sad, i do not know it is bitter

Scamorza is a Pasta filata type cheese ,  Other Pasta filata type cheeses are Kashkaval, Caciocavallo and Mozzarella. Scamorza cheese
is made from whole milk. The cheese, it is ready for consumption when it is between three and five weeks old.

Why bitter test after aging in cheese? while fresh it is not !!! any suggestions ?
i read that:
# High moisture
# Excess rennet
# Bitter cultures
# High ripening temperatures
can do that !!

here is the recipe: (it is one of very nice cheeses)
1. Standardise fresh whole milk to about 3.3% fat by allowing it to settle for one hour.
2. Heat the milk to 36oC. Add 2% of a yoghurt-type culture (thermo) .
3. Ripen the milk (develop acidity) for 30–40 min after which time the acidity of the milk should have
increased by 0.02% lactic acid.
4. Add rennet (1 ml per 5 litres milk).
5. After about 40 min the milk has coagulated. Cut the coagulum into 1 cm cubes using a sharp knife.
6. Gently stir the curds and whey mixture and heat to 42oC over a period of 30 min.
7. Allow the curds to settle in the whey. Remove about 60% of the whey from the container.
8. Keep the curds and remaining whey at 42oC by removing some whey and replacing it with hot whey.
The acidity continues to increase giving the curd the desired texture.
9. Carry out the following test to determine if the curd has developed the required texture. Dip a piece of
curd into very hot water (80–85oC) using a spoon or perforated ladle. When the curd can be stretched
into an elastic, continuous string of about one metre the correct texture has developed.
10. Separate the curds and whey and add sufficient boiling water to cover the curd.
11. Work and fold the curd pieces (sufficient to give a finished cheese of about 400 g) into a ball ,
place in a mould and allow to cool for one hour in water at 10–12oC .
12. Remove the cheese from the mould and place it in a salt solution (15%) for two to three hours.
13. Ripen (mature) the cheese for about four weeks

I have had bitterness when i started, I changed milk brand and the problem gone. Aslo read that too much rennet can cause bitterness.

thanks Codel

i used meso for this, even the reipe called for thermo, but after going back to cheese log sheet, i made a notice that i made this cheese was ment to be cheddar, but when i found that my curds were floating with spongy full of small air holes, i let it rippen to develop pH 5.2 and i work it as mozarrealla with hot water, i thought the hot water will clean the bad bacteria.

so i beleive that is due do un clean milk, and airborne yeast as you said

Neil
the milk was raw from a farmer which i stopped buying from him, due to always floating curds while cooking.

Another potential problem in a “bitter” cheese is that there was incomplete lactose acid production from the lactose sugars in the cheese. This causes incomplete ripening and a bitter flavor.

you mean i had to age it more?

but pasta filata cheese, does not age as i think so well

plus it was great when it was fresh

Try a new supplier and see what happens.

No, not age it more. It had too much moisture when you molded it. The whey had not cooked out properly. Try stirring more in the pot prior to molding.

Thanks Rick;

do you mean cooking the curds more after cutting, or you mean cooking it more with 70C before stretching and molding?

As i can see, cheese making is not as easy as i thought, especially when it comes to its stages. i wish if we can put some grading and numbers to make sure that you are doing the cheese in the right manner, example (for cheddar)

-milk pH
-milk ripping pH
-Draining pH
-whey pH and Curds pH (i do not know the difference!!)
-cheddaring and milling pH
-How much % the salt should be.
-Day one pH

each step time and temp, balancing calcium and pH ....

etc ....  this is very important i think !!

what do you think guys? shall we update the recipes with such numbers?

Thanks! Codel for the info. Just want to add that their are dif grades of SSteeel, the low grade ones have impurities and acids can pit the steel, the upper grade is not so suseptable.
I bought a 16L SS pot from wallmart a while ago and had it on the stove once at very low heat, .25-.5 on the dial, a day later I heard a loud pop in the kitchen and found out the lip of the pot produced a crack in the lip, then another 2 days past, and another loud pop, and another crack appeared on the opposite side of the pot, all this as it sat on the floor. So one needs to watch what quality of containers u get.

walmart cheapo 15$, very low heat, just off of min.

understand just dont have the money to spend. Normally just use a water bath but this time tried the stove :( was shocked how crapy it was on such low heat to warm up the milk.

i found my problem (bitter)

my problem is that i did not put the correct amount of cheese salt. the salt is responsible to slow down the protien breakdown which control the bitterness of the rennet in aging process.

Regards

Salt ! ? sure about that, normally its just for taste and protection.

After studying, and searching :

Cheese with low salt content suffers from excessive PROTEOLYSIS by rennet enzymes, why? because:

I- Salt directly affects the enitre process (cascade) of protine breakdown “Chymosin” will becomes overly active against alpha-casiens and also beta-caseins which the first will turn into bitter then flavors and the later “beta” will turn into bitter only which will not go.

II-Starter will work more and decrease the pH, which and decrease the conversion rates of bitter to nonbitter by delaying the death and lysis of starter to abtain the full flavor “the end of the cascaded process of protien break down” if anyone wants more deeper information just drop me a note.

Interesting, Thanks!

i can add:
Bad starter can introduce very bad taste also.