HOW TO MANUFACTURE COW’S MILK MOZZARELLA

The handmade mozzarella; a unique taste typical of the artisan manufacturing. 

The best way to get a good artisan mozzarella with the original flavor and aroma is to manufacture it with natural whey culture. However you can also have good results with other types of starter (freeze-dried or milk starter).

Processing steps of the mozzarella’s manufacturing:

1. Preparation of milk
Cow’s milk is thermized or pasteurized and placed in stainless steel vat, in which the other ingredients are mixed.

The amount of culture or whey used in the processing of cow’s milk mozzarella is much lower than that used for buffalo mozzarella, which requires a stronger acidification. The dose of freeze-dried culture is usually specified by the manufacturer, on the contrary in case you use the whey culture you must add a suitable amount, generally not exceeding 1%, to get an optimal ripening time of the curd within 4 or 5 hours.

2.Coagulation process

First you need to heat the milk up to 36-38 ° C and then you can add the rennet to it, making sure to mix it thoroughly in the mass. The dose of rennet must be suitable to obtain a compact curd approximately in 1 hr. Generally, with a rennet of title 1:10.000, the proportion may vary from 25 to 35 ml / hl according to the quality of the milk.

3.The breakage of the curd

The following steps are the breakage of the curd, which needs to continue until obtaining little lumps of hazelnut size, and then a resting phase of approx. 30 minutes to allow the curd to settle and to consolidate on the bottom of vat.

4. Ripening of the curd

First you need to remove the whey that lies on the curd. Later you must cut the curd into blocks with a side of approx. 30 cm and leave it to ripen immersed in the whey that still flows out of the mass. It is important that you make sure that its temperature does not drop below 32-34° C in order to avoid the slowdown of the bacterial activity.
The ripening of the curd must be kept under control through various pH measurements until reaching a pH value of 5.0 to 5.2 (pH of stretching), and / or performing the stretching test.

5. Stretching test for mozzarella manufacturing

This empirical test is crucial to determine the stretching point.
The only way to appreciate the optimal stretching characteristics of the mozzarella cheese is by practicing a test on a little amount of curd with hot water at 82-85° C (see the manufacture of buffalo mozzarella).

6. Stretching and molding of the curd

During the stretching and the molding steps, the curd is manipulated as described in the processing of buffalo mozzarella, considering that the temperature of the water must be of 82 – 85 ° C. Moreover, in the same phase it is possible to salt the product by adding some salt to the hot water (250-350 gr/10 lt) according to the flavor required.

After the molding, and a first cooling in fresh water for few minutes, the mozzarella is moved to colder water for the final hardening.

Finally the mozzarella is packaged and kept in water until consumption.

7. Storage and consumption of mozzarella

The mozzarella cheese can be kept at room temperature (15-20 ° C) if consumed within 48 hours from its manufacturing to enjoy the peculiarity of the product.

However, like all fresh foods, its preservation for several days is guaranteed only by refrigeration (4-8° C), but it is recommended to remove it from the refrigerator at least two or three hours before consumption, in order to restore the optimal conditions.

Lavorazione artigianale della mozzarella: Photo Gallery