In this lab all groups were tasked with making mozzarella and whey cheese. This lab consists of three parts with part three having two sub categories: Setup, Curds, and Mozzarella and Whey Cheese.
Part 1 – Setup:
We arrived at 1pm and the initial setup of talking about the lab and gathering all the supplies took about 30 minutes. After we had everything we had to set up the fire and then get the pot onto the fire which took about another 30 minutes and we had the pot on the water at 2:01pm.
Part 2 – Curds:
First we dissolved one (1) rennet tablet in ¼ C of water and weighed the milk which was 3908 grams (g). Then we put the milk in the pot and then put mixed ¼ cup vinegar with 2 C of water in a bowl and then poured the mixture into the pot as shown on the left. Then we put the milk on the fire to get it to 90°F. It reached 90°F in 2 minutes and 40 seconds and then we added the rennet mixture and took it off the fire and put the lid back on. We waited 30 minutes and checked the temperature every 10 minutes or so:
| Time | Temperature (F) | Notes |
| 2:04 | 90.5° | |
| 2:17 | 92.5° | |
| 2:23 | 101° | took the pot away from the fire as it was sitting downwind directly next to it. |
| 2:32 | 90° |
After this we checked for a “clean break” by sticking one of our fingers into the pot as shown on the left. Once that break was established we cut the curds with a knife in 2cm strips length and width wise picture shown below. Then we waited for fifteen minutes. Five minutes at 2:38 in we checked the temperature: 97° for the curds and 92° for the water. At 2:42 we checked the temperature again and it was the same, we left the top on in between these checks and when we stirred it. Then once the 15 minutes were up we separated the whey and the curds using a cheesecloth and a colander. We waited the full 30 minutes for the curds to drain and condense but we also were straining them manually by squeezing the cheese cloth. This process took a long time and we managed to get two full jars of whey (3764 g) and 429 g of curds.
After weighing our whey and curds our group split into two with Tara and I making whey cheese and Cole and Claire making mozzarella. Therefore, I do not have a lot of experience in describing this next part but I will do my best based on Cole and Claire’s accounts.
Part 3 – Mozzarella:
There was one designated group that was in charge of making mozzarella and so Cole and Claire went over to them and made the cheese. They first compressed a mass of curds with a knife into roughly ¾ inch slices. There was already a cool salt bath which consisted of ¼ cups of salt and 2 liters of water and a pot of whey heating to 150°F. They submerged a chunk of their pressed curd into the water for about 5 minutes after it hit 150°F. Then once they pulled the hot curd out they stretched and kneaded it, and then put it back in the hot water. After they pulled out the curd after about a minute or so they stretched it into a rectangle and made a ball and then dipped the ball in the hot water and then cooled it in the salt bath.
The group noticed that the mozzarella was very rubbery and had a mild taste. We did not measure how much mozzarella because a lot of people ate it before it could be weighed.
Part 3 – Whey Cheese:
For the whey cheese we put all the whey into a pot and heated it to 160 F and then added milk totaling 12% of the total whey which was 640 g of milk. We also added 138 g of curds to the whey when we added the milk. The following table is temperatures during the whey cheese making process.
| Time | Temperature | Notes |
| 3:15 | 100 | 2 minutes after putting it on the fire |
| 3:20 | 140 | |
| 3:26 | 158 | 640 g of milk and 138 g of curds put into the whey |
| 3:35 | 195 |
At 3:28 we added ½ teaspoon of salt and about 2 tablespoons of vinegar. Then we kept the pot on the fire with the lid off and pulled the rising curds toward the center which was a very satisfying task like making syrup. After 5 minutes of doing that we took it off the heat and then strained the curds out making ricotta.
Final weighing: 3180 grams of whey, 268 g of whey cheese from 3908 g of milk or 4548 g of milk if taking into account the 640 g of milk added during the whey cheese process.
0 thoughts on “Week 3 Lab Data Group 6: Cheese”