Mozzarella cheese making

Puggles

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I followed a recipe and did it by the letter, the ingredients, the temperature, the rennet, everything and it came out crumbly. I don't understand why.
 
I followed a recipe and did it by the letter, the ingredients, the temperature, the rennet, everything and it came out crumbly. I don't understand why.

Did you use whole unpasteurized milk, i.e. no cream removed at all?

What do you mean by "crumbly"? As in the curds didn't come together or the cheese when cooled and finished was crumbly?
 
It was whole milk, I think it was pasteurized, but not "ultra-pasteurized". When it was at the stage of heating the curds, the whey was 180 degrees and I put the curds in there and waited until they started to heat up to stretch them but they never got to that point. They just stayed looking like ricotta cheese, but not as "wet".
 
Did you knead and pull the curds, reheating them as necessary?

I found you have to use unpasturized whole milk for the best results. Commercial milk that has been pasteurized has had a good deal of the cream removed. Using commercial pasteurized milk is going to get you ricotta. Maybe adding some heavy cream back in, and sorry but I don't know how much, will get the mozzarella you want. I'd look further for recipes personally.

Back when I was making mozzarella, we bought whole unpasteurized milk. Upon standing for a while, the milk would separate and you could see a distinct layer of cream on top that had to be stirred back in when you were ready to use it.

When I would make ricotta, I could use the whey that was left over from the above and make small batch ricotta. If I wanted a lot, I would buy store milk.

Unpasteurized milk is mostly sold as "not for human consumption" or some variation of that depending on where you live. You might have to look around for a place to buy it. You can usually find it at a place that sells fresh eggs and produce direct from a small farm(s).

I would recommend reading

Fresh Mozzarella From Scratch Recipe
 
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