I think my kitchen was too cold last night, so my attempted yogurt came out as slightly sour (fat free) milk. Figuring what the hell, I reheated it with the intention of trying again. (Has anyone made that work?)
While heating, at about 160F it began separating into gloppy, slightly elastic clumps. Thinking I’d invented mozzarella, I looked up the recipe. Of course my concoction has no citric acid or rennet.
I’m now waiting for it to cool so I can strain it. I have a couple of uses for whey, so it won’t be a total loss. But has anyone else had this happen? What is it and what can I use it for?
After draining, the casein was a rubbery, tasteless blob. Lesson learned. Might as well just used the soury milk.
My primary use for whey is soaking grains. Porridge is great this way. Or substitute for buttermilk in pancakes or biscuits. (Of course this kills the probiotics.) I’ve dabbled with inoculating other cultures and just drinking it straight. I’m not a smoothie person, but I’ve heard that works well, too. More ideas here.
I’ve only made mozzarella with rennet, but you should be able to skip the citric acid step since your milk was probably fairly acidified from the failed yogurt attempt. You basically ended up making some sort of fresh cheese, like the tvorog mentioned, or quark.
Yes, noted above. But quark is not exactly like fresh mozzarella. Fresh mozzarella, as far as I know, needs some sort of rennet–whether animal based or plant based–to properly form the curds necessary for the “spinning” part. (When you make mozzarella, to get the proper texture, you need the curd at the right acidity and temperature where the curd softens and forms its trademark elastic texture.) I don’t think simple acidulation with citric acid will form a sturdy enough curd that is necessary for mozzarella.
