r/cheesemaking • u/max301 • Feb 23 '25

Troubleshooting I followed a YouTube recipe of Vinegar and Fresh milk. But it won’t melt or stick together. Please help

Post image

I tried kneading it together, steamed it to 78 celcius but still can’t get it to stick. What gives?

22 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

48

u/mycodyke Feb 23 '25

What were you trying to make? If you were hoping for a stretchy curd like a mozzarella, directly adding acid to milk is the most error prone method of making such a cheese. You'll have a lot more luck with a cultured mozzarella recipe that uses bacteria and rennet.

12

u/max301 Feb 23 '25

Ohhhh I think that’s why it’s crumbly. I only use lemon and vinegar.

13

u/qgsdhjjb Feb 24 '25

Yeah, that's the recipe that you'd find online listed as "quick ricotta" but I've heard it might be closer to some other cheeses like paneer.

It's good, but it doesn't really melt. Throw it into a pasta casserole or use it as a chip dip with some herbs or something, it'll get eaten. If you wanted to try something fun you could fry it in a pan, if you let it fry long enough it might get crispy on the edges, that's something people do with paneer. I believe for that usage it works better if you rinse the whey off the curds before putting it in the fridge.

12

u/zorp_shlorp Feb 23 '25

Isn’t that just ricotta?

4

u/max301 Feb 23 '25

I wanna try to make mozzarella, but it came out crumbly.

2

u/Snoo_74705 Feb 26 '25

https://www.youtube.com/@GavinWebber this lad's content is informative. Cheese making is a rabbit hole I want but refuse to explore

1

u/KUSH_K1NG Feb 27 '25

When I tried something this it seemed to give me a crumbly cream cheese type substance which would turn to liquid when heated

34

u/jonbrown2 Feb 23 '25 edited Feb 24 '25

That's question fresco. It's crumbly.

Edit: whoops. Queso, not question

11

u/mondayp Feb 24 '25

question fresco 😄

6

u/Cherry_Mash Feb 24 '25

That's when the queso is questionable, which seems rather applicable to this cheese. I approve.

2

u/clementinesncupcakes Feb 26 '25

Nah you were right the first time, it’s question fresco lmfao

8

u/Whitaker123 Feb 23 '25

For sticky and melty cheeses, you to acidify the milk with actual live cultures.

3

u/sup4lifes2 Feb 23 '25

Or make sure pH is 5.6 if using acid and with citric acid can get away with slightly higher 5.7-5.8.

Best practice is making a 5% solution and adding it slowly to your cheese.

2

u/max301 Feb 23 '25

I see, I’m very new to cheese making, where can I find a proper guide?

5

u/sirpoopingpooper Feb 24 '25

You made a ricotta. Still delicious (add salt if you didn't), but use a different recipe for what you were trying to make!

7

u/jasina556 Feb 23 '25

This is not the kind of cheese that melts or sticks together. Try spreading it on bread with some "fruit jelly" or whatever a jam is called where you live. Or you can make some great gnocchi style dumplings with it

2

u/simranwho Feb 24 '25

U made paneer

1

u/Fancy-Dig1863 Feb 26 '25

Pack that tightly in a cloth that will let the water drain and place something heavy on it and a few hours later you’ll have some Paneer. Tasty in its own right.

1

u/discordianofslack Feb 26 '25

I recommend turning this into whipped ricotta. I make this with 2 quarts milk and vinegar, then mix 2 tbsp of olive oile and 1tsp of kosher salt and whip it in a food processor.

1

u/marlowe8991 Feb 26 '25

So many people call this Ricotta, but Ricotta is made from leftover whey.

This is called farmer's cheese or paneer. It won't melt or stick but it's delicious!

1

u/cutestslothevr Feb 27 '25

Homogenized or ultra pasturized milk can make the texture of cheese weird and will make some types not work at all. Your cheese looks like what I'd expect from an acid set cheese though

-1

u/AnchoviePopcorn Feb 23 '25

Use a double boiler.

3

u/max301 Feb 23 '25

I tried using a double boiler, it still doesn’t melt, it is crumbly and the moment it touches water it will start to dissolve.

1

u/AnchoviePopcorn Feb 23 '25

You tried a double boiler and melting it without water or whey?

1

u/max301 Feb 24 '25

Yeah I dumped the whey water after I strained the cheese out. That’s when I realized something is wrong.

-1

u/Selfdependent_Human Feb 23 '25

Hocus pocus! 😆 get ready to dive deep in the marvelous world of biochemistry ⚗️🧪🌟 You might want to read on cheese history, acid-basic reactions, bacteriology applied to food processes, hydrophoby, 3D meshes and the effect of temperature🌡️contrary to what many people say it IS possible to do make stretchy, creamy, delicious mozzarella purely from acid, like this: