I would like to take a 1 pound block of store bought low moisture whole milk mozzarella (Poly O or Dragone), gently melt it in a sous vide without breaking down the milk from the fat, roll it out to my desired thickness in a large sheet of cheese. My question is at what temperature would I set the water bath?
1 Answer
This is tricky because you don't really want the cheese to melt, you want it to become pliable enough to roll. When making fresh mozzarella, the curds are heated in 90 - 100 degree F water to make them pliable, then heated further (maybe 120 F) for stretching and folding. This is for fresh. I would assume factory produced mozzarella will behave slightly differently, with a higher melting point. I would do some small test pieces (maybe an 1/4 inch slice so that it heats through quickly and you can move on with your test). Start at 85F and work your way up or down. It shouldn't take long to zero in on a temp that is right for the application you have in mind. I would be curious to know what you want to do with a sheet of mozzarella.
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1Really good answer, also I can back this up. I've yet to try sous vide, but I needed to achieve a similar goal and ended up working it for ages in a bath of 100~110F slightly salty water. Anyway, that worked, so the temp is probably right, and the sous vide will accomplish the same thing as my manual labour but with less blood, sweat, and tears.– RICKApr 20, 2015 at 14:31