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making cheese- safety in question

post #1 of 7
1/5/09 at 9:46am
Thread Starter 
hey, my mother is currently attempting to make ricotta cheese. she is using the whey left over from her previous project- mozzerela cheese. she started heating the whey and after about 20 min there was this thumping noise from the pan. we disregarded it, but it got louder and more violent, the last time sending watery cheesey stuff splattering all over the stove. we have no idea what the heck this is, it happened with two different pans/batches of ricotta. can anybody help?
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post #2 of 7
1/5/09 at 9:53am
I'll guess, but I've never made cheese.

The proteins coagulated and settled forming a large curd on the bottom of the pan. It's wet enough that water can boil out of it where it's hot there at the bottom of the pan. This forms a bubble of steam. The bubble grows until it's large/energetic enough to lift the curd and slap it down on the pan bottom. Eventually, you get a big enough bubble to lift the curd and splash everything everywhere.

You should cut the curd before this point.

Phil
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post #3 of 7
1/5/09 at 12:01pm
Thread Starter 
thanks, but ricotta cheese is tiny and soft, nothing big enough to slam the pan around.
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post #4 of 7
1/5/09 at 3:28pm
Phatch is correct. The cheese created a dome that held the water below the surface, super heating it, when it rolled it flash to steam and cause the spill you described.

No lid and it would have flashed everywhere.

Happens to people using oil and water in a pan at home more often that I care to think about.
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post #5 of 7
1/5/09 at 8:44pm
They're all pulling your leg. The truth is, it's the ricotta gnomes. Those little buggers... The minute you turn your back!..
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post #6 of 7
1/6/09 at 5:25am
Thread Starter 
i see your point, but we didnt have a lid on it, and it happened oh, say five times with only one of them actually spilling anything
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post #7 of 7
1/6/09 at 7:03am
Every darn time I go into the kitchen they attack me......aaahhhhhh!!!
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