Burrata

[mivigliotti]

I made a burrata cheese yesterday and according to recipe it says to string apart curd after few minutes in the hot water and then add cream. My question is mine looked like chunks of mozz in a creamy bath. Should I be doing something different like adding flavor or whipping the cream first?

[texassourdough]

I have not made burrata but I routinely make mozz. It sounds like you are starting by making burrata and that is I think a mistake. You need to know how to make mozz first. If you don't, I suggest you work on that. To be honest, I think this is a situation where first hand observation is very valuable. There is a lot of subtle stuff going on that does not communicate well in words (or likely even video).

Burratas are made with two "cheeses". The outside is pure mozz. While traditional burratas (as I understand it) have a mozzarella/cream filling, there are LOTS of variations and most of the restaurants I know of making burrata tend to use ricotta as the primary cheese in the filling - with a variety of additives including truffles and truffle oil. I am not sure how to get cream into mozz! but putting cream in ricotta is easy.

I would suggest trying to find someone nearby who makes burrata and befriending him with bread and see if you can get them to let you watch.

Good Luck!
Jay

[mivigliotti]

I know how to make mozz been doing that for years. My issue is in recipe says to take 1/3 of curd out as soon as it start to come together and string it apart then add cream to that. to me it doesnt look creamy enough.

[texassourdough]

Gotcha! I know a pizziaolo who makes his own burrata. I will ask him for comments/advice. My preliminary guess is it takes a lot of working to get the cream in but??? Temp is probably important too. I will try to go see him this weekend!
Jay

[mivigliotti]

Awesom thanks. Just ask him how to get the cream to right consistency.

[roobqn]

I did a quick search for a you tube video on how to make Burrata and was surprised at tehe consistency of the cream. Filling and shaping them is cool though. A few of the video's are here YouTube - Making Burrata if you have not seen them before.
How are these served? Looked like in oe video they are served as a "side dish".

[mivigliotti]

Yes I have searched Youtube for the last week I have seen every video. My issue is not with how to fill the skins but to get the cream to a nice consistency.

[texassourdough]

I managed to sneak in for lunch and got the scoop. The skin of the burrata is pulled mozz - the same fresh mozz you would use for pizza or whatever. From what I was told the interior is made from unpulled mozz. My friend heats the curds just to the point of melting/getting sticky and collects them and cools them. The resulting mozz will have short fibers and be somewhat fragile/friable. It is my impression from his comments that in Italy they use curds that are either made or warmed in milk for the filling. My friend takes his unpulled mozz and sort of shreds it and pours warm cream over it to approximate the effect of the Italian filling. I have great faith that this leaves lots of room for error and self learning but I suspect you will be able to find a reasonable result in a couple of tries. Hope this helps!
Jay

[mivigliotti]

Wow u just caught me in time as I was doing another batch tonight. So Only thing I didnt do was warm the cream I will try it tonight and let u know. Thanks.

[texassourdough]

Probably needs to be pretty warm. I am not confident how much handling/mixing is done. I got the impression none, that it sort of took care of itself but that probably means the cream is pretty warm so it softens and penetrates the mozz. But...since you have made mozz you probably have a good idea of how it works soooo....
Good Luck!
Jay