Burrata – Cheese Filled Cheese

About three years ago, burrata started showing up on the menus all around San Francisco. After suffering through kale and spinach, and then seeing the warning signs of turmeric, the locals were still debating if they were going to make burrata the next ‘thing’. This cheese-filled-cheese pairs well with salad, soup, or a crusty bread. In many ways, burrata is the cheese version of a poached egg.

Burrata is defined as mozzarella filled with a heavy cream and stracciatella (mozzarella shreds) mixture. Although, I have never felt limited by that filling. I usually have an abundance of ricotta left over after making cheddar, so that had become my filling of choice (often mixed with a bit of honey). However, I have recently been learning to make Kefir. As one of those trials remained in my refrigerator, I decided to give that a go.

To make burrata, one must start by making mozzarella; in this case, I made Quick Mozzarella, which uses acid to target a certain acidity rather than using milk cultures. Recall that this makes the shelf-life of quick mozzarella much shorter – 24 to 48 hours. The milk cultures, when used, are needed to win the battle with unwanted, foreign bacteria; using acids will get the milk to the right pH quicker, but you forego the built-in army.

*Note that the calf rennet I have is diluted to 1:1000. Normal strength rennet is diluted to 1:12000. This means that I am using 12 times the amount that is typical shown in recipes; in this case, 1/2 tsp of typical-diluted rennet is called for for ten liters of milk. Know your ingredients.

As the name suggests, Quick Mozzarella does not require much time — a 90 minute process, start-to-finish. I was to meet some people at 7:30 PM; I started this process at 5:30 PM. I had made the burrata, cleaned up the kitchen and was still punctual, which is important as this is Germany.

The first major obstacle to a good burrata is learning how and finesse milk fat into something that can be stretched. Like most skill sets, this is something that one must simply practice. In this quick mozzarella process, the key is to add the acid before the milk warms and to continue stirring throughout the process. If you fail in either of these areas, your milk will want to become ricotta rather than mozzarella. That means that you will see small bits of cheese floating in your milk before you have gotten too far.

Once you have mastered turning that milk into something with the perfect acidity for stretching, the key is actually getting it to stretch. When I make mozzarella, I used salted water rather than plain water and manually adding salt to the cheese. I have a pot of salt water constantly heating on the stove. To stretch the curd, the proteins need to be heat to a temperature between 155°F and 175°F. In order to achieve this, I keep the water in the pot hotter than that. Throughout the process, I take water out of the pot, add my bits of curd – the curd heats up and the water cools. After stretching the curd, I return the water to the pot; everything equalizes.

I will freely admit that the water is uncomfortably hot. When I began with mozzarella, I wore heat-resistant gloves. I no longer wear them as I feel I lose too much dexterity in my fingers; I would rather keep repeating a hushed ‘hot’ every single time I work with the curd.

If you are simply making mozzarella balls, this is where you would work the curd into a small ball, push the pasta filata (tr., spun paste) through the circle made by your index finger and thumb, and drop it in cold water to firm up the proteins.

If you have decided to move onto burrata, you would take that same doughy cheese and stretch it out and form a bowl in your hands. Into that bowl, you would place your favorite filling. Quickly gather up the edges and form a pouch. Squeeze this pouch closed. Do not place this in cold water. It is very likely that this pouch would reopen and the contents lost if placed in water.

Rather, place the formed burrata in an individual form (preferably with a rounded bottom), or serve immediately with the closed end placed downward. The burrata will take the shape of the container in which it is placed. It is highly recommended that this burrata be eaten within two days. First, the contents will soften the mozzarella; second, it will not refrigerate well.

Enjoy this cheese-within-cheese treat!