Pasta filata

The milk (usually from cows or water buffalo) is warmed and curdled and allowed to rest for an hour before the curds are cut into small pieces and the whey is drained off.

[3] Then follows the filatura, which is when the curds are steeped for some hours in a bath of very hot whey, or water (for mozzarella di bufala campana the temperature is 95 °C).

Once they begin to float, most of the liquid is removed and the curd is mixed and kneaded until the required soft, elastic, stringy texture is obtained.

For other formaggi a pasta filata, such as provolone, caciocavallo silano, pallone di Gravina, burrata, and scamorza, further processing is needed: ageing and, in some cases, brining or smoking.

Phosphate groups attached to the casein proteins in the cheese curd are highly charged but repel each other.