Burrata is an Italian, soft, fresh cheese made from cow’s milk, and sometimes buffalo milk. It’s a combination of mozzarella and cream, created originally as a way to use leftover scraps of mozzarella during its production. As we know, the zero-waste principle is an excellent way to eliminate losses—and sometimes even make an extra profit.
Mozzarella scraps are torn into long strands and then mixed with cream—this is how stracciatella, the inside of burrata, is made. A ball of mozzarella is stretched while hot, and a generous portion of stracciatella is placed inside. The cheese is squeezed into a pouch shape, and the top is sometimes tied with an asphodel (king’s spear) fiber. You could say burrata is a hybrid cheese—first you make mozzarella, then from mozzarella and cream you make stracciatella, and finally you stuff the mozzarella with stracciatella to get burrata ;)
Burrata tastes best immediately after being made—or within 24 hours at most. Unfortunately, you can’t get burrata this fresh in stores, so I recommend making it at home; you definitely won’t regret it. Burrata is excellent as a salad topping, on pizza, or drizzled with olive oil and served with tomatoes and strawberries.
Fresh Burrata
The base for burrata is mozzarella, so the recipe will be identical up to a certain point. We use the same bacterial cultures, the same temperatures, and the same guidelines for drying and acidifying the curd.
I don’t want to repeat the entire recipe and post, so we’ll start the burrata instructions from the moment when the curd is already properly acidified and ready for stretching.
You can find the mozzarella recipe—the base for burrata here:
Burrata Recipe
Cut the curd (acidified to pH 5.1–5.2, as in the mozzarella recipe) into strips about 1 cm wide.
Place one-third of the curd into a deep bowl, pour over water or whey heated to 80°C, and mix.
After a moment the water will cool slightly, so drain it and pour hot water over the curd again.
Mix and gather the curd into a single mass, then start stretching it, dipping it in hot water occasionally so it doesn’t cool down.
Stretch the cheese until it becomes smooth and shiny.
Divide the well-stretched cheese into smaller pieces, place them in a bowl of cold water, and refrigerate for 1–2 hours. The pieces don’t need to look nice—they will be torn apart shortly anyway.
Remove the chilled cheese from the fridge and tear it into thin strands. Place the shredded cheese into a dry bowl.
Pour sweet 30% cream over the cheese strands and add salt to taste. You can add as much cream as you like, but the minimum amount should cover the cheese.
Set the stracciatella (your burrata filling) aside or place it in the fridge.
Then place the remaining curd into a bowl and repeat the process: pour hot water over it, replace the water when it cools, mix, gather into a mass, and stretch several times until smooth and evenly warmed.
Prepare a bowl with cold water and the bowl with stracciatella.
Tear off a piece of the stretched cheese and gently stretch it to fit over a small cheese mold or bowl.
Spoon a generous amount of stracciatella inside and pinch the edges together to seal the pouch, trying to trap as little air inside as possible. At this point, it’s best to place the cheese directly into cold water so it doesn’t lose its shape.
Done! I’m sure this will be the best burrata you’ve ever had. The mozzarella shell hides delicious stracciatella inside, which—if the cheese is fresh—literally pours out when you cut into it.
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