Traditional mozzarella requires a fermentation process of approximately 6-8 hours to reach a pH of 5.2, during which lactobacillus bacteria consume lactose and produce lactic acid.

“remember what we said about the babies in the well when you make any of the pasta filata cheeses like mozzarella or cacio cavallo or provo or any of those the first thing you do is you get the milk fermenting um you add some rennet to co or the chymosin right and to coagulate it you cut the courage and deal with the curds and then you allow it to ferment to so it goes through a chemical and physical changes the milk starts at a ph of about 6.8 and as it ferments and the lactobacillus bacteria remember the word lactose even in there the lactobacillus bacteria eat the sugars they eat the lactose and create lactic acid and as it creates more lactic acid the ph drops becomes more acidic when it gets to a ph of 5.2 you can heat it up stretch the curds and make your mozzarella make your provolone or make you whatever you're making but it required that fermentation process which takes around six to eight hours or so to get to that point where it produced that um that ph of 5.2”