Wednesday

Mozzarella Cheese

      That's what I'm going to try to make.  Never made cheese before.  I was going to try to make cheese curds --- hence the mesophilic culture in the picture yesterday.  But, I went a little easier with some mozzarella.  I am impressed with how easy it really is.

I started with 1 gallon of organic, raw, whole milk.














I added 1/4 c. of fresh lemon juice.
















And heated it all to 88 degrees....or 90 :-), stirring constantly.
(Don't do as I did -- make it 88 degrees :-)


This is a really bad picture.
It's hard to stir and take a picture



Then I added 1/4 tsp. of liquid rennet.  This I
bought at my wine supply store. (Which I guess
is also a cheese supply store :-)














And heated it to 105 degrees.
It didn't take long and I had "curds and whey".















I took out the curds and gently squeezed out more whey.
With all the whey back in the pot I heated it to 180 degrees.
And added 1/4 cup of non-iodized salt.

I made two balls of the curds....and one at a time put them in the
hot whey for a minute or two.  With gloved hands I stretched
the ball of cheese.  I did each one three times. (In retrospect I
would use 2 spoons to start each stretch --- it's really hot!)


....And I ended up with cheese!!!




Tomorrow we're havin' pizza!
(My husband already had a hotdish in the frig for tonight -- he's so good to me.)
 







spaininiowa

10 comments:

Jacqueline said...

i have also made mozz cheese, once. you make it look sooooo easy. and with raw milk, too! i may have to try again for pizza night on friday. super post.

dr momi said...

I love that it is with raw milk Jacqueline, one of the reasons I want to learn to make my own cheese! Thanks for posting!

Lady Farmer said...

I have been wanting to try making cheese. Your mini tutorial makes it look easy. I will have to give it a try when I find some of the rennet
Visiting from Homestead Revivals Barn Hop.

Carolyn said...

Sooo cool! I love your pictures. I love mozzarella cheese..thank you for sharing your tutorial.

Unknown said...

Your cheese looks lovely! I hope to make some soon. I'm just waiting on goats to kid.

dr momi said...

Amy -- I wish I had learned to make cheese when I had goats years ago! I always had so much milk, even with 5 kids (children) in the house :-)

Unknown said...

This looks wonderful - I'm ready to give it a go this weekend!

dr momi said...

Thanks for all the wonderful comments everybody. I hope everyone's cheese turns out!!!

Leigh said...

This post was on your sidebar under "popular posts" so I had to come see. I'm really excited about my mozzarella making (after a rough start) and am putting the finishing touches on a post for Monday. Interesting that you used lemon juice. There are so many recipes for mozzarella, and I'm curious about them all. Yours turned out beautifully.

Judy said...

Just finished this. I totally messed it up. Missed the part about stirring constantly and added the rennet at about 95, maybe hotter.

I still got a giant cheese ball! :) I added the salt too early for the second batch. I only got a very little squeaky cheese from that one. I put the giant ball back in the hot whey. I should have left it in longer, considering the size. It was difficult to stretch. It's not as pretty as yours, but the young lady I was making cheese with, was thrilled. It's pretty foolproof.

Thank you so very much for posting this.