30 Minute Mozzerella

My new favorite thing!

If you want to make something that will wow the pants off your dinner guests, or just yourself, this is it.  I always wanted to try cheesemaking. It sounds so much more involved when you say "cheesemaking" rather than just "make some cheese". I don't know why.  Anyways, I was always a bit intimidated by actually making cheese at home.  I had thought of buying a cheesemaking kit, but  I figured I probably had all the tools I needed already, or could make do. So I used a recipe I found on Pinterest, seemed easy enough, only a few ingredients (2 of the three i had to make a special trip to buy, but what the heck, I was excited about this cheese project!).  All of the recipes I found were slightly different, but funnily enough, they almost all credited the same original recipe, Ricki Carrol's book, Home Cheese Making. 


30 MINUTE MOZZERELLA
1 1/2 level teaspoons citric acid dissolved in 1/2 cup cool water
1 gallon pasteurized, NOT ULTRA PASTEURIZED whole milk (raw milk from a safe source is ok, as well as 2% or 1%)
1/4 teaspoon liquid rennet (or 1/4 rennet tablet) diluted in 1/4 cup cool, unchlorinated water (I just used water from our filter pitcher, it seemed fine to me)
1 teaspoon salt (optional, I used kosher salt)

I found the citric acid and renet at our local health food store(renet was vegitarian variety).  I had to ask where it was though, and even the woman who worked there was having a bit of trouble finding it. The citric acid was in the baking aisle and the renet was in the refrigerator with the cheese. Your store may be different, but just a hint if you're having a hard time. It's also available online.

Starting to curdle

Gently heat the milk to 55 degrees in a large stainless steel pot. (Being used to making yogurt, I forgot to watch the thermometer closely and before I knew it the milk was 80 degrees!! Oh well, I proceeded like normal anyways!) Add the citric acid solution while stirring. 

Heat the milk to 90 degrees over medium to low heat, stirring constanltly.  Take the pot off the heat.  Add the renet mixture while stirring in an up and down motion, then cover and let the pot sit for 5 minutes. 

After five minutes, check the curd.  It should be custardy with a definite difference between the curds and whey.  If it's too soft or the whey is too cloudy, let it sit a few more minutes.

Cut the curd with a knife that goes all the way down to the bottom of the pot.

Cutting the curds

Return the pot to the heat, and bring to 105 while stirring gently. Remove from the heat and continue to stir for 2-5 minutes. 

 With a slotted spoon, scoop out the curds and place them in a microwave safe bowl.  Use your hands to press off as much of the whey as possible. It still seemed wet to me, so I scooped up one handful at a time and packed it just like I would a snowball. It got much drier that way. Pour the whey back into the pot and put your snowballs into your microwave safe bowl. Mash them all together.

Scooping out of the pan

In the microwaveable bowl(straight out of the pan) and then my "snowballs"

Microwave on high for 1 minute.  Remove and knead with a spoon or your hands.  This will distribute the heat evenly.  It will be hot, a pair of clean rubber gloves can be very helpful(wish I had a pair!)

Microwave two more times for 35 seoconds each.  If you want to add salt, do it after microwaving the second time. After it comes out of the microwave each time, knead to distribute heat.  I actually had to microwave it two more times after that, and as I was kneading it I found it just wasn't coming together. It seemed more of a ricotta texture rather than gooey and smooth. But that was because I was kneading it with a spoon it seemed....I sucked it up and used my hands to do it and it smoothed right out. I didn't have gloves, and don't get me wrong, it kind of hurt. But when the heat got to be too much I switched to the spoon and then back to my hands again. It should be smooth and shiny and stretch like taffy.  If it breaks or tears its not hot enough yet-back into the microwave it goes!  Stretch it and fold it back on itself until it's nice and smooth. Stretch it nice and long, at least a foot or two if you can. It makes the texture really nice, then fold it back on itself and do it a few more times.

I chose to make mine into little balls, although you can leave it in one big mass, or braid it.  It's great to eat warm, but if you're going to refrigerate it, make your shapes and drop into a bowl of cold water to cool quickly. This helps keep a smooth texture.  Then put them in a tupperware or pyrex with some water and refrigerate. I'm really not sure how long these will last in the fridge because ours lasted less than three days. Granted I did give some to my sister, but if I hadn't done that, they may have made it a few more hours. 

Pinching off into balls

Drop into cold water to cool quickly

Store in a sealable container in the fridge with some water (you can lighlty salt the water-2 tsp salt to one cup water if you like). 

This cheese is delicious, very smooth, mild and just chewy enough!  As soon as my basil starts growing, I start thinking caprese salad, tomato/basil/mozzarella paninis, fresh pizza....the list goes on and on.  Fresh mozzarella is soooo much better than the dry shredded stuff in the bag (though I don't actually turn my nose up at any cheese) but paying $5-$7 for a little ball and having it gone in minutes....I'd prefer to spend a half an hour, have it fresh, and be able to proudly say "I made that cheese!" before I gobble it up! 

According to all the recipes/blogs/pins you should save the whey to make ricotta. I saved it, I followed the instructions. I failed miserably. I'm not sure what went wrong but it just did not work. The cheese didn't separate from the whey.....maybe I was overconfident from my mozzarella success. I don't know. But it really didn't work. Oh well, next time! Because I think I'm making this cheese again REALLY SOON!

UPDATE ON THE RICOTTA! IT WORKED!

Ok, I tried it again.  The mozzarella came out great, so time to try my ricotta again.
As soon as I finished my mozzarella, I put my whey back on the burner to try my hand at ricotta again. I decided that since following instructions got me nowhere, I would freestyle it. I'm not much of a stickler for the rules when it comes to food, and I figured it couldn't go any worse than the last time.  Instructions said to keep the whey on the stove until a foam appears, right before it boils, then take it off and strain it through butter muslin and wait 15 minutes. Well, I did that, and basically it all went right through. Nothing was there. So this time I decided to go past the point of "foam" which was only about 10 minutes, and just cook the heck out of it! It got foamy, I stirred it, I turned the heat up to a low boil, then down again.  I kept stirring occasionally, scraping the bottom making sure nothing was getting stuck. I would leave the pot for 15 minutes at a time, when it was on medium or low.  All in all, it cooked for a little over an hour.  I could see chunks of curd forming.  When I was pretty certain that there were definite "curds" and definite "whey" I slowly poured it through a clean kitchen towel (not a terry towel, but a smooth one, kind of just a cotton fabric, muslin would work well, cheesecloth isn't fine enough) that i had tied through the handles of a pot.  The whey drained through and my ricotta stayed! It doesn't make a whole lot of cheese. Not enough for a lasagna, maybe a cup and a half or two. But it was made from left over whey, that I otherwise had no use for.  I would't go out of my way to make this, but as a byproduct, it's a great thing.  It was delicious in scrambled eggs this morning and again in a spinach pasta bake for dinner. And now its gone. We ate it all in one day. I guess that answers your question of how does it taste!