Friday, February 20, 2009

home made mozzarella.


We get two gallons of fresh from the cow milk from a local farmer each week. We often make our own yogurt, yogurt cheese, and cream cheese, and sometimes butter. We have been wanting to delve deeper into cheesemaking, but just haven't done too much yet. After seeing a quick segment on a PBS gardening show about making mozzarella, I decided it looked like a fun and easy project to do with the boys.

Yesterday we looked up a recipe, and discovered that we had all of the ingredients needed already! This is so easy to make and the cheese is so good. Other than the time we waited for milk or whey to heat up, this took almost no time at all and was very simple to do.

::making fresh mozzarella at home::
*This recipe is adapted from the book Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carroll


ingredients::
2 tsp citric acid
1 gallon raw or whole milk (not ultra-pasteurized)
1/4 tsp liquid rennet diluted in 1/4 cup water (we use the vegetable rennet from here)
1 Tbsp sea salt
candy thermometer to check liquid temps


directions::

Pour the milk into a large pot, put on the stove on low/med-med heat. Add citric acid to the milk and mix well. Stir in the diluted rennet with an up and down motion, continue heating until the temperature reaches 105ºF. Turn off the heat and let the curd set for 5-10 minutes.

Scoop out the curds with a slotted spoon (or strain them with a fine mesh strainer) and put them into a large heat resistant bowl. Press the curds gently with your hands, pouring off as much whey as possible into a bowl. Reserve the whey.


Pour the whey back into the pot and heat it to at least 175ºF degrees. Add salt to the whey and stir.

Ladle the hot whey over the curd in the bowl (just to cover) knead the curd with 2 wooden spoons until the curd is smooth and pliable.

The internal temperature of the curd needs to reach around 165 degrees to become pliable and stretchy. If the curd breaks, it needs to be reheated (by pouring more hot whey over the top). If you want to add any dried or fresh herbs, do now. I added a teaspoon of an herb mix I put together which included ground pepper, dried garlic, and an italian herb mix.


Pick the curd up with your hands and quickly squeeze into a ball, tucking the ends under to make smooth. Go fast, will set immediately.

Eat immediately while warm, or if you want to store it for later, place your balls of mozzarella into a bowl of very cold water (you can add more salt if you want, to help intensify the cheese flavor). Let sit a few minutes. Wrap and store in the fridge! Eat within a day or so.

Yield: 3/4 - 1 pound

17 comments:

mamaraby said...

What a great idea! The herbed one looked very yummy!

Sam said...

Oh, excellent! That mozzarella does look delicious :-) And homemade, even better.

We were talking this morning about trying to make cheese, so this is just perfect.

Thanks for sharing. (And I didn't realise you had a cooking blog. I shall have to go and get a coffee...)

Anonymous said...

I am JEALOUS! I upped my milk order with just this project in mind, but have yet to order the supplies that I need. It's time, it's time!

saskia said...

we don't drink milk, or I would give this a try!

Barbara said...

You are so creative and imaginative! And, might I add, fearless!!! You are an inspiration to me...thanks for all the wonderful ideas!

In A Couple Whiles said...

This sounds really good. We have farm fresh raw milk and quite often have too much. I'll send for the rennet but is citric acid just lemon juice or what do you use?

Anonymous said...

OOH! Thank you for posting this! This is definitely on the to-do list and your post will be such a great reference. Yum yum. Wish I had some right now. :)

Julie said...

looks scrumptious! I've only made farmer cheese with our milk, but would love to make mozzarella or even cheddar.

Anonymous said...

Hi Denise, what a great blog. We are a homeschooling family in Iowa. Kiddos are 4, 3, and 1 so we are just getting started. I am going to try your sprouted bread recipe and some science projects. Love your ideas, keep them coming!
Amy

Leanne Pizio said...

Oh! I missed so much. I have to catch up but can't wait to do this recipe when we get our first tomatoes in.
Thanks for the beautiful recipes.

Anonymous said...

Home made mozzzzzerrrrrrelllah? (sorry, always had problems spelling that, thought I'd cover all the bases) now that's just showing off.....

Sandy said...

Hi, my name is Sandy. This recipe looks great! I made ricotta cheese with whole milk and buttermilk. Check out:www.cooking4acause.org.

Unknown said...

Holy yum. This looks so delicious! -e

Ariad said...

Yum...I'm definitely going to try that. Thank you:)

Elizabeth said...

Wow. This looks so good. Despite being a former pastry chef and married to a chef with his own business, cheese-making intimidates me. But your blog is working on me...

kimba said...

Hi - I just found your blog while looking for a way to use fresh currants :-) Now I'm fascinated with your mozzarella recipe. Can you tell me more about citric acid? Can lemon juice be used in its place?

Frieda Loves Bread said...

I was just asked to help teach a cheese making class...Thanks so much for your step by step post!