Homemade Mozzarella

[&roid]

So yesterday I thought I'd try my hand at cheese making... How hard can it be??? Well, if you buy the wrong ingredients, very hard is the answer.

I got a copy of Ideas in Food a week or two ago and read about how easy mozzarella was to knock up at home so I duly went and got 8 pints of whole, unhomogenised, organic milk, some citric acid and what I thought was Rennet. Turns out it was "Essence of Rennet" which is a world away from what you need for cheese making (massively diluted, no use at all). A gallon of wasted milk and a lot of dirty pots and pans later I gave up. After a quick internet trawl I found a health food shop that sold proper rennet nearby and went along there earlier today.

Chastened by the mess I made yesterday I tried it with a half quantity from the Ideas in Food recipe. Also, I omitted the Lipase as couldn't find anywhere nearby to pick some up:

4.5g Citric Acid in 120ml water

1893g whole milk

35 drops of VegeRen

This time things worked MUCH better, after the 30 minute rest I got a nice clean break in the curds:

And after cutting the curd and warming it to 43C managed to strain them easily:

A brief warm up in salted whey and they came together beautifully:

So, how does it taste? Well, unfortunately I don't know yet! I am under pain of death not to try any till the family return home, and as I only made a half quantity I definitely won't get away with it... I'll report back later on how it is.

Have been pretty busy today (have a look in the Sous-Vide thread for another long winded post describing my first attempts at water bath cooking). Really wish I could give up the day job and do this fun stuff ALL the time, rather than just when I'm off work!

[Jenni]

I'm really interested in this. My Mum found a recipe for halloumi and we were very keen to have a go at making that, but just haven't got around to it. Homemade mozzarella would be great! We make paneer all the time but that's so easy it doesn't seem anywhere near as exciting as mozzerella or halloumi!

[&roid]

Once I'd got the proper Rennet, it was actually pretty easy to do, two heating processes with a 30 minute rest in the middle, followed by a bit of warming and shaping/stretching. A LOT less messy than I managed to make yesterday's effort too! Have you got a copy of Ideas in Food?

I STILL haven't been able to taste it yet!

[&roid]

Wow! that actually tastes like proper Mozzarella!

It wasn't perfect and wasn't quite as good as the better stuff we normally buy but for a first (well, second) attempt it was great. Made two balls, the one in the pic above was kneaded for about 2mins, the other less than one. The longer knead was definitely the better of the two, perhaps somewhere in the middle would be ideal - the right balance of stretchy, silky cheese with the creamy melting effect of the shorter knead. Had to add salt too, will make a note to increase the concentration in the whey next time.

Overall a real success, especially as it was a pretty easy going job. Plus, for about £1 worth of milk we got two good sized cheeses.

[OliverB]

it's fun to make, but you do create a mess, LOL! I'm not sure it's really worth it though, I made it two or three times, but went back to getting fresh mozza (the kind floating in water or the left over liquid stuff from making it) since then. I'll have to try some other cheese eventually, we're remodeling the house right now, once that's done I'm gonna measure temps and humidity under the house, hoping to find it just perfect for cheese ripening and sausage drying. Probably a pipe dream, but that's what dreams are for :-)

Do report on taste (I'd have stolen a bit already)!

[pkeibel]

I made my first batch of home made on Saturday and it was esy. We didn't strain the product as you did. Instead I kneded it for about 15 secs and then transfered to the brine. It tasted as good as many generic fresh mozzas. I can give more details as next week I am taking a day long class in cheesemaking