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Fresh mozzarella
Thanks to Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which I’m currently reading, I was inspired to make fresh mozzarella cheese. She claimed it took only half an hour and offered a recipe on her book’s companion website.
I went to a nearby natural foods store and picked up a tiny bottle of rennet for about $6, and I already had a bag of citric acid (from making homemade Lucas for fruit cups). Even if I hadn’t had the citric acid on hand, it would have only cost about $4 or $5. I have enough of both key items to make many gallons’ worth of cheese.
I picked up a gallon of whole milk (homogenized and pateurized, but NOT ultra pasteurized…a no-no). I heated the milk to 55 degrees, added 1.5 tsp of citric acid that had been dissolved in a quarter cup of cool water, then I stirred gently and heated the milk up to 88 degrees, at which point it’s good and curdled. Then I added 1/4 tsp of rennet which had been mixed into a quarter cup of cool water and continued stirring and heating up to 100 degrees.
At this point, the heat is turned off, and the whey is poured off the curds. I used cheesecloth (which we had already) draped over a colander to drain the cheese initially. Then I put the wad of curds into a glass bowl and tossed it in the microwave for a minute. This helps bring out more of the whey, which I drained after pressing as much of it from the cheese as possible. Then I reheated the cheese for another 35 seconds, pressed, drained, and repeated the process once more.
Now the cheese is ready for kneading. When it starts to get glossy, as above, it can be stretched into taffy-like ropes. If it breaks, it’s just reheated for a few seconds in the microwave. Within minutes, it’s done! If you click into my Flickr, you can see more pictures of the cheese.
Disclaimer: Even if it burns your hands, it’s probably best not to make the cheese with rubber gloves. They tend to effect the flavor of the cheese a tiny bit.
