For those of you following this group, I've been wanting to make cheese now for a while. I ordered a mozzarella making kit from cheesemaking.com after seeing Emeril do it on one of his shows. I figured if he could do it so could I.
Well, I finally did it this morning and for a first time attempt I must admit, I'm proud of my result. I think the hardest part of the process was finding milk that was not ultra-pasteurized. I was a little nervous because the container didn't even say it was pasteurized but it was the only one I found out there that didn't say it was ultra pasteurized. So until things curdled there was a great deal of suspense in the kitchen waiting to see if it would work at all.
Anyway here's what I started with
A gallon of milk (not ultra pasteurized), Citric acid, rennet, Cheese salt (I don't know what makes this different from any other salt).
Using a large pot, I added the citric acid and heated to 88 degrees
While heating I crushed 1/4 a rennet tablet in 1/4 cup of cool water and dissolved
When the milk reached 88 degrees I added the rennet and stirred gently for about a minute. Turn the heat to low and let the curd set for 3 to 5 minutes
after 5 minutes
Cut the curd with a knife into 1 inch square pieces and ladle curds into a microwaveable bowl pressing the curds together gently. (since I wasn't going to save the whey today I just drained in a colander and placed in a bowl)
After pressing the curds together and pouring off as much whey as possible, Microwave on high for 1 minute
Knead quickly (I donned the rubber gloves because it was hot!)
I microwaved again for 35 seconds twice more until I could form a ball--kneading in between heatings.
(Here's the ball)
At this point the cheese becomes very stretchy
And I stretched it several times like taffy.
My camera ran out of memory at this point but the resulting ball was about the size of a man's fist (about a pound of cheese)
It tastes very, very mild and bland. I will probably marinate it in some olive oil and red pepper and serve with tomatoes and basil tonight for dinner.
It was a fun process which was very quick to do. It came together very fast. I don't know if I'll be relying on this for all my mozzarella needs in the future but it's something I'll do again.
Next time I will save the whey to use in pancakes or bread.
Next week I'm making Ricotta!