DIY: Mozzarella!

Until recently, I’d always thought that making cheese would be too hard for me. But it turned out that cheesemaking is surprisingly simple— and definitely fun!

My mom and I purchased a kit from the fabulous New England Cheesemaking Supply Company, a great company dedicated to teaching the art of cheesemaking. Owner and cheesemaker Ricki Carroll sells books, DVDs, supplies, and even cheesemaking lessons from her Massachusetts headquarters.

Our “Starter Special” kit was $50, but it included a DVD, a book on home cheesemaking, and almost all of the supplies we needed to make both mozzarella and ricotta: citric acid, cheese salt, vegetable rennet (so my sister can eat the cheese we made!), a dairy thermometer, some butter muslin (for straining), and a little instruction booklet. I’d heavily recommend getting this kit and watching the DVD; it made each step very clear and obvious, and helped us to understand what our cheese should look like during each part of the process.

Surprisingly, decent milk wasn’t hard to find. You need local milk that isn’t “ultra-pasteurized”— and that was easily obtainable at the supermarket two blocks down the road. The water was a little more difficult— you can’t use tap water, because you need it to be completely chlorine-free— but we got a gallon of distilled water from the same grocery store for less than a dollar.

First we dissolved the rennet in water; then we dissolved the citric acid in a separate container with water. The dissolved citric acid was slowly added to the milk in our large saucepan, and then the milk was heated to 90 degrees while we stirred it slowly.

After this, we stirred in the rennet, then let the pot sit for 8 minutes while the curds formed.

We cut the curds into cubes with a long knife, then slowly stirred them around in the whey while we heated the whole thing up to 105 degrees. Then we removed it from the heat, stirred it a bit more, and sloughed off the floating whey into a container (because my mom is going to use it to make whey bread later). We popped the curds into the microwave for 1 minute.
And then…it got tricky. The booklet said we should be able to gently fold the curds into one mass and squeeze out the remaining whey, but the curds were too small and fine, and they wouldn’t separate from the whey properly. Plus, the whole mass was so hot that it was kind of hard to handle.

So we strained the curds through the muslin. The muslin was really supposed to be for the ricotta (which we’re going to make next time), but it actually worked perfectly for separating the mozzarella curds from the rest of the whey. We squeezed the curds together into a ball and microwaved them again, first for thirty seconds, then for a succession of ten-second periods, until they reached 135 degrees.

The best part comes next— stretching the mozzarella! You get to pull it like taffy, and it’s all shiny and stretchy. Then, as you work it in your hands, it gradually gets firmer and firmer. Then put it into a bowl over ice water, and…ta-da! A ball of mozzarella!

It tastes yummy, too. We’re going to use it in a yummy salad tomorrow. Mmmmmmmm!

I’d highly recommend making this cheese— it’s easy and fun, and it tastes really good for relatively little effort. Plus, it’s a versatile cheese, and it keeps pretty well.

Next we’ll be doing ricotta…and I’d also like to try yogurt before we leave for Florida!