Making Homemade Mozzarella Cheese

I love getting fresh raw milk from the farm every now and then and previously made homemade yogurt that was on an earlier blog post. I have also made fresh mozzeralla cheese before but this time I decided to add it to the blog.

I bought a cheese-making kit from Zingerman's mail order (you can also drive to the Creamery in Ann Arbor and pick it up in person) that has everything you need but the milk to make cheese 30 times starting with 1 gallon of milk. I follow the instructions pretty much as given in the kit but I thought it would be helpful to see various steps in pictures. This is a fast (about an hour in all) and fun process that I encourage everyone to try. 

Here are my starting ingredients: 1 gallon raw whole milk and the kit:

I first warm the milk and citric acid solution on low heat (especially when using unpasturized milk) while stirring frequently until temperature reaches 88 degrees F (for raw milk). Then I add the rennet and let it stand for a few minutes until the milk sets:

Milk warming slowly

Separation of the curds from whey

 I cut the curds into cubes:

 

It goes back on low heat while stirring until the temperature is 90 degrees F. Then more gentle folding of the curd and strain into a colander. I don't save the whey although some people do.

This is where experience and skill comes in. The goal is to slowly heat the curds until you get a nice stretchy homogeneous blob of cheese that can be pinched off into balls. You can use the microwave method or the water bath method. I use the water bath method where you keep increasing the temperature of the water while folding and stretching the cheese. I put a kettle on the stove to heat water and start with the curds in the colander and start submerging into a large bowl and mix until they start to come together. Here is a great YouTube video you can watch where I learned from: 

Video of stretching mozzarella

 

Then I will move it into the bowl and start working it.

  

Once it is nice and smooth you I start forming balls of any size and pinch it off, put it in 50 degree water bath for 5 min. and then transfer to an ice water bath for 15 min. Then I blot the balls dry and wrap up in plastic wrap.

 

And Viola! Cheese.

This didn't last long, used it up in a pasta salad, bruschetta and pizza: