Mozzarella - From Scratch

Cheese. One of those things that everyone has, but no one really thinks about making it. Well, I guess some people do.

I do. I remember when I was little, my mom used to make cheese. We also lived on a farm and had a milk cow, so the most important part was readily available.

It wasn't until a year ago, that it popped into my head. Making cheese. The thought came and went periodically over the last few months. Then, a couple weeks ago my mom and I decided to give it a go.

We found a lovely, and easy to follow recipe here. The steps are easy to follow, and for the most part the ingredients are quite easy to come by.

Here's what you'll need:

• 4 litres milk, whole is best, we used homo milk, but the comments suggest that you could use 2% as well.
• 1 1/2 tsp citric acid
• 1 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 tablet rennet
• 1 1/4 tsp kosher salt

Here's what you do:

• Dissolve the citric acid in 1 cup water
• Dissolve the rennet in 1/4 cup water
• Pour milk into large pot on medium-high heat
• Gently stir in citric acid solution to the milk and heat to 90 degrees F

• At 90 degrees, remove from heat and stir in rennet solution
• Stir for 30 seconds, cover and let sit for 5 minutes. This allows the cheese to set, it should appear like soft tofu. If, after 5 minutes, the cheese has not set, let it sit for an additional 5 minutes
• Once set, slice the curd in a grid pattern:

• Return to heat and stir gently until mixture reaches 105 degrees F
• Once at 105 degrees, remove from heat and stir gently for 5 minutes, you will see the curds begin to come together but will look like cottage cheese. This is also where you can add herbs for flavouring. I've added oregano, but I'll admit I was *generous* at 2 Tbsp. I'd recommend no more than 1 Tbsp but it's really your preference.

• Use a slotted spoon or a sieve to transfer the curds to a microwave safe bowl

• Microwave for 1 minute
• Drain off whey, and continue to microwave in 30 second bursts until the curds have reached an internal temperature of 135 degrees F
• Drain off any additional whey
• Sprinkle in the salt and fold curds over and begin to stretch them. The curds will come together and look like a giant bowl of melted cheese. The cheese is EXTREMELY hot, so use caution.

• Once the cheese gets a glossy sheen it is ready to be formed into a large ball or multiple smaller balls
• Seal cheese in air-tight container or zip lock bag and put in the fridge.

The original recipe says that the cheese will keep for a week, but to be perfectly honest mine has only ever lasted about a day. We just eat it too fast!

Here it is on the pizza we made for dinner. The crust is also homemade, as is the sauce. Those posts will come later.  As you can see, the cheese isn't super melty, but it was definitely tasty. And it was completely satisfying to say I made my own cheese.

So a couple of side notes:

1. Citric acid can be a little tricky to find. If you have a cheese making supplier in your town it will likely be there. If not, you can order it online or try grocery stores. Some pharmacists may be able to order it for you. I found mine at Bulk Barn, so if you have a Bulk Barn nearby, I would recommend that as your first step.
2. In the event that you cannot find Citric acid anywhere, you can substitute 2/3 cup white vinegar or lemon juice (not the concentrate stuff, the good stuff) I have used both the vinegar and the lemon juice, before I was able to locate the citric acid. The vinegar worked better than the lemon juice, however the citric acid was by far more effective. 
3. Rennet is also hard to find, at least in Calgary, Ab. Mom and I found it at a community health food store, it comes in packs of 8 tablets for about $3.00. Given that you only need 1/4 tablet per batch it should last a long time. Rennet tablets can be stored at room temperature for up to a year or in the freezer for up to 5 years. But let's be honest, once you give this a try it certainly won't need to be stored for that long. 
4. The process looks intimidating, but from start to finish, this only takes about half an hour. 
5. You'll need a candy thermometer. I've tried baby thermometers and meat thermometers; those made it more complicated than it needed to be. The meat thermometer didn't go as low as I needed and the kids thermometer didn't go as high as I needed. So just save some time and invest in a candy thermometer. 

That's my Taste On It!