Mozzarella Cheese

I found my recipe. I need to organize them all. I throw them all in a basket.

Mozzarella Cheese

Add 1/2 tsp. of powdered citric acid to 1/4 cup cool water. Stir this into 2 gallons of cold milk. Warm the milk to 88 degrees.

Dissolve 1/2 tsp. liquid rennet in 1/4 cup cool water. Stir the rennet into the milk very gently for 15 seconds. This make sure that it is evenly distributed. Cover and allow the milk to set for 15 min. until milk coagulates.

Cut the curd into 1/2 inch cubes. I do this by taking my longest knife and cutting stripes every half of inch all the way to the bottom. Then I turn the pot and do the same thing the other way. Then I have a very large flat sort of ladle. I use it to cut the layers from side to side. Often times I will gently lift the pieces and cut any that are too large. Then allow the curds to rest for 5 mins.

Raise the temperature to 108 degrees. Do it slowly over a 15 min. period. Gently stir through out this heating time. Continue to stir for an additional 20 mins. while maintaining a temperature of 108 degrees. During this heating stage the curds will shrink in size as they expel whey. It is important to constantly stir the curds gently so that they do not mat together at the bottom of the pot. Pour the curds into a cheesecloth lined colander and allow to drain for 15 min. You may want to do this over a pot and capture your whey. (You can make true ricotta from the whey)

Place the mass of curd on a cutting board and cut into 1" cubes.

Heat 1 gallon of water to 170 degrees and dissolve 1/2 cup of salt in the water. Place the curd cubes in a large bowl and pour the hot water over them. Using a wooden spoon, mix the curds together. they should stretch and mold together in a large mass of curds. (I use my thick rubber gloves I bought here. I save them and use only for cheesemaking) It takes about 5 min. for the curd to become stringy. Place the mass of curd on a cutting board and knead together as if you were working with bread. You want to have the curds to become a part of the mass of curd. If the curd starts to cool off, place it back in the water for a bit. Now pull the curd like taffy or like when you pull wool to spin. It will become satiny and smooth. You can add herbs and spices now if you like and work them into it. I don't normally do that. Once the curd has been stretched into a solid mass, this can be shaped into a round ball or string cheese sticks and then placed in cool water for about 15 min. until they hold their shape.

When it is ready, dry with a clean towel and place in an airtight container and store in the fridge.

Is this fresh milk or store bought?

amybyrd21 wrote:Is this fresh milk or store bought?

I use raw milk, but I have had people say they tried the store bought and it worked.

I will give it a try I have no access to raw milk because people can not sell it here unless labled for pet consumption

I had to label my goat milk "for pet consumption only"..... but what my milk customers chose to use it for was their own business..... and I knew that 99% of them were drinking it. I always used sanitary procedures for all the milk, and we drank the same milk processed the same way as my "pet consumption" customers. The labelling is all a matter of bureaucratic BS concerning the raw milk industry.

Kitty

Got any good sites on where we can get rennet? Also, I've never made cheese before, but want to try, so can you walk through a newbie? Pretend I'm a kid you're trying to teach.

I thought about ordering one of those dvd's on the cheese link they mentioned earlier. I may still do it. I think she walks you thru it on there.

http://www.cheesemaking.com/

Thanks. I must have missed the link.

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Cheese/Cheese_course/Cheehttp://www.cheesemaking.com/se_course.ht


Here is another link