Home made Mozzarella

Cheese.

Cheese is my addiction, I love it.  from fragrant bleu, to soft, velvety brie, Cheese is one of the few foods that can go well with any course in a meal, from a starter, to desert.  Long story short, Cheese is my bacon.

I have been toying with the idea for some time to make my own, however Citric Acid, has been my Achilles heel. online you can find it in bulk, but I don't have a use for a pound of sour stuff in my cabinets, and none of my local pharmacies carry the cap form.  so it has been a real conundrum.  However, this past Monday I had my Eureka moment, and found that the local "health food" store had it in their bulk spice boxes, thus began the journey that followed.

Let me add one side note before I continue.  do not attempt this, as I so foolishly did, at 7pm after a long day at work, your desire for cheese will be tempered by your desire to sit down.

Now that we have that out of the way, let us begin.


Ingredients:
1 g. Whole milk. Raw is preferable, but Pasteurized is fine, it cannot be Ultra-pasteurized, so you will have to splurge on the more expensive brand.
1/2 of a tab of Rennet
1+1/4 teaspoon of Citric acid
3/4 cup of non chlorinated water
3-4 Tbsp of sea salt, or any non-iodized salt

In a large non-reactive(no aluminum or cast iron) pot, pour your milk in and set on medium heat. While it is heating, take 1/2 water and dissolve the citric acid and in a seperate container the 1/4 water and rennet tablet.

Once the Milk gets to 90°F add your citric acid, stir for 30 secs then add your rennet, stir for another 20 secs, then remove from the heat, put the lid on and wait.

around 30 mins after, this is what your milk will look like.  it is separated into curds and whey. the process from this point is simple, strain the curds into a bowl, press to remove liquid, then put in the microwave for 1 min, drain excess whey again, microwave for an additional 35 seconds, then remove.  you should have a very soft, yet sold mass of cheese, if you still have whey drain and continue to microwave at 5 second intervals until you get to melty goodness. Unfortunately my hands where covered in whey and cheese curds so I didn't take any photos of the during phase, but if you are confused there are tons of videos on youtube to show you the procedure of making it.

Ciligine, or small cherry size, are my preferred size for fresh mozzarella. you want to take a cup of water and 2 Tbsp of salt and put them for at least a day for the best flavor.  afterwards you can get Olive oil, a little balsamic vinegar, red pepper flakes and oregano and make marinated mozzarella, its simply divine.

this was an experiment I did, it is a take on Burrata.  Burrata is a Mozzarella that is filled with cream, I took the still warm kneaded mozzarella, put about a Tbsp of cream on top the flattened cheese, and rolled it up.  fresh cracked black pepper, a few drops of red wine vinegar, and served it with Giardiniera, or picked cauliflower and bell pepper. the sharp tartness of the pickled vegetable was perfect to cut the extremely rich cheese.

In closing, the amount of cheese to milk ratio is small, but there is nothing comparable to this, not even the most expensive store bought fresh mozzarella hold a candle to it.  I will be doing this again.