Mozzarella Cheese

I have been considering trying to make cheese for the last couple years or so since having Vella Dry Jack which is a really amazing aged cheese from Sonoma CA.  I was so impressed with it that I ended up having to buy a full wheel of it.  It was surprising how quickly it was gone.

I've done quite a bit of reading up on the techniques used to make and age cheese (much of it on cheesemaking.com which seems like an extremely valuable resource).  The process seems similar in terms of level of complexity to making an all grain beer.  Much like homebrewing beer it seems that having a relatively simple set of equipment up front is sufficient to dip your toe into the hobby and that the need for more advanced equipment reveals itself as you progress.  I had considered starting to homebrew for a year or more and had not quite built up the confidence to give it a try when my wife pushed me over the hump by buying me a starter kit.  I'm sort of at a similar stage right now on the concept of cheesemaking.

My mother is also interested in cheesemaking.  She was very impressed with the Mozzarella cheese she had sampled during a trip to Italy a couple years back.  She said the packaged form of Mozzarella that can be purchased in the United States is a pale shadow of the genuine article.  This was particularly true of the texture.  Based on this mutual interest we decided to give making Mozzarella a shot.

I found an America's Test Kitchen procedure/recipe for Mozzarella cheese that seemed interesting.  It was a bit more complex than many of the other recipe's you find online but I've consistently found that there is a method to the madness behind their complex recipes.  We following the recipe fairly closely and adhered to there process almost exactly.  The primary deviation from the recipe was that we ended up using Junket Rennet Tablets rather than animal rennet.  From reading on the internet these aren't really intended for "serious" cheesemaking.  Next time I will go to the trouble of ordering animal rennet online.

I'm a little ashamed to admit that the exact rational of each step is still a bit of a mystery to me even after making the cheese.  It was a lot of fun though.  America's Test Kitchen cautioned that, although Mozzarella is often characterized as an "easy" cheese to make, it still isn't easy.  I agree with them that it wasn't easy but we still ended up with a product that was obviously Mozzarella cheese in the end which we were pretty happy with.  I think it's given me confidence to try this again.

Ingredients:

• 1 gal Whole Milk (Pasteurized and Homogenized)
• 1 qt Heavy Cream (Pasteurized and Homogenized)
• 2 tsp Citric Acid
• 2 Junket Rennet Tablets
• 9 cups of Water
• 6 Tbs Kosher Salt

Process/Notes:

• 5/16/16 - Cheesemaking day - Took ~2 hrs
• Poured milk and heavy cream into a large pot

• Added citric acid dissolved in water and stirred for 30 s
• Heated the liquid up to 90 F on the stove top.
• Removed from the heat and added the rennet (which was also dissolved in water) and stirred in for 30 s.  I actually went through 3 rounds of this, adding 2 half tablets after the following steps did not produce a curd as expected.
• Let the pot sit covered for 10 min.  Went through multiple rounds of this step.  Ultimately probably let it sit for 45 min as I added successively more rennet
• Eventually there was a good separation between the curds and whey.  Cut the curd, which floated on the top, in a 1 inch grid pattern
• Let this sit for a few minutes to let the curds start to separate

• Heated the pot.  Was shooting for 105 F to 107 F.  Ended up overshooting up to the 110 F to 120 F range.
• Scooped out the curds with a slotted spoon and put them in a stainless steel colander that was sitting in a large bowl to catch the whey

• Pressed on the curd to force the whey out.  Once the liquid flow started to cease we swirled the curd around the colander which prompted a bit more liquid to be freed.  Added the drained way back to the pot as we went

• Moved the curd to a cutting board and then cut it into 1 in chunks

• Filtered remaining small floating bits of curd from the whey by pouring the whey through a strainer
• Added 8 cups of water to the pot of whey along with the salt
• Brought the whey mixture up to 180 F
• Added half the curds to the bowl and then ladled in enough hot salted whey mixture to cover them

• Squished the curds against the side of the bowl to help them melt
• Using rubber gloves over cloth gloves pulled the curds from the bowl, squished the mass together, and then, due to the heat melting the curds, was able to stretch them sort of like a taffy.  This was really the strangest part of the whole process.  It was amazing watching the chunky curds become a smooth mass that was pliable and stretchy.

• Formed it into balls by putting the main mass of chees in my fist and then squeezing until a ball of cheese came out the end of my fist.  The results were not very pretty on my first attempt

• Cooled all the balls in a bowl of cold water
• Poured out the whey mixture after all the first round of forming was complete and then did the second round with the remaining curds and whey mixture.  The balls were still not pretty in the second round but they were slightly better
• Wrapped the cooled cheeseballs in plastic sandwich bags and stored them in a Tupperware in the fridge.  They should keep for a few days.

Impressions:

• The cheese is soft and smooth.  It has the texture of a cream cheese almost.  The flavor is distinctly that of Mozzarella cheese so this was a successful effort in that regard.  The amount of time the curd spent in the salty whey mixture was a bit different on the first and second batches.  Second batch was in it longer.  As a result it was a bit saltier which we preferred.  Both were very tasty.
• Had the cheese on scrambled eggs the day after making.  It is a bit sticky when cutting.  It would be impossible to shred at this consistency.  The cheese got a bit melty on the eggs but they weren't hot enough to melt it completely.
• There is probably a lot of experimentation that could be done in regards to storing the cheese.  Storing in a salt water solution could be interesting.