The only ingredients you will need are fresh milk (not UHT or chilled milk that has been ultra-pasteurised), citric acid (from the baking section of the supermarket) and rennet (the ingredient that sets the cheese). You will also need a thermometer; if you have one that can clip onto the side of your saucepan like a candy thermometer, all the better.
Rennet is usually made from animal products, but you can also buy vegetable rennet, which is what I buy. I buy my liquid rennet online from Cheeselinks, but you can also source vegetable rennet tablets online from Green Living Australia or you could try your local health food shop or home brew shop as they sometimes stock rennet.
Also, a word on milk: The final flavour of your cheese will be dependent on the milk that you use. You can use reconstituted powdered milk for this recipe, supermarket milk (again not ultra-pasteurised as some longer-life chilled organic milks are these days) or - if you are blessed - fresh milk from your local dairy. All will work well, but clearly, the last option will be the tastiest :-) Having said that, I mostly just use organic supermarket milk, which still gives a cheese superior to most supermarket-bought cheeses.
Refer to the link above for specific, detailed instructions, but essentially, you just gently heat your milk, and stir in a dilute solution of citric acid when the milk reaches 12'C (55'C). Keep heating gently until the milk reaches about 31'C (88'F), and stir in the diluted rennet, and let it set:
When the curd is set and the whey is clear, scoop the curd out using a slotted spoon into a microwave safe bowl. Heat for 1 minute, drain off the whey and knead the curd gently to extract more whey (you will probably need rubber gloves at this point as it will be hot - or you can use the back of a large spoon). Heat the curd twice more, kneading between each heating to extract all of the whey, then continue quickly kneading the cheese until it is stretchy and doesn't break when you pull it into strings - like good mozzarella on a pizza should!
Form into balls (you can salt it too if you prefer it saltier, but I don't) and eat immediately (yum!), or store in the fridge to use as your pizza or lasagne topping for dinner :-)
You can then use the leftover whey for baking (you can freeze it), feed it to your chooks or dogs or you can use it to make ricotta cheese - it's even easier than making mozzarella! You just heat the whey further (to about 90'C), add some white vinegar or lemon juice to precipitate the ricotta curd (about a tablespoon), and then strain the curd out through cheesecloth or muslin.Easy peasy, as they say, and so worth the (small) effort.
9 comments:
I really appreciate this post! I have learning to make yogurt and cheese on my list for this winter. We have pretty bad cow's milk allergies in our family and goat's milk products are so expensive. I have a lady in an adjacent town who will sell me her goat's milk. Thank so much for this! We love mozzarella!
What another great recipe!!! I've been wanting to make my own cheese for ages and now there's no excuse for not with your easy pessy recipe..
Jodie :)
Wow! You made your own cheese! I'm so impressed. Too bad I'm lactose intolerant. :(
I have a question! How much milk did you use and what yield did you get? I'm going to be making this with a bunch of friends and am wondering how much milk to buy LOL!
Oh and one more q... in the linkedd recipe they say cheese salt, but you didn't use it...?
Hi Anastasia,
No I didn't use cheese salt as I don't like to use salt in cooking so I omit it. Plus I am generally using it with other salty foods, such as with olives on a pizza, so I can get away with it. If you are used to salty cheese though, you should salt it or it will taste quite bland.
As far as the milk goes, I started out using unhomogenised organic milk, which makes a lovely cheese, but as this is quite expensive I have ended up just using the normal supermarket homogenised full cream milk. The flavour isn't as nice, but we use it mostly on pizzas, so it doesn't matter as much. If you are going to eat it as is, definitely use a fuller-flavoured fresh milk. The recipe calls for 1 gallon, which is about 3.6 litres, I usually use about 3.5 litres. I just forget what the yield is, I did weigh it once but I forget how much it was! Somewhere around 500g? Maybe less? Plus the ricotta which is about half that of the mozzarella, and then I use the whey in cooking, so it all gets used up. Have fun!
Cheers, Julie
How would go about making this if you didn't have a microwave? In the heating/kneading steps?
Hello Eden,
Return it to the whey in the saucepan and heat it up that way on the stove top.
Cheers, Julie
Thanks so much Julie!
P.S Blog is wonderful, I've been entranced for days, sitting here reading hehe
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