Homemade Mozzarella Cheese

Yes, I've been delinquent in posting new things. I've been busy with my recent marriage and all that comes with that, and it is hard to keep up with posting new articles.

HOWEVER....I learned something new, and it is really exciting. I learned how to make mozzarella cheese. There is a quick way, and a longer but better way. For now I will tell you about the quick way, since I have not ventured into the longer method.

There are a few things you will need that are usually not easily found in local stores.



One is rennet, this is what forms milk into curds. Another thing is Citric Acid. You can find this sometimes in the canning section of many stores; it is used also in canning tomatoes to keep their color and flavor.


The site that I buy my cheesemaking supplies is http://www.cheesemaking.com/ Ricki Carroll is an old hand at this, and has a good inventory of cheesemaking supplies. None of these ingredients are expensive.

Pour a gallon of whole milk into a large pot, from what I have read skim milk is NOT good for mozzarella. Add 1/2 teaspoon of Calcium Chloride (CaCl) into a quarter to a half cup of water, and mix THOROUGHLY. Then mix the water/CaCl solution into the pot. I was advised to use non-chlorinated water for mixing the ingredients, so I keep a gallon of bottled water handy just for cheese making. You can also let tap water sit for 24 hours to dechlorinate it. I don't really know at this point whether non-chlorinated water is that important or not. Since I am fairly new to this, I do what I am told.

Turn the heat to a low setting. My electric stove goes from 1 to 9 and I warm the milk at about 2 to 2.2. I could probably go higher but I'm a rookie and I'm scared!.



When the milk reaches 55 degrees F, add 1.5 teaspoons of Citric Acid, again mixing it into a quarter cup or so of water before adding to the milk. Stir it gently but well, and continue slowly heating.

It will start to look like Ricotta cheese.



When the milk reaches 88 degrees F, it's time to add 1/4 teaspoon of liquid rennet. Again, it is mixed with 1/4 cup water before adding.



Stir the milk with an up and down motion for one minute after adding the rennet. Continue heating the milk until it reaches 100 to 105 degrees. After adding the rennet you want to avoid bumping or moving the pot. Disturbing the pot can prevent a good curd from forming.



Turn off the heat but let it sit for about 20 minutes. The curd should start to separate from the side of the pot.



Using a large spoon (I found my pasta spoon worked wll) scoop out the curd from the pot and place into a large microwaveable bowl. I've heard the leftover whey (the liquid remaining) is great feed for chickens, hogs, etc, but I don't have any critters like that.

Press the curd down with your hand to remove excess liquid. Now place the bowl in your microwave oven on high for one minute. My microwave is fairly strong so you might want to add a little time to yours, depending on your microwave.



Since the cheese gets fairly hot, I put heavy duty kitchen gloves on at this point, and press the cheese with my hand to drain even more liquid from it. Wash your gloves before using, just like you do with your hands!



Drain off all of the excess whey that you can. Fold the cheese over and over in your hand to distribute the heat throughout the cheese.

Microwave 2 more times for 35 seconds each time. Each time you heat it knead the cheese again to distribute the heat. Knead it quickly until it is smooth and elastic like taffy.



When it feels like taffy, it is done! If the cheese breaks instead of stretching the cheese is too cold and needs reheated.

Mozzarella is best eaten fresh; roll it into small balls for fresh eating. However, it's not always practical to eat it right away. If you are making it for eating at a later time, you can form it into a loaf, a ball, or once I made 3 ropes out of the cheese and braided it (it looks really cool that way.) Then you want to place the cheese into a bowl of ice water for about a half hour to cool it rapidly. Now you can store it covered in the refrigerator.

Here's a idea I came up with, and it REALLY tastes good. When the finished cheese is still warm, shiny, smooth and like taffy, roll it out onto your counter with a rolling pin. Roll it into a rectangular shape about 12-16 inches long and 8-10 inches wide.



Now place just about anything you would like on it. In this batch I used fresh basil that I broke up into small pieces, and chopped black olives. A good prosciutto would be nice, I am going to try that sometime.





Now roll it up like a jelly roll



Place the cheese in plastic, wax paper or in a closed container until it cools and stiffens somewhat. Then slice across the roll to make small slices about a half inch thick, and eat.



Tonight I went to a dinner party where I made bruschetta and it turned out GREAT! I used this recipe for the bread. I cut the bread into about 1/2 inch slices. Then I made a batch of mozzarella and formed it into a loaf/roll about 2 inches in diameter.

When the cheese cooled I cut slices that were about 1/4 inch thick. I baked the plain bread for just a few minutes in a 350 degree oven (not broiler) to make it more crisp, then placed 2 slices of the mozzarella on each slice of the bread. I topped all that with a mixture of finely chopped tomatoes, smashed and chopped garlic, chopped fresh basil, grated Parmesan cheese and a quick splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I then baked it for a couple more minutes until the cheese was starting to melt and the edges of the bread just started to brown a little bit. Be sure to watch the bruschetta in the oven closely while it is baking. It doesn't take long and it would be easy to set off smoke detectors instead of eating a good bruschetta.

It was SO good, it disappeared quickly! I will have to make another batch for us to eat at home.

Mmmm....lotsa mozza!

Infused oils and vinegars

Necessity was the mother of invention for this project. Not that I invented this but it was somewhat new to me.

I grew quite a bit of purple basil for the first time this year and needed to find a use for it. The thought of purple pesto was somewhat strange so I started surfing the internet for ideas. I saw a picture of some beautiful purple-basil-infused vinegar and I had to try it.

I mixed cider vinegar and white vinegar at a 50/50 rate, which has a beautiful color even before infusing. In a half gallon of the mixed vinegar I added about 2 cups of purple basil leaves.


I let this set on the counter for a week, then filtered out the basil leaves and anything else that might have come off of the leaves.


Muslin was a good choice for a filtering material. I also use it in cheese making instead of traditional 'cheesecloth', which is almost worthless when actually trying to use it for cheese making. I could have left the leaves in the vinegar but I know from experience that the leaves start to fade and wilt quite a bit and do not look very good.

I also infused another batch with garlic. I smashed about 6 cloves with the flat side of a knife and let those sit in the vinegar with the basil for a week. It smells wonderful after a week, with the basil and garlic smell. It will probably be very good in many Italian dishes.

Nasturtiums are an edible flower that I grow, I haven't used them in any dishes yet but need to do it. I have read some nice ideas for cooking with them. A simple salad topped with a few nasturtium flowers would be a very nice presentation. I tried to keep some of the fresh flowers in a bottle of vinegar but the acidity of the vinegar wilts and fades them too much. However, in that failed attempt I found that the flowers color the vinegar with a beautiful color:

The bottle on the right is 50/50 cider/white vinegar right after adding the nasturtiums. The one on the left is a few days after adding the nasturtiums. Also in both of the bottles are stalks of garlic chives.

I also have started a couple batches of basil and garlic infused extra-virgin olive oil.


These leaves are green basil and not the purple basil (the purple might make an interesting looking oil though!) From what I have read I will have to let this sit for a month or longer to properly infuse the oil. Before adding the basil leaves it helps to smash the leaves quite a bit to help release the flavor of the basil. I also added about 4-5 smashed garlic cloves to this. I plan on filtering all of this out when it is completed. If I am going to use this to actually cook with, I am going to research whether this will require heating after the infusion is complete. I think that even if I don't find any information about it, I might heat it to a little over 212 degrees (boiling point of water, and a low heat for oil) for about 10 minutes, just to kill any of the 'nasties' that might be in there. I can't see that it will hurt it, and can only help.

Another herb that I grew again this year was tarragon. Simply cut the tarragon to the right length and slip into the jars of vinegar. It's very simple and look great.


The hardest part of this project is finding nice looking bottles to use. The ones pictured here with the spouts I found at Walmart for about $4 each. I have seen some very nice ones on sites online, but they can be pricey. If I decide to get any of those, I would probably make them into Christmas presents.

There are a lot of other ideas that you can find online, search with the term 'infused vinegar recipes' or 'infused garlic recipes' or something similar. Or simply use your imagination and think of what would look good or taste good with vinegar and/or oil.

Failures

I think it's important to relate your failures as well as your successes. In a past post I talked about starting red-wine vinegar. I had read where it can sometimes 'go bad', and if it starts to smell like furniture polish, to throw it away and start again. That's exactly what happened. YUK! What an awful smell. However, I have known people that have successfully made it so I am going to just try again. More on this later.
Cheese making, for the most part, has been a success. I've made some Farmhouse Cheddar and Gouda that tasted just fine. A couple of the first batches that I made were a bit bitter and I threw them away. But I have been eating some that tasted very good. With some things going on at home, including drywall/priming/painting and building a cheese press among other things, I haven't been posting a lot. However, I started another batch of gouda tonight, and want to start another batch of cheddar.
Hang in there, garden season is coming and I will have a lot to report. Though the Ohio ground is still frozen, I hope to be planting some early crops soon. My target date for the first salad from the garden is the first week of May.

The Mother Of All Vinegars

Home Made Vinegar

I decided to make my own red-wine vinegar. Why? Just for kicks and giggles. It seems lately that if I start thinking "I wonder how easy it is to make xxxxx...." then I am obsessed with making whatever it is.
While researching vinegar making, I learned that if you leave wine sitting for a few months that it will turn to vinegar. This is similar to sourdough and buttermilk in that there are natural bacteria, molds and fungi in the environment that are required in the process. However, for more consistent results, it is best to purchase a 'mother vinegar', or get some from a friend that makes vinegar. I bought my 'mother' from an online brew-making website.
I wanted to watch my costs in this experiment, so I bought a 5 liter, boxed Cabarnet Sauvignon. A crockpot (washed thoroughly then scorched with boiling water) that I use for pickles and sauerkraut seemed to fit the bill, so I poured the wine and mother vinegar in that. Since good vinegar is aged in wooden barrels, I also added a handful of wood chips. I didnt have any oak chips, and hoped that my hickory chips will suffice.
Vinegar should age in a 70-80 degree temperature range, cooler than that and it takes longer. The best I can hope for in the house is about 68-72 degrees. I placed it near the kerosene heater in hopes that I can get a few more degrees in placing it there.
A towel or cheesecloth must be placed over the top to keep out the fruitflies, I used a towel.
Now I have to wait for about 3 months to see if it worked or not. In a week, I noticed in stirring it that I did have small amounts of the telltale nasty-looking sludge which is the bacteria, the 'mother'. In future batches I can transfer the mother and/or a couple cups of the vinegar to a new batch, and the cycle continues.
I will post more news regarding this, but it looks like it is a 'hurry up and wait' game from here on out.