I ordered this cheesemaking kit
from New England Cheesemaking Supply Company
and began my journey to fabulous, homemade Mozzarella.
First I dissolved 1/4 rennet tablet
in 1/4 cup cool, chlorine-free water.
... and poured that into my gallon of
NON-Ultra Pasteurized milk,
stirring vigorously.
And I heated the milk to 90 degrees while stirring.
I removed the pot of milk from the burner
and slowly stirred in the rennet solution
with an up and down motion for 30 seconds, as instructed.
Then I covered the pot and left it undisturbed for 5 minutes.
When I came back to check on it,
by golly I had a custard-like curd.
For my next step,
I took a long knife that reached to the bottom of the pot
and cut the curd vertically and horizontally.
Lookee. Cubes of curds!
I'm very excited at this point
since everything seems to be working.
Next I placed the pot back on the burner
and heated to 110 degrees
while slowly moving the curds around with my spoon.
My pretty curd cubes
have been reduced to ...
ricotta.
Next I heated a pot of water to 185 degrees,
ladled my curds into a colander,
and dipped the colander into the hot water.
When the curd temperature reached 135 degrees,
I removed the curd
and tried to pull it like taffy.
Hmmmm.
Something is amiss here.
It's all I can do to form it into a ball.
It's not cohesive at all.
It's crumbly.
There's no elasticity.
I was soooo looking forward to the taffy pulling
part of cheesemaking
so you can imagine my disappointment
in my failure here.
What I had wanted to do
was take some of the mozzarella and braid it
and make bocconcini (Little Mouthfuls)
with the rest.
Shape it into little balls
and roll in parsley, garlic, sun dried tomatoes,
chives, and drizzle with olive oil.
Yes, I had very lofty aspirations.
It was not in the cards for me.
I had a quasi ricotta
and it barely, just barely,
held together in a ball.
Earlier, before I started the NOT Mozzarella cheese making,
I had high hopes and I'd gone into my garden
and picked basil, parsley, and chives.
I poured boiling water over my sun dried tomatoes.
I have hot pepper seeds,
minced sun dried tomatoes and garlic
and chopped parsley, basil, and chives.
I rolled my NOT Mozzarella balls in
my flavorings.
Drizzled olive oil over top.
I used the cheese balls
in my salads.
Oh ...
That cucumber (and, of course, the tomato.)
is from my garden.
All three Little Hawthornes raved about these little cheese balls.
They loved the texture and all the flavors.
I checked out Ricki's
(of New England Cheesemaking Supply Company)
FAQs
and found this:
WHY IS MY MOZZARELLA TURNING INTO RICOTTA?
This could be due to one of two problems:
1-You are stirring your milk too long after adding the rennet, with today's milk, stirring 1 minute after adding rennet will be plenty. Make sure you have turned the burner off and let it sit quietly while the curd forms. If you do this a nice firm curd will form which can be cut easily. If you continue stirring after this point you are actually cutting the curd as you stir, hence your ricotta like curd.
2-This happens when the milk you have bought ahs been "Ultra"- Pasteurized. The protein is denatured at the high temperature, the whey proteins bind on the casein and block the site of action of the rennet. This damage to the milk is irreversible.Look for another brand of milk and make sure it has not been Ultra- Pasteurized. A local brand is always best.There is one more alternative if Ultra-pasteurized milk is all you have available use dry milk powder and cream. NOTE: While you are at the store ask the owner to stop buying UP milk, there is nothing of any value left in it
I will master Mozzarella.
Mark my words.
You know, I seem to recall an episode of Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello where he had gotten "seed"(?) mozzarella and then he and his guests made mozzarella balls at the party.
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