Thursday, April 12, 2012

Mozzarella

Have you heard the news about the growth hormones in GMO processed milk byproduct cheese? It's not a pretty thing. Going on 6 months (give or take) We have weened our family off of cheese for "at home" meals. At restaurants, we might get a pizza or a cheeseburger, but we have not bought cheese at the store and brought it into our home for quite awhile *take that!* but how long can one go with out cheese on burritos? spaghetti? salad? stuffed bread? broccoli?!? Well, we did it and I have to say it felt great! and I cant complain about my waistline either. (Did i mention we stopped buying potato chips and never drink cokes?) So anyway, Last week I decided to give it a go at making my own. (cheese that it) and it came out delicious! want to try?

Ingredients:
  • 1 1/2 gallon milk
  • 2 1/2 tsp citric acid
  • 20 drops rennet diluted in 1/4 cup filtered chlorine free water
  • 1/2 cup salt
  • more water :)
Now that your stocked and ready, let's go!

Before you actually begin the cheese making process, if your milk and cream has separated, skim it off and place in a small jar, for another use, home made butter! (you gotta be kidding me right?) Trust me it is worth it if you have the cream...

  1. Place milk in a non reactive (stainless steel) pot ( a big one!) sprinkle the top with citric acid and stir. Heat slowly to 90 degrees.
  2. remove from heat, add diluted rennet, stir, cover, and let sit for 5 minutes.
  3. Using a slotted spoon and mesh colander, remove the curd (save the whey!!) and strain as much as you can from the curd.
  4. meanwhile, heat some salt water to 135. place your curd into water and melt it. remove from water and begin "stretching" the cheese. you may have to do this a few times but the result is a stretchy, shiny, taffy like, mozzarella log. The look you are going for is stretchy, shiny, and doesn't break. If yours is not like this don't worry, it will more than likely still be delicious, just not mozzarella, but a different kind of cheese.
  5. shape into a ball and place in lightly salted ice water for a minute or two. This helps to retain it's shape.

Fin!! you did it!

 Boo and points off for really lame non photograph blog on cheese making! If you will, please accept my sincerest apologies and cut me some slack! will update soooooooonish!

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