Saturday, March 12, 2011

Mozzarella!

I am so ridiculously excited that I just made my own mozzarella. I finally got around to reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Barbara Kingslover) which has been on my book list for a long time. It's interesting, and while I thoroughly respect her 1 year local eating adventure, I simply couldn't live without fresh produce in the winter. But she inspired me, not only to focus more on buying local ingredients when possible, but also to make cheese. That process had been simmering in the back of my mind for a while, but it seemed now was the time to try it. In typical Renee fashion, aka impulsive, I ordered a $70 cheese making kit from the The New England Cheesemaking Supply Company. With dreams of aging my own cheddar, I chatted about how I was embarking on this new culinary adventure with my friend Naomi (bread baker extraordinaire) who promptly tossed me her leftover rennet and citric acid from her brief interest in the activity. Excitedly I began reading Home Cheesemaking book and quickly became intimidated. The process sounded daunting, with lots of caring for cultures and other unfamiliar things. I lost my nerve. I contemplated it for 2 days and decided to return the kit for a full refund. Now was not the time for me to receive the lesson of cheese-making. I would try the simplest cheese, mozzarella. Judging from the plethora of failures I read about online I figured that cheese alone would take several attempts to master.

I picked up a gallon of raw milk from the local farm. Armed with my donated rennet and citric acid, I followed simple online instructions for making the mozzarella.




It started with adding the acid, gently heating the milk, then removing from the heat and adding the rennet. This is the time it forms a curd. Mine looked different than the picture in the instructions. More lumpy like cottage cheese, hers looked smooth like pudding. Right here I thought I was going to be throwing out the batch. But I pressed on...


See, my curds looked scary BUT reminiscent of mozzarella so I kept the hope alive.






I drained my curd and then for kicks because my goal was shred-worthy mozzarella, I squeezed as much water out as possible while waiting for some clean water to boil.

Now here is the fun part because its like playing with grown-up playdough. Armed with rubber gloves, you submerge the ball of curds into 175 degree water and work it in and the stuff starts getting soft. At this time you pull it and knead it like bread until it becomes smooth and elastic. Re-dipping it in the hot water when it needs to be loosened.

And then you get.....








A beautiful 12 oz braid (or ball) of shiny mozzarella. Right before the last stretch and shape I added a tsp of sea salt to work into it. So now it is happily soaking in a salty whey brine in the fridge as it awaits its final destiny as the topping of Evan's 50 (or 104) garlic clove pizza tonight. It was so fun, easy, and satisfying to make. Now maybe I need to go re-order that advanced cheesemaking kit....

2 comments:

Isabella Zirri said...

Wow Renee, a wonderful "treccia di mozzarella"

Isabella

Renee K said...

Grazie Isabella!