Homemade Fresh Mozzarella -- the Deliciousness (!) and the Lessons Learned

During one of my random casual internet surfing mornings, a cooking lesson from the Kitchen tipped off the idea of making some fresh Ricotta at home, and I immediately got a starter kit online. Then there was the dilemma for me: Mozzarella or Ricotta? Luckily D immediately opted for the former, and here's what we ended up with (only for a few minutes before they got into our, fine, my tummy).

The kit itself consists of everything you need, except for the milk, and a big pot + laddle.

First, you dissolve the citric acid in 1 cup of water (left red bowl below)  and the rennet in 1/4 cup of water. 

Then you pour the citric acid solution to your big big pot.

And you add a whole gallon of milk. I took the advise from some more experienced, and started with some generic store brand whole milk, to avoid potential expensive failures.

Heat it up to 90F, and stir in the rennet solution, and you can see the texture change right away.

Cover, and let it sit for 5 minutes with the heat off. It will firm up like silky tofu.

Cut the curds!

Heat the curds to 105F while stirring, and keep at it with the heat off for another 5 minutes or so. Here's my lesson No.1 : do not stir too much! My curds broke up more than it should...

Well, let's keep going and see what can happen. The next step is to ladle the curds to a bowl. I made another mistake here by using the colander, and some curds on the bottom got stuck...

No biggies, keep going. Microwave to 135F in a microwave. I made mistake No. 3 -- I over heated! Well, I did follow the instruction booklet, but our microwave was too powerful. Within a minute it was too hot! And the curds became a bit crumbly...

Stretching and shaping the curds were painful, I had to use a huge piece of cheese cloth to force it coming together. But in the end it did come together.

Nothing beats freshness! Though many things could be improved on, the cheese tasted less stringy than what I expected (probably from the overheating microwave step), but very light and creamy. Three of the little balls didn't even survive the photo shoot!

Through this cheese-making exercise, I did learn a few lessons:

1. Be gentle, do not over stir your curds.

2. Use a bowl, do not use colander, unless you love doing dishes.

3. Know your microwave! Do not overheat. Be patient, heat in small intervals, as there is NO going back.

Homemade Fresh Mozzarella

(based on the instruction from the cheese making kit)

• 1/4 rennet tablet
• 1 1/2 teaspoon citric acid
• 1 Gallon milk
• Water

1. Dissolve the rennet in 1/4 cup of water; dissolve the citric acid in 1 cup of water
2. In a big pot, bring the citric acid solution and the gallon of milk to 90 degree while stirring.
3. Turn off the heat. Add the rennet solution and keep stirring for about 30 seconds.
4. Once the curd is set, cut into small pieces.
5. Heat the pot to 105 degrees with GENTLE stirring.
6. Turn of the heat, and stir for another 5 minutes or so. (Did I mention GENTLE?)
7. Separate the curd from the whey by ladling them into a bowl. Microwave at 30 seconds interval to reach 135 degrees.
8. Stretch and shape your mozzarella!

Tips:

• I chose not to add cheese salt, but if you would like to salt your cheese, feel free to add some salt in during Step 8.
• Leftover whey is very nutritious. I did not care for the taste by itself, but I have tried them in hot breakfast instead of water, and it turned out very tasty. I have also tried them in pizza dough and dinner roll recipes in place of water, both came out with raving reviews from my friends! (more on this later)

Nutrition

It all depends on the milk source. The regular whole milk is probably not the healthiest choice, although it is the simplest and cheapest to start with. I plan to try some milk from the farmer's market once I get the skill down. And maybe even goat's milk? I had some really good goat cheese the other day and would love to explore that arena!

Cost

So out of a whole gallon of milk ($3.69), we were able to get almost a pound of mozzarella, and a ton of leftover whey. I used the whey in my hot breakfast cereal the next day -- it added a whole different level of complexity, in a good way. I also tried it alone, since it is supposed to be very nutritious ( I just realized the protein powder I paid good money for was from whey!), but the taste was a bit acidic for me. The kit claims to last for 30 lbs of cheese, which makes each pound less than $1. The fresh mozzarella goes for $4 per half pound when it's on sale at our local grocery store. So homemade ($4.69/lb) vs. store-bought ($8/lb, when on sale), money-wise it is definitely worthwhile.