# Mozzarella Cheese



## MissPrissy (Sep 19, 2008)

I am not a cheese making expert. I have experimented and have had success and failure with making cheese. The first time I tried this "30 Minute" style of mozzarella  I screwed it up big time. Over heated the milk and created a giant yucky mess. Live and learn. Lost 1 gallon of milk.

If this recipe doesn't work for you all I can say is we can troubleshoot through the internet and take a look at your exact steps and try to figure what went wrong.

You will need 

1 gallon of whole milk (make sure it is not ultra pasturized or you cannot make cheese from it due to the proteins being destroyed in the heating process)

1/4 tablet rennet dissoved in 1/4 cup cool water

1 1/2 tsp citric acid dissolved in 1/2 cup cool water.







Slowly heat milk to 55 degrees F. At this temp add the dissolved citric acid. 






As you stir you will see the milk begin to curdle.






Continue to heat slowly to 90 degrees F. At  this temp add the dissolved rennet.

In a chopping up and down motion stir in the rennet. You will see it clump and begin to pull away.

There will be a lot of whey in the pan, as it clears the cheese curd is ready. If the whey is milky wait another few minutes and let the chemistry work and the whey will become clear -yellowish clear.






With a slotted spoon remove the curd to a microwave safe bowl.  Press out as much whey as you can. I never have had success with just my hands. I pour it into cheese cloth and press the liquid out the best I can.






Put the dish of cheese curd intro the microwave for 1 minute. Take itout and knead the curd like bread. Pour off any liquid that comes out of the curd.






Return to the microwave for 35 seconds. Take it out and knead the curd. The cheese will get very hot, almost too hot to handle.

You may have to repeat this a few more times to get the curd up to 145 degrees so that it begins to melt together and become a little stretchy.






Once the cheese comes together (like taffy) shiney and smooth form it into a ball. Use now or refrigerate in a little cool water or whey until you need it.






When you separate the whey from the curd do not through out the whey. This is like liquid gold. You can make so many other things from it. I poured mine into a milk jug, added buttermilk culture and it will sit on my counter in the warm kitchen for about 12 hours. In the morning I will have cultured buttermilk. The same stuff they charge way too much for in the dairy case at your local grocer.






Think about buttermilk biscuits, pancakes, waffles all sorts of wonderful bread and cakes or even chess pie (buttermilk pie). Don't waste anything if you can help it. 

Note here that my whey in the jug doesn't look clear. It is. The milky color of the jug obstructs the view of the whey.

If your attempt at cheese is a loss don't through it out. You can feed it to your chickens. I wouldn't suggest feeding to other larger animals (like goats or sheep, etc) it will give them the scours. Not nice.

Happy cheese making everyone!

_*This mozzarella cheese recipe is from Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carroll._


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## Kenneth Flippen (Feb 27, 2011)

well I tried this recipe but used Junket as that was all I had the junket recipes called for 1/2 tablet so thats what I used with this recipe of course it didn't seperate junket recipe said let it set 1-2 hrs if nothing then let set an additional 1-2 hrs so after 4 hrs still no clean break it said something about heating the curds and whey to 108 I figure it couldn't get any worse so I put it back on the double boiler at about 100 it seperated immediately then I went back to MissPrissy's recipe and it came out very stretchy and tastes pretty good 

I looked around at some other recipes I found a website that gave the conversion for Rennet Junket and Liquid Rennet but can't find it now so I'll try the one tablet junket next time


heres the website with the junket conversion

http://www.sugarmountainhome.com/milkncheese/goatcheese.html


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## Kenneth Flippen (Feb 27, 2011)

so I couldn't take it anymore I had to try it with the whole tablet of junket it worked it took about 10-15 min to seperate


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## elevan (Mar 6, 2011)

The kneading and repeatedly reheating the curd in the water at the end of the process is the most important part to getting that true mozzerella "feel"


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## FarmGuru (Aug 13, 2011)

What if we place too much rennet ?


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## kstaven (Aug 13, 2011)

You will get a clean break from the curd quicker but also run the risk of expelling too much whey to quickly and ending up with a curd too dry and crumbly to work.


As a further note on rennet. The amounts of VEGETABLE RENNET you use and Animal based RENNET are very different. So check recipes carefully.


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## Harbisgirl (Jul 27, 2012)

What if you don't have a microwave?


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## Valley Ranch (Jul 29, 2012)

I used vegetable rennet for the first time, used half a tab in a gallon. Came out, not good at all. curd came out small and soft. We pasteurized the milk, but we have done that before.

what's your thoughts? 

Thanks


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## Catahoula (Aug 18, 2012)

I am helping my neighbor this evening and tomorrow morning with her goat milking chore and get to keep the milk too.   I was wonder if I could freeze the milk till I can get all the ingredient to make mozzarella cheese?


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## lovinglife (Oct 31, 2012)

I need to get back into milk goats, this just looks too good to pass up.  Anyone in Idaho want to sell me a good milk goat??


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## lovinglife (Dec 14, 2012)

ok, have goats ordered, got a cheese kit and bought some milk and made mozzarella!  It was pretty good for my first try!!


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## WhiteMountainsRanch (Dec 14, 2012)

Harbisgirl said:
			
		

> What if you don't have a microwave?


*

I also have this question, but seriously...?*


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## Valley Ranch (Dec 14, 2012)

If you don't have a microwave. Heat water or clear wey to about 135degrees, cut a bit of curd a double handful, lower the curd into the water. You can work the curd with the stainless spoon, at some point say30sec. lift the curd out with a spoon and work it with your hands, you can tell, if it is like play dough, it's ready. The more you work it, the harder stringier it will be. If you roll it into it's self it will be like the store mozz but it will tast better.


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## Harbisgirl (Dec 14, 2012)

We don't have a microwave 

I made my first batch today! I did it without a microwave by heating the whey. The instructions I had said that the internal temp of the cheese should be heated to 135 - so the whey should actually be heated up to 185, remove from heat and then put the cheese back in the pot and let it sit until the internal temp is 135. It seemed to work


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