Vegetarian Giro Stage 9: Say Cheese! (aka Adventures in Making Mozzarella)

by Megabeth on May 17, 2010 10:33 AM EDT

In the Campania region, buffalo mozzarella cheese is a local delicacy. For nearly 2000 years, buffalo have been raised in this region and the mozzarella from buffalo milk is acidic in flavor and rather juicy. I had heard that making cheese was something I'd be able to do at home and I really wanted to see how easy it was to make good and edible cheese from scratch. Luckily, a friend of mine was up for the challenge and invited me over so we could try our hands at cheese-making. Try as we did, we couldn't find any buffalo to milk in the Washington, DC region, so we had to settle for cow milk. (Cows milk mozzarella produces a more firm, slightly drier cheese.)

We used a kit that provided some of the ingredients and instructions for a 30-minute mozzarella. (Note: It took us a little longer than 30 minutes, more like an hour. But, honestly, from start to finish it did not seem to take to long for us to be enjoying our finished product.)

There were a few moments of disbelief as we stirred the liquid that was soon to be cheese. To be honest, we were pretty incredulous the entire time we were in the kitchen. But, through the magic of science, we ended up with some pretty good cheese. In the end, although we didn't come out with a Mozzarella di Bufala that is coveted and revered by gourmets, we did end up with a truly fresh and palate-pleasing cheese.

Details on Veggin'...

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Would Goats milk work?

by roadside on May 17, 2010 12:21 PM EDT reply actions

I would think so...

We have enough supplies left that we thought we’d attempt a goat cheese next. I’ll report back on how that goes…

by Megabeth on May 17, 2010 1:40 PM EDT reply actions

Do you have a guesstimate how much cheese you got from a gallon of milk?

If there is chlorine in the tap water will it gas off if you boil the water or leave it sit for a few hours?
I presume you use whole milk, 3.25% B.F.

"Mollema not flying, +12 at interm." Bruce. "I hope he doesn't slip in Frinking's tears.." Seahorse.

by fancan on May 17, 2010 2:07 PM EDT reply actions

well..

We cheated and used tap water which we assumed had chlorine in it. I think that may have made the curdling process take a little longer that was originally anticipated. We’d probably use bottled water next time and see what happens.

Yup, it was whole milk. The instructions were adamant about not using ultrapasteurized milk as the results could be disastrous (crumbly texture). Everything we read indicated not to use the ultrapasteurized stuff so we didn’t chance it. (We did chance it with the chlorinated water…)

by Megabeth on May 17, 2010 3:54 PM EDT up reply actions

The water doesn't really matter

in fact after it’s curdled you can sieve the curds and dump the whey without bothering with the heat up to 110 degrees bit. The important bit is that you warm the curds a bit and melt them, just like you were making cheese on toast but more gently, then stretch the resulting strings together. If you don’t want to mess around dunking it to warm it up then stick it in the microwave for 20 seconds or so a time then knead it a bit more.

by Monty. on May 17, 2010 4:39 PM EDT up reply actions

Great.

Everyone who cooks and eats should make cheese at least once in their lives I’m thinking.

"Mollema not flying, +12 at interm." Bruce. "I hope he doesn't slip in Frinking's tears.." Seahorse.

by fancan on May 17, 2010 4:59 PM EDT up reply actions

what kit is this?

For veg people, you’d need one that specifies microbially-produced rennet (sometimes called ‘vegetable rennet," though I’m not sure when bacteria became a vegetable, or “mushroom rennet,” though yeast is not a mushroom), not the “made from a calf’s stomach” variety.

by JFS_PGH on May 19, 2010 8:08 AM EDT reply actions