[Cheese] Mozzarella

[Corina]

Hi Rita and all,

Sorry I haven't had time to reply to this sooner! I'll send along my 
recipe and technique, and others can jump in if they have other 
ideas/corrections/preferred methods, etc.

I have two recipes, one called "30 Minute Mozzarella" (ha!!) and one 
called "Quick and Easy Mozzarella". It takes me about two hours to 
make it, but then it is all done and ready to eat.

>I have not ventured into anything as complex as
>mozzarella.  The most complex I have undertaken is
>blue cheese, which is showing lovely blue veins of
>mould at the moment.

That's great! Is it cheese you pressed? I don't have a press, so the 
only non-soft cheese I have made is the mozzarella.

Here we go!

I start with a half gallon of milk, 1.89 litres. I pasteurize mine, 
but of course that's optional.

If you're starting with cold milk, add the citric acid powder first, 
one teaspoon (this is an actual measurement in the US, not an eating 
utensil, but I don't know how to translate it!). Mix it in well, and 
then heat the milk to 31 C (88 F)

When the milk is at the right temp, you need to add rennet. Again, 
the measurement's are tricky to convert. I use a 1/8th teaspoon, 
which is 32 drops of water (I just measured). I hope rennet would eb 
the same as water! If you are using junket tablets, you'd use 1/2 
tablet. Pure rennet tablets would be different, and I'm not sure how 
much you would use (but should be easy enough to find out on the net!)

So, to add the rennet you put it in a small amount of water, which 
gives you something to dissolve the tablet in, or just dilutes the 
liquid so it will spread more evenly through the milk. Add it to the 
milk and stir well.

Now you want to let it sit undisturbed (no stirring) for a few 
minutes. About five minutes for rennet, but more like 15 for junket. 
Then you look to see whether your pot of milk has become a solid! If 
so, you cut the curds into 1.5 centimeter cubes (1/2 inch). Let them 
sit a few minutes (5) so they can release some of their whey and firm 
up a little.

Now you want to heat the pot up a bit. Raise the temp slowly to 42 or 
43 C, and start stirring the curds gently. I tend to use my spoon to 
cut them into smaller pieces, as there are inevitably some bigger 
chunks that didn't get cut.

The curds will start to kind of melt and form a big glob at the 
bottom of the pot. i try to discourage that by continuing to fish 
them up to the top and cut them up, using my spoon against the side 
of the pot. Once you have reached the 42 C point, you keep it there 
for about 10 minutes.

Now you are almost done. The next step is to stretch the cheese (kind 
of like kneading bread, it changes the texture).

Pour your curds into a colander, keeping the whey for your ricotta. 
Put them in a bowl and microwave it for one minute on high. Take it 
out and look at your cheese to see if it's melted. (If there is more 
whey, just dump it in with the rest.) Using your fingers or two 
spoons, try grbbing it and lifting part of it from the bowl. You want 
a very stretchy stringy, mass that all holds together. If it looks 
grainy or bumpy, or doesn't stretch, it need to go back in the 
microwave. try 15-30 seconds at a time until you get a good, smooth 
texture.

Once it's smooth, quickly use two spoons to pull it up the way you 
would hold them to toss salad (one spoon in each hand). Keep pulling 
the mass up high, one or two feet above the bowl, and let it stretch 
back down to the bowl using it's own weight. if it gets too cool, 
just re-microwave it. You don't need to stretch it long--I think i do 
it for maybe five minutes tops. During this time, add some salt to 
taste. (Perhaps microwave it one last time to make sure the salt 
dissolves.) Then just put the mozzarella in a bowl and let it cool at 
room temperature.

All done!

To make the ricotta, I just wash the pot I used and put the whey back 
in. While pouring it in, I strain it through a sieve to remove any 
tiny bits of curd that were left in the whey (because they are firm, 
and the ricotta is smooth and creamy). I heat the pot of whey up to 
just below boiling. When tiny strings show up, I pour the whey into a 
colander lined with butter muslin. It takes quite a while to drain. 
Keep an eye on it over the next few hours, and stop draining when it 
reaches a texture you like. I left the house once, and mine got too 
dry, so it is possible to let it drain too long!

I hope this works for you! Let me know if you have questions or if 
you can't get something the recipe calls for. I was able to get 
citric acid powder at a shop for wine and beer making.

The more traditional method for heating the mozzarella before 
stretching is to put it in hot brine. That's what i did the first few 
times I made it, but I just couldn't get it to work, and ended up 
microwaving it out of desperation. Now I don't bother with the salt 
brine because even though it's more authentic, it is just too much 
extra work at the end.

Let me know how it goes if you decide to try it. Sorry if I 
over-explained, but I wasn't sure which things you might already be 
familiar with.

Corina