Holy Mozzarella

For a while now I've been thinking about making homemade mozzarella.  I read an article in a magazine (I believe it was Tyler Florence's recipe in Food Network Magazine), and it sounded fairly straightforward.  And I did have a successful effort of fresh ricotta under my belt.  So why not?

Naturally, I never got around to it.  I had to order the stuff online, and then I couldn't remember which month's issue had the recipe, blah blah blah.  But the other day while I was grocery shopping, I came across a mozzarella cheese making kit from Roaring Brook Dairy.  The kit was $16 and it included all the internet supplies (plus a thermometer and rubber gloves) to make 4 pounds of cheese.  All I need to bring to the table is a gallon of milk.

I decided to give it a shot.  The price seemed fairly right after all, as long as I donate my time for free.  A pound of domestic mozzarella at this same grocery store was anywhere from $8-$10 per pound.  The gallon of 2% milk, which will yield you approximately one pound of mozzarella, was $4.39.  That makes the kit $8.39 per pound + an hour of my time.  Not too bad.  (Way better than the cost effectiveness of the homemade ricotta.)

I'm not going to get into all the details, but the process involves heating the gallon of milk, adding citric acid and then some rennet, draining, microwaving and kneading the curds, adding special cheese salt and stretching and shaping the mozzarella.  Then let it chill in a bowl of ice water for 15 minutes (unless you want to eat it warm), and there you have it.  Fresh mozzarella. 

In order to judge the results, I whipped up a couple little caprese skewers with basil from my garden and some cherry tomatoes from a local farm stand.  I dressed the skewers with some balsamic vinaigrette.   

And yum.  The cheese was actually really good.  It was a little firmer than the mozzarella I would buy for caprese skewers, but I can solve that problem by stretching the cheese less next time.  Nonetheless, it's the perfect texture to shred for some homemade pizza or yummy lasagna.

Oh, that's it.  I'm going to have to make that fresh ricotta again and whip up some lasagna with the fresh mozzarella.  I already can't stop thinking about it.  (Come on fall, get rid of these 85 degree days so I can bake me some lasagna!!)  Stay tuned for that success story.  That's right.  I'm already calling it.   

All in all, it was a fairly easy process.  The biggest pain was microwaving the curds.  And that was only because my microwave is in the basement, so I had to lug it up to my kitchen.  (Three plus months in the new house, and I do not yet miss my microwave.) 

If you would like to find out where you can buy Roaring Brook Dairy's mozzarella cheesemaking kit,  click here for their website.