FRESH MOZZARELLA RECIPE

SAY “CHEESE”!

There’s nothing more satisfying than looking at the cheese melting on pizza or slicing a fresh ball of homemade mozzarella. 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 and 1/8 cup bottled (not tap) distilled water
• 1/2 gallon raw or pasteurized milk (we are using pasteurized)
• 3/4 teaspoon citric acid
• 1/8 rennet tablet or 1/8 teaspoon liquid rennet (Not Junket rennet)
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions:

• Mix 1/2 cup of distilled water with citric acid. In a separate bowl, mix 1/8 cup of distilled water with rennet tablet (crush the tablet before mixing). Stir the citric acid, and rennet until dissolved.

• Measure 1/2 gallon of pasteurized milk, and pour it into the pot with citric acid solution.

• Heat the mixture until it reaches 90°F. Keep stirring gently the whole time.
• Take the milk off the heat and add the rennet solution. Stir slowly for 30 seconds. (if using raw milk, top-stir it for extra seconds).
• Cover the pot and let it rest for 5 minutes (if the milk is still liquidy, let it sit the another 5 minutes).

• Once the milk is set (it will look like soft silken tofu), cut it in a grid pattern.

• Move it back to the heat, and stir gently until it reaches 105°F (try not to break up the curds too much, so they can start clumping together, and separate from the yellow whey).

• Removed the pot from the heat and stir gently for another 5 minutes. Then strain the curds from the whey, and keep the whey for later use.

• Microwave the curds for 30 seconds, and drain the newly released whey.
• Fold the curds over themselves a little with rubber gloves. The curds will still be very loose and look like cottage cheese, and should measure approximately 120-125°F.

• Microwave the curds again to 135°F. Do not overheat the curds in order for them to stretch properly. (at this step our group is not sure why our curds are still quite liquidy even though we tried to use the cheese cloth to separate the curds from the whey)

• Use both hands to stretch and fold the curds over themselves for 30-60 seconds and form the mozzarella into a nice ball.
• Add salt to the cheese and squish it with your finger.

The curds should become firm and shiny. Shape into a large ball or several smaller ones.

• The mozzarella is ready to serve immediately. If stored, put the mozzarella in a container with a cup of whey and a teaspoon of salt.

Q&A:

1. What are curds and whey?

Curds are white, solid substance, and are acid insoluble. Acid added to milk causes the casein protein to denature, coagulate, and form the curds. Whey is the other part of milk which is acid soluble. It is a yellow liquid part which remains after the formation of curds.

2. Why did you add “acid” to the milk?

Casein proteins denature and coagulate when acid is being added to the milk which causes acid denaturation, and the loss of protein structure.

3. What is rennet? And what was the purpose of adding it?

Rennet is an enzyme which comes from baby cow stomach (and sometimes vegetables). Rennet separates the solid and liquid part of the milk, forming curds and whey when being added.

4. Some of the class used “raw” milk today – that is, milk that has not been pasteurized, but was obtained personally by Dr. C from a certified, FDA approved farm and refrigerated continuously (for 2 days) until lab today. What differences could we expect from cheesemaking with raw milk?

Raw milk forms curds more easily than pasteurized milk does as raw milk has microbes, and natural bacteria that are not killed since it is not pasteurized, while bacteria in pasteurized milk are killed when it is pasteurized. Therefore, the formation of curds in raw milk will happen quicker and easier than that in pasteurized milk, so it is easier to make cheese with raw milk.