Homemade mozzarella!

[Steve]

With all the fuss about mozzarella cheese, I decided to try my hand at making my own at home.

I ordered a mozzarella cheese starter kit online (I got mine at http://www.cheesemaking.com) and got down to business.

First, I would like to say that making fresh homemade mozzarella cheese from scratch is suprisingly easy and takes only ~30 minutes!

Start off with a gallon of fresh whole milk (or skim). Add citric acid and heat on medium until it reaches 88 degrees F. Next, add some rennet and the milk starts curdling. Keep heating until the mixture reaches 105 degrees F. Next, spoon out the curds and squeeze into a ball. Zap in the microwave for 60 seconds then start stretching and squeezing. Add salt. Zap another 30 seconds and stretch/squeeze. And finally, zap 30 seconds again, stretch, then form into a ball. That's it! The cheese should be used immediately (or within a day or two).

My results: I used un-homogenized whole milk from a health food store. The cheese was awesome!! Better than any store-bought cheese.

The next day, I made more using regular Sam's Club homogenized whole milk. Again, very tasty but I cut back on the salt and it showed... it was somewhat bland. More experiemtation needed.

In a nutshell -- if you love making from-scratch pizza, why not try your hand at from-scratch mozzarella cheese too! It's worth it!

[rmberman]

Thanks for the de-mystification. . I sent away for the cheese-making kit. Don't know why it never occurred
to me before to make the cheese myself. Thanks again!

[itsinthesauce]

Steve, I just got a cheese making kit. Any tricks I should know?

[Steve]

For mozzarella making, find a store that sells un-homogenized whole milk. This milk is usualy sold in 1/2 gallon glass containers. Here in Richmond, I can find this milk at Kroger and Good Foods grocery. I've made cheese using regular whole milk but the taste was significantly different.

[itsinthesauce]

That's what I read. I'll try it when I get back in town. Gotta go to Phoenix and open some Cardsmart stores.

[Brian S]

The website says the mozzarella kit includes enough stuff for 30lbs of cheese.  How much milk do you need to make a pound of homemade cheese?  I'm just wondering, pricewise, if this would be cheaper than buying ready made mozzarella from the store.  Looks intriguing anyway, and it would be a kick to tell guests that even the cheese on your pizza is homemeade.

I also think their hard cheese looks interesting.

Brian

[Steve]

I think a gallon of whole milk made almost a pound of cheese. But, you gotta use un-homoginezed whole milk to make really good cheese. My local Kroger sells un-homogenized whole milk in 1/2 gallon glass jars from a local creamery. It's more expensive than regular whole milk but makes a big difference.

[DKM]

Well i got my kit.  Hope to try it this weekend.

DKM

[Steve]

Make sure you use un-homogenized whole milk.

And get the freshest milk available ... look at the expiration dates and choose the freshest.

[DKM]

Going shopping Saturday and with two little boys, milk is ALWAYS on the list.

Thanks for the advise.

DKM

[Steve]

The un-homogenized stuff is almost always sold as "organic" and is sold in the old-fashioned glass bottles. Never seen it sold in plastic jugs or paper milk cartons. But, that's here in Richmond (VA)... things may be different in your neck of the woods.  

[Randy]

I ran across this today.
http://www.seasonbyseason.com/recipes/fresh_mozzarella_print.html


Randy

[hz]

If you’re in a hurry and you want to make fresh mozzarella cheese, get Fresco cheese or white cheese (queso blanco), they sell them at Costco or any international market. Follow the same heating and pulling process and you’ll have fresh mozzarella cheese. This eliminates the milk and rennet steps. These cheeses are in their pure cured form and they can be made into variety of cheeses.

[DKM]

Welcome to the board hz.

DKM

[svapne]

  I can't believe the amazing amount of great info I keep getting from this forum...  I  ordered the cheese making kit today.. Next weekend's pizza will have home made mozarella.

I love italian  sausage  on my pizza... I have the attachement for my  KitchenAid, I guess that is next...

-Scott

[Pierre]

I've used fresh mozzarella (bought in the supermarket) on several New York pies but I found that they all have too much water content and build a puddle in the center.

Do you all have any problems with your homemade varieties as well? or does most of the moisture evaporate when zapping it in the microwave like steve does?

Pierre

[svapne]

I  made the fresh mozzarella this weekend and it was very dry, actually dryer than the regular low-moisture I get in the supermarket.

The recipe was really easy to follow and the cheese was great. I highly reccoment you try it. The only trick was finding non ultra pasturized milk. I ended up buying some regular pasturized organic milk at Whole Foods supermarket and it worked great. I have to get some gloves, because when you work with the cheese it is about 135F which is a little hot for bare hands  ...

-Scott

[Arthur]

The un-homogenized stuff is almost always sold as "organic" and is sold in the old-fashioned glass bottles. Never seen it sold in plastic jugs or paper milk cartons. But, that's here in Richmond (VA)... things may be different in your neck of the woods.  

I tried making mozz for the first time yesterday using the cheesemaking kit.  I did not get unhomogenized milk yet (and maybe that's my only problem) but here was my results:

First, I wanted to try this because it seems like some pizza places (e.g., Patsy's) makes their own and others (Grimaldi's, Nick's, etc) buy fresh from local stores (corona pork store). 

Firstly the kits instructions are different than those on the web site.  My curd was very soft and the final product came out ok - the cheese was only 10.5 oz using a gallon of milk (less than 1lb probably because of the week curd - I couldn't scoop out all of it).  The final product was pretty much like store bought kids string cheese.  Very rubbery.  I've sent questions to the company and I'm going to try unhomogenized milk, but any more info out there on making better cheese is appreciated.  And by better I mean something like what you would buy in a store that sells fresh in water.  Of course, I would probably not store mine in cold water, but rather plastic to limit the water content and to get more of the sliced roll-type fresh mozz that seems to be successfully used on pizza.

[wayno]

I think a gallon of whole milk made almost a pound of cheese. But, you gotta use un-homoginezed whole milk to make really good cheese. My local Kroger sells un-homogenized whole milk in 1/2 gallon glass jars from a local creamery. It's more expensive than regular whole milk but makes a big difference.

Steve,

Do you think the $25 kit will make the 30 pounds of mozz cheese as claimed on the website?

Wayno

[Ricky]

Steve,
        As I am from overseas I love to try it out, anyway with 1 gallon un homogenized milk what portion or measurement of rennet do I need to put in? Don't know if I can get hold of rennet and un homoginized milk. Surely able to buy Pasterized and homoginized milk here and will it make a great different, if so is there something I can add in to enhance it. Thanks.