Homemade mozzarella!

[Steve]

I will try to find my instruction booklet and post the steps required to make homemade mozzarella. It's very easy and well worth the effort.

[Arthur]

My latest cheese came out really well.  I used non-homogenized milk and the result was cheese that I consider close to the fresh mozz made by Corona Height Pork Store - they make cheese for Nicks in Queens (on a side note, I thought this was not well known until I saw it in the book a slice of heaven...then I realized my info was not such a secret).

The cheese is not in my fridge in water and I will try it on some pizza soon.

Positives - tastes great (ironically, it tastes like nothing - kinda like that seinfeld episode - but for some reason that seems to taste good  )

Negatives - takes 30-45 minutes to make; makes a mess in the kitchen; the milk costs $8 for the gallon at whole foods...maybe too watery for pizza.

[scott r]

Here's a cool link I found over on the Electrolux mixer forum.

http://www.realmilk.com/

[varasano]

I just bought some unhomogenized milk, rennet and citric acid and i'm going to give it a try. If that doesn't work, I'll move up to the thermollytic (sp) culture

[varasano]

I made the mozz using just the citric acid (no culture) and vegetable rennet.

For a first attempt, it was pretty good. I think I mixed it too long and squeezed out too much whey and butterfat.  I had an excellent texture and color going, and then I kept playing with it and kind of lost it.

In the end it was more like polly-o in color and texture, than anything else. I was drier and burned a bit on the pizza. I was not rubbery though, once it came out of the oven.

I'm going to buy the lipase and culture and try again. Definitely worth another try.

Jeff

[varasano]

Attempts 2, 3 & 4 were disasters. If found out that 2 of my 1/2 teaspoons are more than my teaspoon, by quite a bit. I went to half gallon batches just so I could do more experiments, but in doing so, I used the faulty spoon and this process is so sensitive, that it totally screwed me. I have a digital ph meter on order. In the mean time, I'm compensating manually.

Batch 5 was the first that was really mozzarellla. This could be sold in a store. It's not the best in the world, but it was good. I probably made it too salty. It was oddly too buttery (is anything ever TOO buttery?). The unhomogenized  milk itself is from Iowa and is very yellow (think corn) and creamy and the cheese is even more yellow.  I didn't put it on a pie and ate it all.

I'll make 2 batches tomorrow. These were just citric acid and rennet. I'm going to cut back on the acid even more and see what happens. 

I ordered a lot of supplies from leeners.com, which has more stuff and cheaper prices than cheesemaking.com. I'm going to move up to live thermophillic cultures for the acid (instead of the citric acid) and lactobacilli for flavor, along with mild lipase, liquid rennet (instead of the tablets)  and possibly some calcium chloride for stabilization. I will post up a lot on all this once I've perfected it. This is much harder to get right than it looks. I think the best way to do this is to commit yourself to making 10 or 15 batches in a short amount of time to work out the kinks.

[gschwim]

Does the kit include instructions for people who don't have a microwave?

[Trinity]

Here is a recipe that seems easy enough.  (Sorry microwave required.)


   http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/bldairy22.htm

[varasano]

All the recipes SEEM easy enough, but so do the starter pizza dough recipes, and we know how those turn out...
I would stay away from that recipe. My tests are showing that 1.25-1.5 teaspoons of citric acid and 1/4 tablet or less of rennet are enough and that more than that is a problem. Almost all of the recipes stress the importance of unhomogenized milk. That recipe uses regular milk, so he's trying to pump up both chemicals to compensate for the homogenization.  I think it will end up over-curdled, dry, clumpy, waxy and acidic tasting.

You definitely do not need a microwave for any recipe I've seen. You can use a microwave or dip the ball of cheese in hot water. You are just trying to heat it evenly so you can pull it.  In NYC 100% of the stores use the hot water method:

http://www.sliceny.com/archives/2006/03/on_video_mozzarellamaking_demonstration.php

[varasano]

Batch 6: This batch was far and way the best. I cut back on the citric acid to 1.25 teaspoons for a gallon of milk and I used only 3/4 of the 1/4 tablet of rennet that the recipe called for. Overall I cut back about 25% from the cheesemaking.com recipe.

This was the first batch where I actually cut the curd and saw it stay together in little squares. Prior to this is was more of an amorphous mass when cut. It was easier to handle and formed into a ball pretty easily. But it was still not perfectly smooth when I stopped working it and put it in ice water. I did not want to over work it for fear of creating another polly-o like firm cheese.

When I cut into it, the milk just poured out, like some of the best mozz I've seen. But this was not as good as those. It was very juicy and tasty, but not firm enough.

Surprisingly, on the pizza it burned, as you can see here. I was surprised because it was so wet, and not at all waxy. I'd give this a 5 out of 10 right now. It's certainly fresh tasting, and buttery and looked like real mozzarella. I will post more detailed steps when I think I have a good contribution to make.  I am waiting on my culture to move up to the next level. this will probably be the last citric acid version I make.

[Peteg]

That looks great Jeff!  Now we just need to find a stateside supplier of unhomogenized buffalo milk.  I just googled it and found nothing worth reporting.  It's nice to see that you're taking on the home made cheese challenge.  I'm sure that means that a killer mozzarella recipe is just around the corner.  I tried my hand with this a couple of months back but my results were less than spectacular.  I believe the main reason was the fact that I used homogonized milk.  Overall the cheese tasted ok but the texture was more like processed cheese than fresh mozzarella.  You'll have to keep us posted on the cultures.  I would be real interested to here how the effect the flavor of the cheese.  As for the buffalo milk, if anyone has a source, please feel free to post your source.  Pete

[colossus]

My latest cheese came out really well.  I used non-homogenized milk and the result was cheese that I consider close to the fresh mozz made by Corona Height Pork Store - they make cheese for Nicks in Queens (on a side note, I thought this was not well known until I saw it in the book a slice of heaven...then I realized my info was not such a secret).

The cheese is not in my fridge in water and I will try it on some pizza soon.

Positives - tastes great (ironically, it tastes like nothing - kinda like that seinfeld episode - but for some reason that seems to taste good  )

Negatives - takes 30-45 minutes to make; makes a mess in the kitchen; the milk costs $8 for the gallon at whole foods...maybe too watery for pizza.

I've done this 4x...it's worked well twice and failed twice, likely due to pH issues; the milk is very sensitive to this. You can get good results 'rebuilding' the milk w/skim milk, adding buttermilk and heavy cream. This gets away from the unhomogenized milk. Anybody using calcium chloride?

[Peteg]

I tried calcium chloride with some homogenized milk a while back and it didn't really make a difference for me.  That batch went from the pot to the garbage.  That was unfortunate. 
     Anybody else figure out how to keep your cheese from turning into mush after being stored in brine for more than a few hours?  Whenever a I buy Grande mozzarella, it's stored in the brine and it retains it's texture for weeks.  After a few hours in the brine, the outside of my mozzarella turns to mush.  Tell me I'm not the only one that experiences this.

[mzshan]

Hey guys How are you??

I plan to go to pakistan For a wedding and I plan to do a couple of things one Is to bring back a gallon of Water buffalo milk RAW which is easily available for use and is predominatly used for home.. and try to make mozza when i get back in toronto...

the other is I like to see if i can extend the NY pizza making lagacy and give the people a as close taste of NYC as possible.. who dont have the chance to. how??
well 1st there is no City regulations on what i can or cant use? for example COAL OVENS that can give me temps over 800 F.
Abundunt avialability of water buffalo milk for mozza cheese production.
just have to find a good flour tomatoe source...

I think it can work..

shan

[Peteg]

Shan,
        Good luck on the Water Buffalo milk search.  Where would your abundant source come from once you return to Canada?

[AeRoSteele]

Hi everyone!  I've been trying to find a company that sells organic unhomogenized mozzarella, from cows milk not buffalo, do any of you know of any?  Thanks!!

[colossus]

I tried calcium chloride with some homogenized milk a while back and it didn't really make a difference for me.  That batch went from the pot to the garbage.  That was unfortunate. 
     Anybody else figure out how to keep your cheese from turning into mush after being stored in brine for more than a few hours?  Whenever a I buy Grande mozzarella, it's stored in the brine and it retains it's texture for weeks.  After a few hours in the brine, the outside of my mozzarella turns to mush.  Tell me I'm not the only one that experiences this.

Ya can't use homogenized milk; that's why I've 'rebuilt' it w/skim and all the fatty good stuff. I think I'd get into this more if I could get a cheap pH meter that's sensitive to the appropriate range.

Anyway- mine has never 'mushed' out. Sorry.