Cheaper to Buy or Make Mozzarella???

[PizzaManic]

Hi Guys
I was looking into the topic of Home Made Mozzarella and the thought occurred on whether it would be cheaper to buy it from a store or make it at home.

I at first thought it would be cheaper to make it at home but after a little bit of research, I read that it would take 10 Pounds or milk to make 1 Pound of mozzarella. That would mean from 10 Litres milk you would only make 1KG Mozzarella. Here in SA 1 litre milk is around 5 ZAR. So it would cost around 50 ZAR for the milk alone. What about all the other smaller ingredients.

1KG of mozzarella from a store cost around 50ZAR per KG.

On the other hand Homemade Mozzarella might also taste better than store bought.

It would be great to hear what others have to say about this.

Regards
Pizza Manic

[smarttowers]

Don't know about in South Africa but in the US part of the problem i was reading about for making your own cheese is that the milk in stores is pretty much all pasteurized and you can't make cheese with it.

[PizzaManic]

Hi Smartflowers

We have a similar problem here in SA but I do know a few stores as well as farms that sell fresh cows milk

Anyone else with any idea's

Regards
Pizzamanic

[jeff v]

I think it would be tough to beat a large cheese producer on price, unless you can get a great deal from those farms you mentioned. For me though price would'nt be the concern, it would be taste. I am pretty sure with some great milk and know how you could do much better than a large producer in the taste dept.

Jeff

[BurntFingers]

As I understand it you can make it as long as it is not ultra pasteurized cow's milk.  I usually buy curd at a local restaurant supply house and use that to make my own mozzarella.  It costs around $60 for a 25 lb block of it.  We cut it into four pieces.  Freeze 3 and make it as we need it.  There is little waste and the left over whey/water is great to boil potatoes in to make the most delicious mashed potatoes in the world. Polly-O and Sargento make the curd as do other cheese houses.  It is made from milk, citric acid, rennet and salt.  I have a recipe somewhere in my file to make it from scratch but haven't tried to yet. 
Now if I can get to a water buffalo and to get her to stand still to be milked that would be a treat, or would it be a teat?

[PizzaManic]

Hi Guys
Thanks for all the comments

Jeff v you are 100% right. Taste is really important and because cheese producers are mass producing, their taste is not ideally how we would want it to be but price is equally important. There needs to be a balance in between.

BurntFingers, I guess the cheese you made was much better than shop bought cheese? $60 is not bad. In my currency that would equate to 42ZAR per KG. It is not ridiculously cheaper than 50ZAR per KG but heck cheaper is cheaper. No one can complain about that.

One question is what other uses is there for the whey?

Looking forward to other members opinions and advice.

Regards
PizzaManic

[BurntFingers]

We haven't tried it yet.  We are planning on using it to steam some veggies the next time we have the left over whey/salt water from making our mozzarella.  The resulting mozzarella is as good as fresh store bought & surely better than supermarket cheese. 
Most cheap mozzarella sold in packages contain extenders to increase the volume and keep the cheese fresh adding to the weight. The ingredients on a package for example: "cheese culture, salt and enzymes, potato starch, corn starch, and calcium sulfate added to prevent caking, natamycin (a natural mold inhibitor)." Yeah, cheese needs potato starch and corn starch, gimme a break. We are being ripped off.  How many packages don't list the ingredients and just call it processed mozzarella cheese?  Be careful when you buy cheeses if you don't know what is inside the package.  It is like buying poultry that is filled with water, frozen and then weighed or cold cuts with paper between the slices in a delicatessen.  Very expensive water or paper per pound or Kg.   

[jeff v]

Burnt,

You could make fresh ricotta with your whey as well. Ricotta= re cooked. If your doing that amount at once it could be worth it.

Jeff

[wizarddrummer]

Have not tried this yet as I still need some equipment, but the information here may be satisfactory for making Mozzarella at home and if you acquire the supplies locally (skipping the kit) it could be cheaper to make the cheese especially when you consider that you can also get Ricotta Cheese as a secondary by product.


http://www.cheesemaking.com/recipes/recipedetails.html

There are some other excellent sites you can discover with Google searching for cheese making or making mozzarella and also youtube videos.