Are you sitting down? I want to make sure you’re ready for this.
I made cheese on Monday night. Or, rather, AC and I made cheese on Monday night.
The recipe is called 30-Minute Mozzarella. One of AC's many cookbooks is Home Cheese Making and that’s where she found the recipe. You can find it here.
First, a few warnings: Making cheese, IMHO is kind of gross. There is a certain ingredient involved that, once you know its origin, may make you wary. Also, as my photos will attest, the process isn’t pretty. I LOVE cheese and yet I was pretty taken aback.
You have been warned.
First, you have to start with fresh whole milk. AC bought hers at Whole Foods. The milk was so fresh, in fact, that it had a layer of cream at the top of the bottle. AC says this is the best part. I'm not so sure. Also, you want to make sure the milk you use isn’t ultra-pasteurized. If the milk is pasteurized too much it won’t curdle and curdling is super important in making cheese. It's a science thing.
AC boiled a stainless steel pot and the utensils she planned to use before we started to make sure they were sterilized. AC took this part very seriously and, considering I tend to be the neat freak, that fact alone was a little scary. Once the pot was clean she poured in the milk and brought it to 55 degrees. Then we added citric acid that we had dissolved in cool water. You can buy citric acid at Whole Foods in bulk, at a beer brewing supply store or here.
We heated the milk up to 88 degrees and it started to curdle, which looks like this:
After the milk started curdling, we added rennet that was also dissolved in water. AC gets things like rennet for Christmas and birthday gifts (it’s a long story). You don’t want to know where rennet comes from. Trust me. I asked and I wish I hadn't. Again, you can buy it here.
When the curds started getting big AC scooped them out and put them in a microwave-safe glass dish. Once I saw this I wasn't sure I would be able to eat cheese again.
We poured off as much of the liquid, aka "whey," as possible and headed down to the basement where AC keeps the microwave (again, long story). I do not encourage the following microwave placement or the large stuffed monkey on top.
We microwaved the curds a few times, tossed in some kosher salt (AC didn’t have cheese salt—shocker!) and went back upstairs. Then we poured off more whey and kneaded the cheese to distribut the heat. The curds turned into this:
We formed the now taffy-like cheese into small balls and put them in a dish of ice cubes and water.
Shortly thereafter, we ate one.
I can’t honestly say I love the taste of this mozzarella. It was a little rubbery and needed a lot more salt in my opinion, but AC pointed out that we had just made the 30-minute version. There’s another recipe for fresh mozzarella in her cookbook that takes a lot longer. We decided to save that for another day. Just the fact that we made the cheese ourselves made it pretty good.