Making Cheese (Part II)

Long, long ago in a land far, far away ... or last month in L-Town, if I'm being perfectly honest here ... I wrote about making cheese.

But I never actually got into the details of my adventures. Why? You might ask. Well, for one thing, I didn't realize it at the time, but I took some absolutely dreadful blurry photos of the process that I couldn't possibly post. And for another thing, my first attempt just wasn't quite right. I don't know why. I'm not a cheese doctor. It just wasn't.

Lucky for you, last week I tried again. And both my photo-taking and cheese-making worked out much better. Which means I get to share the results with you. Onward!

30-Minute Mozzarella (which, of course, took me twice that long because I took 50 pictures, talked to the dog, and screwed up the recipe just a little)

1. Dissolve 1 1/2 level teaspoons of citric acid in ¼ cup cool water.



2. Stir 1 gallon pasteurized milk (NOT ultra-pasteurized) on the stove in a stainless steel kettle, heating very gently. At 55° add the citric acid solution and mix thoroughly.



(I know this looks like Oberweis paid me to advertise their bottles of milk. But that's really not how it went down. I actually tried to avoid the blatant product placement. Except it's really hard to pour milk from a heavy glass bottle into a giant pot with one hand while taking an eye-level photo with the other. This is pure art right here, folks. I'll sign autographs later.)

3. And then you stir.



4. And stir some more.



5. Come on people, keep stirring with me now ...



(Sorry. I got a little excited there. Stirring milk does that to a person I guess.)

6. At 88° it should begin to curdle. Gently stir in ¼ tsp. liquid rennet (which you have previously diluted in ¼ cup cool water) and continue heating the milk to just over 100°. Now quick! Turn off the heat.

7. Wait. All that milk has to start curdling. It's tough, I know. Butter had a hard time with it too.



("Yum!" he says. "Let's eat it now!" Up until now he was a very helpful assistant, but somebody forgot to tell him a watched pot of milk doesn't curdle.)

8. The curds are ready when they are pulling away from sides of pot and the whey is clear. (If it’s still milky, wait a few minutes. I think this was part of my problem—I didn't wait long enough. Silly impatient me.)

9. Use a knife long enough to reach to the bottom of the pan and cut the curd into one-inch cubes to make it easier to scoop out.



10. With a slotted spoon, move the curds from the pot to a 2-quart microwaveable bowl. Here's where things got tricky. The curds looked so lovely when I cut them:



But then scooping got out of control. (Perhaps because I didn't have a slotted spoon available? Or maybe that darn impatience is to blame ... )



11. Continue to scoop and drain, scoop and drain. Hopefully not for as long as I did. Then, once you've scooped all you can, press the curds gently with your hands to remove as much whey as possible.

12. Microwave the curds on high for one minute, then knead the cheese again with hands or a spoon to remove more whey. (Warning: It's hot!) Microwave two more times (about 35 seconds each), kneading between each heating. (Another problem? My cheese seemed awfully rubbery before I made it through all of the suggested kneading times.)

13. Salt the cheese to taste, then knead and pull until it's smooth and elastic. When you can stretch it into a rope like taffy, it's ready.

(Have you noticed the lack of pictures here? I was busy. And, as I mentioned, the cheese was hot! Although actually, I convinced Conservative Boy to take a picture of me pulling the cheese in one big twisty rope—after I corralled him somewhere between sleeping on the couch in the basement watching the Cubs game and going to bed to snooze through the end of the Cubs game. But, sadly, it didn't turn out very well. I think he did it on purpose. Grr. So you just have to imagine it.)

14. Once the cheese is smooth and shiny, roll it into a ball and place it in cold water to cool.



Then eat it! (Preferably with fresh tomatoes and basil from your garden and a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Delish.)

Note: If you're wondering where you can get interesting items like rennet and citric acid, mosey on over to the Cheese Queen's site. She'll hook you up.