[local eating] Making mozzarella

[magid]

Thanks to trainingmom and electrictruffle, I am now the proud owner of some kosher rennet. Since Electrictruffle was visiting this coast, he kindly came over to help me with my first attempt at making cheese using rennet (the only other time I made cheese, it was paneer, using lemon juice as a coagulant). These are my notes on the process, which hopefully will become more intuitive with practice.

Ingredients:
citric acid and calcium chloride solution (see step 1 below)
1 gallon of skim milk
1 to 1.3 cups of heavy cream (skim milk + cream rather than whole milk because most available whole milk is homogenized, which is not what is wanted)
0.25 teaspoons of rennet
salt, water

1. Mix the solution of citric acid and calcium chloride (CaCl2), plus water, to make a round number of grams per recipe. We started with a package of citric acid, which weighed 66 g. Using a proportion from Electrictruffle's previous batches using 3 gallons of milk, we calculated that we needed 5 to 6 g of CaCl2. Then we added 395 g of water (the proportion from the 3-gallon recipe was 41 g of solution per 8 ounces of water (yes, this is mixed unitry)). The which is enough solution for 15.5 recipes using 1 gallon of milk, using about 30 g of solution each time. (This part still doesn't feel intuitive; I suspect that when my solution runs out, I'll be emailing...). [Note: according to the rabbi they consulted, citric acid does need a hechsher, while calcium chloride does not.]
   
2. Put 1 gallon of skim milk and 1 to 1 and a third cups of heavy cream in a large pot (my largest dairy pot is 8 quarts, hence the 1 gallon batch rather than anything larger). The larger measure of cream makes it the proportions of whole milk. I used 1 cup, leaving 1 cup for something else (the next batch?), since I had a little container of cream.
   
3. Add the solution to the milk, while stirring. Test the acidity using one of the pH test strips, which should show between 5.4 and 5.8, but closer to 5.8. (Obviously, adding less then working towards the correct acidity is the way to go.) Once the correct amount is determined for the solution's concentration, this step can be skipped until the next new batch of solution is made up.
   
4. Heat the milk mixture to 88 F, then turn the heat down just enough so that it maintains at 88 F. (A temperature probe makes this very easy, especially if it's set to sound at a couple of degrees short of the goal. Luckily I have a dairy temperature probe, courtesy of Electrictruffle years ago, when he was making truffles chez moi.)
   
5. Dilute 0.25 teaspoons of rennet in 0.5 cup of water.
   
6. Pour the rennet in slowly while stirring vigorously, and keep stirring the milk for 30 seconds after the rennet is in, to make sure it is well distributed throughout the milk. Keep the milk at 88 F for 30 minutes.
   
7. Cut the curd (this sounds so rude :-), cutting all the way through in a crosshatch, then some angled cuts so they're not full-height pieces either. Let the curds rest for 10 minutes.
   
8. Stir the curds gently, then heat them to 105 F. Then keep the curds at 105 F for 5 minutes.
   
9. Take the curds out of the whey. I don't have a dairy colander, so I didn't just put them in a cheesecloth-lined colander to let as much whey drain out as possible. Instead, I used a slotted spoon to take the curds out of the whey, draining off any extra whey that was pressed out of the curds. It took longer, but worked fine, just about filling the smaller round white casserole with curds (that decreased in volume as more whey was expelled). Note that the whey can be used for other things (in bread, apparently, or for making ricotta, or other things), but I had run out of large dairy containers, and decided that this time, I wasn't going to deal with the whey as well. I hope I'll try something with them next time.
   
10. 'Spin' the curds. Which is why I needed my other large dairy pot for something other than whey: this can be done in a microwave, heating the curds then kneading and stretching them, but I don't have a microwave, so we heated salted water to 160 F, and put the mass of curds (which had pulled together fairly well) into that. It was too hot for me to knead the mass in the water (but was fine once the water had cooled some), so I mostly worked the cheese above the water, putting it back in to regain stretchiness when it had cooled down too much. First, there was kneading it into a more coherent whole (working more whey out in the process), then stretching and restretching, which is how it gets the stringiness that mozzarella has. It was interesting to feel how the texture changed as I worked it: it's different than a yeast dough, but had some similarities, too. Of note: since this didn't rest in the brine, and no salt was added otherwise (which would have happened in the microwaving step), the cheese is much blander than it should be. Next time, I might store it in brine for a while, or let it rest in the brine longer between working it.

And I had a nice log of mozzarella! I think it may have been about a pound, though I didn't weigh it (why not, since the kitchen scale was out? no clue). I have stored it in a plastic bag in the fridge, though it could have been stored in brine (and presumably in oil, with or without herbs). The current assumption for shelf life in the fridge is a week, while if I froze it, it would be much longer.

I used rennet successfully (with many thanks to Electrictruffle)! Great satisfaction. I think there may be more pizza in my future...

Comments

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Wow. Congratulations on making mozzarella.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

I used some of it last night, making 'pizza' using slices of cheese on slices of leftover challah and some eggplant-garlic spread (TJ's) instead of tomato sauce. I put it in a hot (450 F) oven, as I would have for pizza using dough, and the cheese definitely started to get brown on top, getting taller and melty, but not quite enough to string rather than slide off as a whole. Not sure whether I should have used a lower temperature (likely), or shredded it (I'm too lazy).

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Now I'm hungry.

It probably would have worked better in shreds, but I can understand why you wouldn't want to take the time.

[currentlee.livejournal.com]

i'm going to need a tutorial when i come to get my rennet.
so excited!

[magid.livejournal.com]

FYI, the sheet Electrictruffle brought with him was much less wordy than this post: once the ingredients are measured out, just mix the milk and cream, mix in the solution, heat slowly to coagulation temp, mix in rennet, then follow the coagulation-heating-stretching process.

[fetteredwolf.livejournal.com]

Can't wait to get my rennet as well. This sounds like fun!

[magid.livejournal.com]

Especially for scientists!
:-)

[powerfrau.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting this. It is awesome.

[magid.livejournal.com]

:-)

I can totally picture you making awesome cheese!