30 Minute Mozzarella Cheese

We are in the middle of a blizzard today and I stocked up on a gallon of milk when I went to the store just so I'd be able to make some cheese while stuck in the house.

So in between the many shoveling sessions (5 so far) I decided to make 30 minute Mozzarella cheese.
The ingredients were simple except that I didn't have citric acid. On the internet, I found out I could use lemon juice (lots) as a substitute, so I took the risk.

I heated the milk on the stove to 90 degrees after adding the usual diluted calcium because the milk is store-bought and the lemon juice. Once it reached 90 degrees, I turned off the heat and added 1/4 liquid vegetarian rennet diluted in a half cup of filtered water.

Then I let it sit the required 5 minutes, covered. At that point, I had to stir while turning on the heat again and bringing the temperature up to 105 degrees.


At this temperature, I had to turn off the heat again, and stir continually for 5 minutes. Using a strainer, I then separated the whey from the curds and put the curds in a microwave safe bowl.

After pressing on the curds to release and drain off more whey, I microwaved the curds for 1 minute on high. As soon as the minute was up, I had to use a large spoon to fold and kneed the curds like bread dough. Then I had to repeat this process twice more for 35 seconds in the microwave. After the 3rd time in the microwave, the curds really started to resemble mozzarella. You could see the cheese "stretching".
You can (and I did) add cheese salt during the last round of kneeding. Then you can eat the cheese warm right away (I had a nibble and it was delicious.) or you can roll it into small balls and transfer them to a bowl of ice water to bring the inside temperature down.

I plan to serve something Italian for dinner tonight just so I can use my new, home-made mozzarella. Now, where did I put my shovel. It is time to go outside again.

My finished cheese before breaking it into individual balls.

Monterey Jack - 1st try - Taste Test

This cheese, made 1 month ago, was tasted finally this week. Read about the delicious results at the bottom of the original posting.

Farmhouse Cheddar - 1st try

I'm not going to put a lot of detail here. The process was so similar to the Monterey Jack chese that I made the week before, that the details would be repetitive. The key differences were:

• Started with 2 gallons of milk instead of 1
• When the curds were separated from the whey, they are allowed to sit and drain for an additional 45 minutes.
• More pressure was used with the three times in the press

When it came to waxing, I tried to minimize the grief I experienced the first time I tried waxing. I rolled the cheese in the molten wax instead of trying to paint it on with a brush and I set the cheese on foil instead of a plate when it was drying. Still a bear to clean up the kitchen afterwards, but much better than the previous time.

Any cheese makers out there reading this, please send me your hints on waxing.

Farmhouse cheddar doesn't need months to age like traditional cheddar so the tasting will be in February after just 4 weeks. Will add to this post when the tasting happens.

Monterey Jack - 1st try

This time I am trying my first aged cheese. My cheese press arrived in the mail just in time to use it for shaping and pressing this cheese too.

The process is very similar to the Feta I tried last. I used 1 gallon of 2% cows milk. To it I added calcium carbonate (because it was store bought and homogenized), Mesophilic starter and vegetable rennet in liquid form.

I used the sink method to bring it up to the required temperature which means I put the milk pot in a larger pot filled with hot water. This took forever and I got lots of exercise running back to the kitchen to add more hot water.

Eventually the curds formed and I used a long knife to cut it into cubes. I still don't quite understand the instuctions in my book to get perfect cubes. It is easy to do 90 degree cuts from the top, but to cut the "columns" into cubes the directions don't seem to work.
After the curds are cut, you let them sit for another 45 mintues and then you pour it all into a colander to separate the curds from the whey.
Next the curds are put into the cheese press lined with cheese cloth. The pressing requires three different levels of pressure.

First one pressure for 10 minutes, then you turn the cheese and press with more pressure for another 10 minutes, and finally your turn it again and let it sit for with more pressure for 12 hours.
The next step is to sit the unwrapped cheese on a cheese mat for several days. You turn it twice a day until the cheese feels completely dry. Finally you wax the cheese and place the waxed cheese in a 55 degree place (our spare fridge) for 4 weeks. It gets turned over weekly.
The waxing was an ordeal that I will describe in another posting later. Just know that it was not easy or easy to clean up afterward. Currently this cheese is aging. I will add to this post when the tasting happens in February!

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The taste test

Well, I served up this cheese on Monday of this week. I tasted it at home first and I liked the taste. It was somewhere between a Monterey Jack and a cheddar in consistency. Slightly crumbly and just faintly cream colored, rather than pure white.

My husband, who really only likes Cheddar, tasted it and said it tasted too creamy for him. I took it to work the next day and offered it to all my teammates. Everyone liked it and several came back for seconds which was a good sign. I am not sure why it didn't turn out as a pure Monterey Jack, but I think I will call it a "Leesburg Jack."

Believe it or not, I only have about half left and it's only been "open" for 3 days. I think it is just yummy. The Farmhouse Cheddar will be ready in less than a week, but my husband wants me to let it age a bit longer. It will be interesting to compare.

We are also expecting a huge blizzard this weekend so I have purchased a gallon of milk. I should have lots of time for trying my next cheese. Wonder which one I will try this time....

Whey Ricotta - first try

While my first attempt at Feta was draining in a colander, I decided to use the fresh whey it produced to try Whey Ricotta. This is a way to use the whey and not be wasteful.

Simply pour the drained whey into a large pot and heat it to 195-200 degrees on the stove. Do not let it boil. As soon as the curds separate, remove it from the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Carefully ladle the curds out of the pot and into a cheese cloth lined strainer and let it drain for 20 minutes. The recipe said to add salt or herbs. I chose to sprinkle in some mixed Greek herbs into the cheese.

Results: The yield was very small, but the recipe said I could have added some milk to the whey to increase the yield. The taste was fantastic. It was a nice dry, crumbly ricotta that I ate on crackers with sun dried tomatos. It tasted heavenly. So far, it was the best tasting cheese I have made.

Feta - first try

The day after Christmas, excited by my new supplies and recipe book that I got as presents, I decided to try making the fresh greek cheese Feta. My new recipe book gave much more detail than the internet recipes I have used so far, so I was very confident.
Because my store bought goats milk was ultra pasturized, I decided to do a mixture of goat milk and cows milk. The recipe said you could use either. I also chose full fat milk, hoping it would somehow be more effective. The recipe book said to add calcium carbonate diluted in 1/4 cup of milk to any milk that was pasturized so I did this first.

Next I added the Mesophilic starter as directed and eventually 1/2 a rennet tablet dissolved in 1/4 cup of water. I will also add that in all cases, I used filtered water as the cook book said that chlorinated water would kill the good bacteria that is in cheese.

I was happy to see improvement in the setting of the cheese. This time it did start to become thicker as expected, but after an hour and a half of keeping the contents at the prescribed temperature, it still hadn't reached the clean break stage where when you cut across the curds, the cut remains and doesn't reseal itself. Eventually, I was tired of waiting and did my "cutting of the curds" even though they seemed a bit too soft.

At that point, the curds and whey are supposed to separate even more and the curds should be in a 1/2 inch dice. My dice was a bit big because I am still not very skilled at this step. Then the next hour was spent slowing raising the temperature to 100 degrees and keeping it at that temperature for about an hour, stirring often.

Again, all seemed to be going well except my curds seemed a bit soft.

Eventually the curds get drained in a cheese-cloth lined colander and allowed to drain for 1 hour. At the end of the hour, you cut it into blocks , drain another 1/2 hour while you sprinkle it with a little cheese salt, and while it is sitting you also mix cheese salt with water to make a brine. The cheese is then packed into containers and surrounded by the brine.

At this point I tasted the cheese and it did taste like Feta! Hurray!! However, it was still softer than the Feta I buy in the store and each day that I ate it (the next 4 days), it got softer and the brine got milkier as the cheese disintigrated.
Review: It tasted like Feta, but was too soft and didn't hold up in the brine. Not a total disaster, but still not what I wanted. It was fun eating it though.

Check out my next blog on Whey Ricotta. It was a by-product of this Feta. The cook book explained how you can use the fresh whey that you drained off to make another cheese and this by-product was a bigger success.

Halloumi Cheese

Ingredients
8 pints fresh milk (a gallon), either goats or ewe or cow
1 Teaspoon Rennet or special cheese rennet
1/4 Teaspoon calcium carbonate
a little salt if desired

Equipments
Pan
2-3 Muslin bags or similar

Instructions

• Bring the milk to room temperature or heat it slightly on the stove. I didn't do this for my first attempt and the curds did not form. I later figured out my milk was too cold.

• Add the calcium carbonate to the milk only if you are using store bought milk. Apparently (I learned this the hard way) this milk has a lot of the calcium removed during processing.

• Next add rennet to the milk and let it set for 30 minutes.

• Break up the curds that form and put them into one or two muslin bags and hang to drain for about 30 minutes. (I didn't have bags, so I used cheese cloth and tied the 4 corners together)

• Take the liquid (whey) that drains and put it into a pot.

• The solids in the muslin will be firmer and oval in shape. Leave them hanging while you continue.

• Bring whey you put in the pot to the boil. If any curds form on the top, use a slotted spoon to remove them. Set these aside for the extra treat described below.

• Once the whey comes to a boil, lower the heat to just a simmer, remove the soft curds from your hanging muslin bags and lower them into the boiling whey. Let them simmer gently until the cheese floats to the top, approximately 20 minutes.

• Remove the cheese and sprinkle it with salt, and fold it in half and wrap it in cheese cloth.
  

• Place a weight on top of it and put it in the fridge for 2 hours.
  

• Save a small amount of the whey left in the pot in a airtight container that will also fit the cheese. After two hours, you can eat the cheese, but any that is left should be stored in the air-tight container with the small amount of whey.

This recipe makes 2 or 3 rounds of cheese.

Results and Taste testing: Well all looked to be going well once I figured out to warm up my milk. When I put the final product in the fridge under the weight, it looked just as expected, a pure cream color.

The next morning, when I checked on it, it had changed color. 80% of the cheese had gone from white to grey/clear. It was not appetizing looking at all!

However, I was determined to taste it. Halloumi's claim to fame is that you can grill it in a pan with no oil and it get browned and soft but doesn't melt away like other cheeses. So I sliced off a few slices and put them in a small pan. To my delight, as it heated, the color changed instantly back to all white and then it began to brown just like Halloumi from the store. I was also delighted to find that it tasted exactly like the cheese from the store too. My only disappointment is that it looks hideous before it is heated.

If anyone knows why this happened I would love to know what I could do differently to prevent this color change from happening the next time. Thanks
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Extra Treats
The curds that you skimmed from the whey and set aside can now be hung in the muslin bag and hung to dry. They will form a hard cheese that can be grated over spaghetti and other foods.

Or, instead of drying it, you can mix in some sugar and cinnamon into the soft curds for sweet snack.

You can use the left over whey that the cheese was simmered in to cook spaghetti noodles.