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.

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.