My latest interest...

After visiting a friend out of town, and enjoying a lovely caprese salad, I wondered how I could make one for myself, not using any store-bought ingredients. Growing tomatoes and basil was pretty obvious, and I already have a great recipe for a homemade balsamic dressing, but then I got to thinking, "How hard would it be to make my own mozzarella cheese?" So I did a little research. And it turns out that it is pretty easy! Of course, unless you live on a farm, you will have to buy some of the ingredients, but it would be worth it!

Recipe difficulty: Medium

Fresh Mozzarella Cheese

1/4 teaspoon liquid Rennet (or 1/4 rennet tablet)
1/4 cup chlorine-free water (bottled works best)
1 gallon organic milk
1 1/2 teaspoon citric acid (lemon juice works just as well!)
Salt

Preparation:
Crush the rennet into the water and stir to dissolve(if using tablet. Otherwise just add liquid Rennet to water). Pour milk into a stainless steel pot. Warm over medium heat. Add the citric acid to the milk and stir a few times. Heat milk to 90 degrees F. Milk will begin to curdle.

Add the rennet solution and continue stirring slowly every few minutes until the milk reaches 105 degrees F. Turn off the heat. Large curds will appear and begin to separate from the whey (the clear, green-tinted liquid).

With a slotted spoon or mesh strainer, scoop the curd into a large glass bowl. (If it's still too liquid, let it set for a few minutes). Press the curds gently with your hand and pour off as much whey as possible. Microwave curds on high for 1 minute, then drain off all the excess whey. With a spoon, press curds into a ball until cool. Microwave two more times for 35 seconds each, and continue to drain the whey and work cheese into a ball. In the meantime, place the whey over medium heat and let it heat to about 175 degrees F.

When cheese is cool enough to handle, knead it like bread dough until smooth. When you can stretch it like taffy, it is done. You can sprinkle 1 to 2 teaspoons salt into the cheese while kneading and stretching it. The cheese will become stretchy, smooth and shiny. If it is difficult to stretch and breaks easily, dip it into the hot whey for a few seconds to make it warm and pliable. Then pick it up again and stretch it into a long rope. Fold over and stretch again. Dip in hot whey as needed to make the cheese pliable.

When the cheese is smooth and shiny (this takes just a few minutes), it is ready to eat. Shape it into a log or ball, then store in a solution of 2 teaspoons salt to 1 cup water.\


-Happy Cooking!-