Cheese! (after 3 tries and finding the right milk)

So tonight didn't end in despair and culinary disappointment. I successfully made my own mozzarella cheese! I can't tell you the elation I felt as the gloppy goop started to turn into stringy goop right before my eyes. The sense of pride as I stretched it between my hands twelve inches, then 18 inches! It was fun and in retrospect, quite easy. Once I landed on the right milk, that is. And for you in Massachusetts, that milk seems to be Garelick brand all-natural milk. (Of course raw milk straight from a farm, your own cow or goat, for example, would be best. But for those of us who don't have ready access to farm milk, so far the store-bought brand that works for me is Garelick.)

The first two times I tried to make cheese, I was using Trader Joe's organic milk*. And despite not being labeled "ultra-pasteurized," it wouldn't result in a curd that ultimately clung together. Perhaps they heat their milk when pasteurizing to a higher temperature than milk that doesn't need to travel as far and be stored as long. Garelick is a Massachusetts company, and so their milk is transported relatively short distances. (For home cheese-making, you must use only non-"ultra pasteurized" milk [or raw milk that you pasteurize yourself] since the curds won't set.)

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am making my first entree into cheese-making via the supplies and instruction from the folks at The New England Cheesemaking Supply Company at www.cheesemaking.com. Their instructional booklet and dvd are so informative and inspiring. And after having trouble the first time, I emailed them with my problem and they wrote back the very next morning with helpful tips.

Anyway, here's my success:

Here it is, a kind of clingy mass, having separated from the whey.


Then it spends about 2 minutes in the microwave. This is just before it goes in for its first minute.


Here I am pressing it into a single piece (although, it pretty much was a single piece prior to this step) and expressing more whey before going back in the microwave for another 30 seconds.



Working the cheese



Stretching the cheese

And the final product. Viola!

I look forward to working a bit more on final presentation next time. It begins to harden up and take shape before I really knew what was happening, so I was stuck with a less than perfect globe of shiny, white mozzarella. It tastes great. I look forward to it with baguette toasts and heirloom tomatoes tomorrow!


* While my experience seems to suggest that Trader Joe's milk doesn't work for home cheese-making, we are happy with both their organic and regular brands for daily drinking for both us and Thora.