I’m not going to
lie, this cheese is slightly less easy. However, it is well worth the effort
and special ingredients, as it is so delicious, and doesn’t take too much time.
And it’s very versatile! Salads, pasta dishes/bakes, Melanzane Parmigiano,
paninis, pizza, and “Suppli al telephono” arancini risotto balls (http://www.manusmenu.com/suppli-al-telefono
my idea of heaven). The best part is that it tastes like lovely fresh high
quality mozzarella, but at a fraction of the cost. Even better if you make it
with unhomogenised milk, or particularly high fat milk. The cheapest kind of
rennet is actually vegetarian rennet, so I use that.
Don't be put off by the citric acid or the rennet, you can get them on Amazon, in health food stores, and in Lakeland too I think. I'd like to note here that I have what my friends have affectionately termed 'asbestos hands' meaning they can take a lot of heat, so this recipe was fine for me. However it does involve handling very hot cheese, so I've included several precautions for the more heat sensitive of us to follow to help protect from burnt hands. Anyway, it's so much fun making mozzarella, so don't let me put you off!
Equipment:
- Medium/Large non reactive saucepan
- Sieve
- Cooking thermometer (necessary)
- Chopping board
- Large bowl for iced water + rubber or latex gloves (optional for those who don’t have heat proof hands like me)
Ingredients
- 2 litres full fat milk (use very high fat if you can get it)
- ½ tsp Rennet
- 2 tsp citric acid
- 2 ½ tbsp salt (This is not a typo, but don’t worry, it doesn’t all go in the cheese)
- Ice (optional, again for those without heat proof hands)
Method
- Dissolve the citric acid in 60ml of cold water. Add to the milk. Heat the milk to 30 C, stirring continuously, it should begin to curdle slightly.
- Dissolve the rennet in 1 tablespoon of water and add to the saucepan. Heat to 39 C, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and leave to separate from 15 minutes.
- Scoop the curds out of the pan with a slotted spoon or spatula and place them in the sieve. They should be sort of gelatinous and clump together. Squeeze out a bit of moisture with your hands, but not too much.
- Add the salt to the whey still in the pan, and heat to between 80 and 90 C.
- Prepare a bowl of iced water.
- Cut or break the curds into pieces about 3cm by 3cm or smaller. Gently lower the first ball into the hot water. Leave it in for about a minute, then remove with a slotted spoon and place onto the chopping board. You can now dip your gloved hands into the iced water whenever they get too hot. Work the cheese, folding it over on itself once or twice. On this first go it might fall apart a bit, but just gently squeeze it into a rough ball.
- Place the curds back in the water to heat up again for about half a minute, then repeat, taking it out and folding over a few times, then squeezing into a ball and returning to the water. The water should be on the heat, staying roughly between 80 and 90 C throughout.
- Repeat this for a maximum of 5 times. If you over work it, the cheese will become hard and tear more, so be careful. It should be sort of smooth when you are done. Set aside and repeat with all the other lumps of cheese, to make small balls of mozzarella.
- Store in salty water or wrapped in clingfilm until ready to use.
I hope you give this a go, its surprisingly easy and very much worth it! Comment with any questions or to tell me how it went. The next cheese I'm hoping to make is brie, so look out for a post on that some time soon!
Have fun!
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