Homemade Cheese

I recently took a few cooking classes, not because I don’t know “how” to cook, but because there a few things I have always wanted to try, but was a little afraid to just go out on my own and try. Cheese-making was always something that seemed interested to me and I have seen kits in the grocery store before. I figured a class could not only give me the experience of making cheese the first time in a controlled environment, but also give me a few ideas on what to do with my cheese.


Unlike pasta making class, I didn’t have the best group to work with. One of the other students was kind of pushy and aggressive, so I didn’t do as much hands on work as I would have liked. However, this didn’t totally ruin the experience and I took it in stride. I don’t take notes and I don’t read the book as often as most students, I’ve always been this way, but I truly learn from hearing and seeing what is being done and I still gained that experience. 


The first thing I learned is that the ingredients are not things you keep in a standard kitchen so once again some purchases had to be made. Since the store offered a learner’s kit with all the ingredients you would need it made sense for me to limit my initial investment to this four use kit. In the end, all you have to do buy some cheese cloth and a gallon of milk every time you’d like to make a batch.
I’ve tried making the cheese twice now and went about it slightly different ways, both with good but different results. I’ll include the recipe and directions below, but I do recommend the starter’s kit. It turns out making cheese, although fun as a novelty, is a bit of work. 


The most important thing I learned is that the milk you buy is everything. The entire cheese making process won’t matter if you buy the wrong milk. First off, you’re making cheese, don’t bother with low fat milk, you’re making CHEESE, redundancy intended. Second off, although when it comes to drinking milk, pasteurization and homogenization are sought after; the opposite is true for your cheese making milk. Unless you have a very serious specialty grocery store in your neighborhood, you have to buy pasteurized and homogenized milk…from a cow. “True” Mozzarella, is made from the milk a buffalo; not Bison like in the United States, but the type they have in Europe. This little hurdle is no big deal at all, cow’s milk works fine, in the end the only stipulation is that is not Ultra-pasteurized or Ultra-homogenized. Unfortunately the label doesn’t have to say so, but the easiest way to figure it out is if the expiration date is more than 7 to 10 days from when you’re buying it. Most grocery store chains contract with different dairies in most parts of the country, so if at first you don’t succeed, don’t try sky-diving again, but try making cheese with another brand of milk.

The class taught us how to make two cheeses each with the standard way and an alternative way. The first was ricotta, which we basically relied on heat and acid to curdle it. Literally you heat the milk until it’s about to boil and then you poor in buttermilk (the source of acid) and it forms curds immediately. Either slightly drain the whey (the left over yellowish water) and use as you normally would for things like lasagna or baked ziti, or you can press it with cheese cloth into a more solid cheese, the name of which is escaping me.


Mozzarella is more complicated in that the temperature has to be more controlled. Again I’ll include the recipe and directions at the end. The key to the mozzarella is AFTER you’ve made curds and what you do with them. Once you formed your curds, imagine relatively dry cottage cheese, you heat them further and change the texture all together. At just the right temperature mozzarella is very rubbery and stretchy and this is a key in making it. However, this is also the reason this not a project for children. You have to work the cheese by hand and little hands are far too sensitive to heat, even with gloves on. I used gloves in class and the first time I made it at home, but not the second time. Either way, you have to heat it enough to allow the curds to melt together as you need it like you would dough. 


This is where the second bit of advice I can give comes in. The first time I made the cheese at home, I rung out the whey with cheese cloth and ALL my might. This did a great job of removing the moisture but in the end the mozzarella was much more like the “pizza cheese”  version than the “enjoy in a Caprese salad" version. This second time I didn’t remove as much moisture initially and the cheese is more moist and tender; less rubbery and solid. Don’t confuse my phrasing it rubbery like that’s a bad thing, it is not, it is just the best word I can come up with and a fair description. Anyone who has had pizza where the cheese stretches from the plate to your mouth understands what I mean by rubbery.


In the end, I’m glad I tried this, but once the kit is gone, I’m not sure if I’ll do it again. It was fun, it was entertaining, but it was also above a “5” on the hassle-meter. If you’re very serious about your ingredients or you just want to impress some guests, then totally go for it, but the flavor isn’t substantially better then store made and if you count your labor into the costs of making it, then the store bought “fresh” mozzarella is just fine.

Heating the milk

Separating the curds and whey (Oh little miss muffet)

4 servings of fresh Mozzarella!

This is the kit I used, sold at Sur La Table, but I've seen others at grocery stores or other kitchen supply chains

Recipes:


Ricotta Cheese
8 cups Whole Milk
2 cups Buttermilk
Fine salt if desired


Heat the milk in a large pan (obviously account for the amount of liquid you’re using plus some margin of error when the milk starts to boil). Stir while heating over Medium high heat just enough to prevent scorching but so much as to slow down the heating. As the milk reaches a gentle boil (bubbles will start to climb quickly, so don’t walk away) pore in the buttermilk and gently stir, but in only one direction to prevent breaking up the curds you just formed. Remove from heat, let sit 5 or 10 minutes, strain with cheese cloth for 15 or so minutes until the consistency is what you want. You can make an alternative form of this cheese by deliberately driving moisture out by twisting the cheese cloth and then placing the curds, in cloth, under something heavy for 30 to 60 minutes. Helpful hint: put a pasta strainer and pan under your cheese cloth when separating the curds and whey. The whey can be refrigerated and used in things like bread recipes for enhanced flavor. I haven't used the whey yet, so I can’t say if works well or not.


Mozzarella Cheese
1 Gallon of Whole milk (buffalo or cow, not ultra-pasteurized)
1 ½ teaspoons of citric acid dissolved in 1 cup of non-chlorinated water
¼ rennet tablet (this is an enzyme, so again no chlorine in the water) in ¼ cup of water
Fine salt to taste


1. Heat the milk on medium low until 85 degrees, and then add the citric acid
2. Heat the milk/acid to 100 degrees and then add the rennet water
3. Continue heating until 105 degrees and then remove from heat
4. Drain the curds from the whey into a cheesecloth lined strainer
5. Form balls of curd by hand the size you want and add any salt you want at this point
6. Heat curd balls in the microwave (or in boiling water, but do you really want to stick your hands in that situation!) for 1 minute.
7. Knead the curds and they should start to stick into one blog of cheese and take on a slightly more shiny appearance. If the cheese starts to rip, give it 20 more seconds in the microwave
8. If you want Buratta cheese, wrap the warm cheese around some raw curd mixed with cream


Caprese Salad
I never measure anything out when making Caprese Salad, so every ingredient is “to taste”  and you can experiment with the presentation as well.
Tomato
Mozzarella or Buratta cheese
Basil
Balsamic vinegar (the older the better)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper