Adventures in cheesemaking (or not)

I'll start by admitting I haven't tried the cheese I made yet - it was sitting on the side in the kitchen in salty water looking at me accusingly waiting to be eaten and I bottled it and disappeared to the conservatory to write about the process of making it instead of being brave and eating it.

This cheesemaking is a result of re-reading Barbara Kingsolver's 'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle' - in it she goes on a cheese making course and makes making mozzarella sound incredibly easy. I'm not so sure but am happy to have a few more practices this weekend (I have some basil and tomatoes ready and waiting)*
 
So, the process; get a gallon of cold milk, add some citric acid and then heat to 90F. I didn't have a gallon of milk - in any case it was an american gallon which is different from a UK gallon (apparently this was due to the shipping of whisky to the New World when it was first settled by Europeans - the gallons left here one size, and arrived on the other side of the pond somewhat smaller). Fortunately 4 pints of milk is sort of equivalent to two-thirds of an American gallon so I adjusted somewhat and carried on. I liberally added some citric acid (aka lemon juice - which is NOT recommended in some instructions I read) and started heating.

The milk with citric acid in it, and rennet just added

It was at this point I discovered my next problem - my very swish jam-making thermometer didn't in fact go down to 90F - in any case the numbers and graduations at the bottom were a bit washed off.... so it was all very hit and miss from then on

When it reached (an estimated) 90F I added rennet, stirred gently and then left it to sit for 5 minutes. Trouble is I forgot to turn the gas off so the temperature continued to rise. This was equivalent to doing a form of ultra high heat pasteurisation which may explain the non-mozzarella like consistency I ended up with finally - but I didn't realise that at this stage.

Formation of the curds is very apparent when cut up with a knife

What did happen though was a formation of curds as they separated from the whey - and it was of the right consistency as described in the instructions so I carried on blithely. After they have formed you cut them with a knife into 1 inch square chunks. You then begin to heat it all again to 105F.

Heating the curds and whey up to 105F and stirring - curds sinking to the bottom as more whey 'leaves' them

I did have 105F marked on the thermometer so felt I was getting back on track nicely. Trouble is the instructions said to stir gently - I did so and it seemed to break the curds up even more - in the picture accompanying the instructions though there appears to be no disturbance of the curds through stirring (is it better to follow written or pictoral instructions?)

I then put the curds into a colander using a slotted spoon - I got very excited at this stage as some of the curds seemed to pull and stretch just like the mozzarella instruction photos showed (but they were about 5 steps further along after numerous heatings in the microwave). I wish I had followed instict at that stage and not heated as much as the instructions said. But the aim is  to get the curds up to about 135F by heating for short bursts in the microwave and kneading between heatings to start it all stetching nicely.

I think I overdid it in the microwave (other distractions meant I wasn't properly paying attention and taking it out soon enough). I did lots of kneading and stretching but it had gone a little bit granular and not at all stretchy by this stage - signs of over-heating?

The finished product - it looks pretty much like mozzarella but not at all shiny on the outside. Sitting in salted water to improve flavour

However, I did finally manage to form it into a ball. Its not very shiny which the outer surface should be, and it certainly doesn't stretch in the way it is meant to - but I will eat it and see what it is like - and see whether it should even be called cheese?.  I will also try again over the weekend and see if instead of heating it in the microwave I can do it in boiling water which is the proper way - but painful!

The dogs loved drinking the whey although I kept a bit of that as I saw somewhere that you can make ricotta cheese using it - but I will try to get the mozzarella working properly first before I try anything else (but I feel goat milk and other cheesy variations calling already)

LUNCHTIME:

Basil, Mozzarella and Tomato salad

Taste good - but the texture is totally wrong; slightly granular and no stretch at all!

* The irony of this comment about tomatoes will not be wasted on anyone who has read the book - having tomatoes in March is exactly what the book is not about - it focuses on eating seasonal food that has been produced locally. While the tomatoes I have are from a local veg box scheme, the plants must have been heated to get them to produce fruit this early in the season so not very seasonal at all.