Mozzarella - First Attempt

[ZenBrew]

We took our first attempt at making cheese today. The cheese we chose to make was mozzarella.

We followed this recipe: http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-homemade-mozzarella-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-174355

the only problem was that the rennet was slow to set the milk. after 40 minutes the milk still hadn't set so I added another 1/4 tsp of diluted rennet and ten minutes later it finally set.

the rest of the process went smoothly, but the cheese tastes like milk that was left out for a while. did we do something wrong or is that recipe no good?

 

[bernardsmith]

I have only been able to make mozzarella with raw milk and I use culture to ferment the milk (kefir made from grains) - so that takes about an hour or so. I allow the rennet to sit for about 50 minutes to an hour. I suspect that the taste you are getting is from the use of citric acid to sour the milk, but I may be completely way off base here.

 

[Staestc]

Well, I have no clue, but I am really curious to see the responses from the cheese folks. I have only made paneer for Indian dishes so far, but would love to make Mozzarella!

 

[Mismost]

Zen....way to go, at least you tried! Cheese making is on my list of thing to try making. Right after i finish this mile long "honey-do" list....I ain't even got to fishing this summer but once.

I do have a fresh whole milk source lined up that wants to trade milk for beer and wines.

 

[Homercidal]

I've made mozz twice now. First time was "ok" I heated the cheese in a double boiler type setup and stretched it.

Second time I heated in microwave and stretched it and it worked better. Both time I used whole pasteurized milk and liquid rennet. Neither of them tastes like old milk.

Remember that sanitation is key when making cheese, but honestly, mozz is not going to age, so I doubt sanitation would impact this cheese. You may want a bit of salt in it to accentuate the flavors, but not too much as mozz is not as salty as some other cheeses.

I can't tell you much more than that. I haven't made it in a while. Planned to soon so I can make homemade caprese salad type stuff. The only caveat I can offer is to make sure to use fresh milk. I assume you knew that already.