I love cheese. Cheddar, Mozzarella, Parmesan I think I was born a wanna-be Italian! Cheese runs in my blood but I’ll be honest, I’m a cheese snob!! I was browsing Pinterest last week and saw a picture of someone who made homemade mozzarella cheese! I thought, I wonder if that would be good. It sure looked good, so I decided I’d investigate.
Well to my surprise, it was super simple to make, 5 ingredients! Milk, Rennet, Citric Acid, Cheese Salt and Lipase.
So right about now you are probably thinking, well I only have ONE of those ingredients in my pantry. Hang with me for a minute, because I was just like you.
Mozzarella cheese at the store costs around $4-5 a pound. If you have a coupon for Kraft or Sargento and catch it on sale you may be able to walk away for under a dollar a pound BUT those sales generally are very cyclical and only happen once or twice a year. Generally you’ll be paying if you buy the off brand, lower quality $2-$3. But again, I’m a cheese snob, I’ll pay a little extra, use a coupon and get the better brand because I like it!!
So where do you get the ingredients? Well I found most of the ingredients on Amazon for great prices. I redeem my Swagbucks for Amazon gift cards (if you aren’t a member of Swagbucks, I highly recommend you join!) so I decided to indulge and get the ingredients:
Rennet Tablets – $6.50 (enough to do 40 batches!!) Buy on Amazon
Cheese Salt – $2.99 (enough for 60 batches) Buy on Amazon
Lipase – $6.99 (enough for 60 batches) Buy on Amazon
Citric Acid – $3.99 (enough for 40 batches) I did not buy this on Amazon but you can here
All of the Amazon items are with one seller so the shipping SHOULD be less. As I mentioned, I did not buy the Citric Acid from Amazon, I found it cheap at a local health foods store. Some Whole Foods carry it in bulk, my local store carried it that way and I measured what I needed for 20 or so batches and then paid around $3. I would recommend calling vitamin and natural or health food stores to see if they sell it.
The recipe itself is relatively straight forward and from my reading and researching cheese making is a very precise art. Follow the recipe, do not deviate.
So here is the recipe, I hope you enjoy!! I can not take credit for the recipe, I found all of my instructions via CheeseMaking.com. Their summarized recipe is below!
The Milk:
Make sure the milk you use for this cheese is NOT ULTRA- PASTEURIZED. I purchased Whole Milk from Kroger on sale for $2.50. Low fat milk will work but the cheese will be drier and less flavorful.
You will need:
–A 6 to 8 quart stainless steel pot. Aluminum or cast iron will not work.
–A stainless steel or strong plastic slotted spoon.
–A two quart microwave safe mixing bowl
–Measuring spoons
–A thermometer which will clearly read between 80 – 120 degrees F.
Prepare your work area:
Do not prepare any other food while you are making cheese.
Put all food products away.
Move all sponges, cloths and dirty towels away from your work surface, wipe your sink and stove with soap and water.
Finally use your antibacterial cleaner to wipe down all surfaces.
Process:
- Crush 1/4 tablet of rennet and dissolve in 1/4 cup of cool, unchlorinated water and set aside to use later. As you can see from my picture, the rennet just dissolves.
- Add 1.5 tsp. of citric acid, diluted in 1 cup cool water, to 1 gallon of cold milk and stir well. Lipase may be added to the milk to provide a typical italian cheese flavor here.
(Add the citric acid solution to the empty cold pot – the photos show adding this dry but do mix with water). - Now, pour cold milk into your pot quite quickly to mix well with the citric acid . This will bring the milk to the proper acidity to stretch well later. Next, heat this milk to 90F. As you approach 90F, you may notice your milk beginning to curdle slightly due to acidity and temp.
NOTE: If having problems with milk forming a proper curd, you may need to increase this temp to 95 or even 100F - At 90F, remove the pot from the burner and slowly add your rennet (which you prepared in previous step) to the milk. Stir in a top to bottom motion for approx. 30 seconds, then stop. Cover the pot and leave undisturbed for 5 minutes.
- Check the curd, it will look like custard, with a clear separation between the curds and whey. If too soft or the whey is milky, let set for a few more minutes.
- Cut the curds into a 1″ checkerboard pattern (as in photos above) and, if a drier cheese is desired, carefully cut and stir this curd to release more whey.
- Place the pot back on the stove and heat to 105F, while slowly stirring the curds with your ladle. (If you will be stretching the curds in a hot water bath heat to 110F in this step.) (I found this to be difficult without breaking the squares)
Take off the burner and continue slowly stirring for 2-5 minutes. (More time will make a firmer cheese) - With a slotted spoon, scoop curds into a microwave safe bowl. (If the curd is too soft at this point let sit for another minute or so.)
You will now press this curd gently with your hand, pouring off as much whey as possible. Reserve this whey to use in cooking. - Next, microwave the curd on HI for 1 minute. You will notice more whey has run out of the curd. Drain off all whey as you did before. Quickly work the cheese with a spoon or your hands until it is cool enough to touch (rubber gloves will help since the cheese is almost too hot to touch at this point.)
- Microwave 2 more times for 35 seconds each, and repeat the kneading as in the last step. Drain off all of the whey as you go. (This tip was very useful. I found that it cheese needs to stay hot. If it stays hot, it’s easier to mold)
- Knead quickly now as you would bread dough until it is smooth and shiny. Add salt near the finish.
- At this point the cheese should be soft and pliable enough to stretch like taffy.
- It is ready to eat when it cools.
- Form it into a ball and drop into ice water to cool and refrigerate. When cold you can wrap in plastic wrap and it will last for several days, but is best when eaten fresh.
Again this recipe is credited to CheeseMaking.com
My Final Thoughts
This was FUN!! It’s different, a very kid friendly recipe, and something that, IF you use all the ingredients, should be cheaper or at least the same price as cheese you can buy in the store.
My cost breakdown:
Store Bought Off Brand Cheese: $4.43 lb
Gallon of Milk: $2.50
4 Other Ingredients per Batch: $.50 with shipping
Total Cost of Homemade Cheese: $3 a batch, not a bad price for some AMAZING tasting cheese!
