 How do I get started? I am new to cheese making, I want to start with mozzarella which kit do you recommend?
Simply order the 30 minute Mozzarella and Ricotta kit found on the web site. ..and while you are there study the pictures of Ricki making the Mozzarella.. It shows a lot of the details and gives you some good reference points. ... Ordering Ricki Caroll's book Home Cheese Making contains all of the needed basic information to get started plus many great recipes.. It is also available in our book section online.
Help...I've lost my 30 minute mozzarella recipe, we recently moved and I can't find it!!! Do I have to buy it again, or is it somewhere on your site? Love your stuff!!!
Crush 1/4 rennet tablet in 1/4 cup cool water. 1 gal Milk heated on medium 1.5 level tsp citric acid into milk and stir at 88F add rennet stir briefly continue heating to 105F when firm scoop curds into microwave bowl ... Press gently to remove whey pour off as much whey as possible ... Microwave on high for 1 min drain whey ... Microwave 2 more times at 35 sec. drain more whey and work into ball knead until smooth stretch
How much cheese will the 30 Min Mozz Kit make and what does a gallon of milk yield
The kit contains enough ingredients to make 30 pounds of cheese! .. one Gallon at a time ... each galllon of milk will produce a little more than 1 pound of cheese
I bought your Mozzarella kit and have now made two batches (with 2%and 1% milk). While very good, the cheese we have made doesn't have the soft, creamy quality of high-end Mozzarella that you buy in the store. Any tricks to reproduce that consistency?
To make the cheese a bit softer and moister you need to retain more moisture.
Try using a shorter time from adding rennet to separating whey
Also try not allowing to curd to reach the 105F after adding rennet (turn the heat off earlier)
Also going a bit easier on the kneading will give you a softer cheese in the end ... Just knead enough to equalize the heat in the cheese after heating in the Micro Wave
.... The use of lower fat milk will also keep your cheese from having that wonderful soft moist character
Why is my quick Mozzarella just giving me Ricotta?
This could be due to one of two problems:
1...You are stirring your milk too long after adding the rennet. We are finding with today's milk, that stirring 1 minute after adding rennet will be plenty .. then stop stirring (make sure you have turned the burner off) and let it sit quietly while the curd forms
If you do this a nice firm curd will form which can be cut nicely. If you continue stirring after this point you are actually cutting the curd as you stir.. hence your cottage cheese or ricotta like curd
2...This happens when the milk that you have bought in the grocery store has been "Ultra"-Pasteurized. The protein is denatured with the high temperature the milk is processed at, the whey proteins bind on the casein and block the site of action of the rennet. This damage to the milk is irreversible. My suggestion is to look for another brand of milk and make sure it has not been ultra-pasteurized. Usually a local brand of milk is best.
There is one more alternative if Ultra-pasteurized milk is all you have available you can use dry milk powder and cream. (This is a new recipe which you will find in the recipe section.)
Note: While you are at the store ask the owner to stop buying this type of milk, there is nothing of any real value left in it.
Heating without Micro Wave... Hello, I have seen that your mozzarella cheese is made from the microwave only. I don't object to this, but I would prefer to know how to make cheese without the microwave. I am assuming your books covers both methods.
The microwave is just a shortcut, you may use hot water or whey, our instructions in the Mozzarella & Ricotta Kit explain this in detail.
I seem to be forming a nice curd , good clean whey, but put the curds in the microwave and it would NOT make mozzarella that would stretch
Since you managed to obtain a nice firm curd, then your milk is NOT Ultra Pasteurized ...
If what you mean by not making mozzarella is no stretch .. your problem is simply the variation in Microwave outputs some put out more energy than others
to resolve this either:
increase your times in the MW (but do not overdo this) .. until you get the curds to stretch
OR
use a pan of water @ 175-180F and cut the curd ball into thin strips and immerse in this water .. taking two wooden or plastic spoons smoosh these together in a kneading like fashion until they begin to form an elastic mass at which point they should stretch
Your goal either way is to get the internal temp of the curd to about 135F
You were closer than you thought
Making mozzarella from a "Mother Culture", do I only add the prepared culture to the milk ? OR, do I still need to add rennet and/or citric acid ?
You add the culture and rest for 30-60 min so that the culture can ripen the milk, then add rennet but DO NOT ADD CITRIC ACID, the culture WILL produce the acidity.
Difference between Citric acid and Live culture I have never made cheese before and I am thinking about ordering the 30-min. Mozzarella Kit. My question is that I will be using fresh/raw milk. Do I need product C202? Is the mozzarella kit designed for fresh milk? If it is, do I pour the cream off? Thank you.
The difference between the 2 items is that C202-thermophilic culture works with a natural culture and the mozzarella kit works by just adding citric acid... either way will work with raw milk but you will get a bit better flavor with C202 .. On the other hand since you have never made cheese before the kit is quite foolproof and much easier to use if you get the C202 just use the milk with cream do not skim it off.
High fat milk for mozzarella ... Your recipe calls for milk, i.e.; whole milk or reduced fat milk. Can I make a richer cheese by using a higher fat milk? I know The buffalo cheese in Italy is very rich. Also what are the limits for milk fat in the process of making Mozzarella cheese Can you use 12% milk fat.
Buffalo mozzarella is a lot richer than cows, the biggest difference will be that, as the butterfat increases the cheese will have a tendency to hold more moisture and more effort will be needed to get the whey out and less rennet will be required for a firm curd. Sounds like a bit of experimentation is in order here... let us know how it goes!
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