30 Minute Mozzarella

Even though we do not have a cow (or sheep, or goats), I have been reading up on cheesemaking lately as something to potentially try. This week while Maggie was taking one of her Amish friends shopping, she mentioned cheesemaking. Her friend's family has cows, and gave Maggie a couple of gallons of milk. This created a little stress, as we don't really have any cheesemaking supplies, and now had perishable milk.

Maggie did have some rennet she bought for some past project, and we had a cheesemaking book we had bought many years ago. I found that a mozzarella-style cheese could be make from rennet and an acid such as citric acid, vinegar, or lemon juice. Because we do a lot of canning, we have citric acid. As it turned out, we had supplies to make cheese after all.

This cheese is very simple to make - the milk is heated and citric acid added. A quarter tablet of rennet is dissolved in water, added to the milk pot, and the temperature raised. A very soft curd formed, which we scooped from the whey and transferred to a bowl. The whey was then heated to a higher temperature, and a little added to the cheese with some salt. With some kneading and stretching, we ended up with a little over a pound of cheese.

The cheese was a surprise project. Making sourdough English muffins was actually one of the things on my do-do list this weekend. Our fresh cheese, fresh egg, and sausage ended up making a great breakfast sandwich.