RE: Making Raw Milk Mozzarella is SUPER easy.

[Guest guest]

> Making raw milk mozzarella is very easy. Someone posted a recipe a while

> back for Homemade Mozzarella using 2 gallons raw cow or goat milk.

Yeah, I don't think it would be impossible to make raw mozarella, either.

It would, however, be illegal to sell it, which is probably what they meant

when they said it wasn't possible. Mozarella isn't aged long enough to meet

the raw cheese aging requirements -- I think it's required to be aged 60

days or something like that. I don't think mozzarella is aged at all...the

fresher it is, the better.

[Guest guest]

OK, Here's the whole message!

Hi, all!

Making raw milk mozzarella is very easy. Shari Wagner posted a recipe a

while back for Homemade Mozzarella using 2 gallons raw cow or goat milk. I

modified it to one gallon because I don't have a big enough pot for 2

gallons. I also adapted it a bit using information from 2 great websites -

URLs follow. I like having the option of using rennet tablets because they

are available locally.

Raw Milk Mozzarella

1 gallon fresh milk

1 1/4 tsp citric acid

1/2 tablet Rennet

1 teaspoon salt

Simple Directions

Dissolve citric acid in 1/2 cup cool water and stir into milk. Heat to 88

degrees F

Dissolve 1/2 rennet tablet in 1/4 c cool water and stir into hot milk

mixture. Let sit for 1 or 2 hours until milk sets.

Cut curd into 1/2 " cubes and then stir and heat over low heat to 108F. Hold

at 108F for 30-35 minutes stirring occasionally.

Drain whey. Heat curd to stretch it and mold it into shape. Mix salt into

curd. Cool in fridge.

Complicated Directions

To sterilize stock pot: add 1/2 " water, cover with lid, and boil hard for 5

minutes. Dump out any remaining water.

*Dissolve citric acid in 1/2 cup cool water. Pour milk into sterilized pot

and add citric acid solution stirring slowly. (The Leener's site says to

just sprinkle it on top and stir in, but I haven't tried that.) Over low

heat warm milk to 88 degrees F/31 degrees C.

*Dissolve 1/2 rennet tablet in 1/4 cup cool water. (Leener's uses 1/2 tsp

liquid rennet in 1/4 c. water.) Stir the rennet solution thoroughly into

warmed milk mixture. Let the pot sit undisturbed for 1 to 2 hours - until

you get a clean break in the milk mixture. (Funkhauser site has a good

description of the clean break and pictures, too. Even a video!)

*Cut curd into 1/2 " cubes. Both websites describe how to cut the curd. I

used a long knife and just did parallel cuts and then used a stainless steel

slotted spoon it cut any remaining big clumps.

*Over low heat, stir the curds and whey gently until the temperature reaches

108 degrees F/42 degrees C. Hold at 108F/42C for 30-35 minutes, stirring

every 5 minutes or so to keep curd off hot bottom.

*Strain curds out of whey. (Fankhauser suggests draining curds in cloth

lined strainer for 15 minutes. He also says you can use whey to make

ricotta but my first attempt yielded only a few flecks of ricotta - it was

like all the curds were already gone.)

*Mix 1 teaspoon salt into curds.

*There are two ways to heat the curd - the stovetop method or the microwave

method. For stovetop, I pretty much followed Shari's description. The

curds made a ball and I took the ball out and squeezed out the whey and

added salt after removing it from the whey so the whey wouldn't be salted.

The microwave method is very easy. You just put the curds into a glass bowl

and microwave for 30 seconds. Remove from microwave, squeeze out more whey,

and see how stretchy it is. Then microwave for another 30 seconds and do

the same. (Fankhauser said 45 seconds but that is too long as it gets too

hot. Leener's says to microwave 3 times for 1 minute each - way too long.)

Leener's stovetop method involves heating the whey to 150F (too hot) and

putting the curd ball in until it reaches 110F (again too hot I think) and

then pressing and stretching and returning it to the whey until it is even

hotter - 130F I think.) Fankhauser says it shouldn't get any hotter than

you can comfortably handle with bare hands and I tend to agree.

The two websites for cheese making:

Fankhauser's Cheese Page (wonderful info and mostly uses regular household

stuff rather than fancy cheesemaking specialty supplies) He is a Biology

professor and his site is very scientifically oriented. Has buttermilk, ice

cream and lots of other recipes.

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Fankhauser/Cheese/Cheese.html

Leener's sells cheesemaking supplies at a very reasonable price.

http://www.leeners.com/cheeserecipes.html

Recipe in original post:

2 gallons of fresh milk

2 1/2 tsp. of citric acid

1 tsp. liquid rennet

Dissolve citric acid in about 1/4 cup water and pour into cold milk. Stir a

few minutes. Heat milk to 88 degrees. Put the 1 tsp. of rennet in 1/4 cup

of cold water, then add to the 88 degree milk. Stir for 15 seconds. Let

sit about 20 minutes or until a curd forms. Cut the curd into 1 " chunks and

let sit 5 minutes. Then slowly raise the temperature to 105-108 degrees,

stirring periodically. This should be over a very low flame or do it in a

sink, gradually adding hot water around the pan.This should take about 30

minutes. Once it is at this temperature. Keep it there for 30 minutes. By

this time my cheese usually starts to become one big ball. I just squeeze

all the whey out and put it in a dish in the fridge to cool. Oh, as I

squeeze it, I add salt to taste and knead it in.

This has worked great for us. You need the citric acid to get the

stretchiness. I suppose you could try experimenting and let it clabber on

its own. But if you let goat milk sit out for days it gets very goaty

tasting. This method works well for us. I buy my citric acid at the local

food coop in bulk. I buy my rennet through cheese making supply companies

like New England cheesemaking supplies. Hope this helps!

Shari