Daily Dairy Deluge

(below images, starting with the book and moving clockwise--1: Home Cheese Making, by Ricki Carroll; 2: NYC themed Milk Bottles by the incredible Alyssa Ettinger; 3: my very own 30-minute mozzarella balls; 4: the mozzarella shredded and enjoyed on a roasted vegetable pizza; 5: Beehive Kitchenware Cheese Markers)

When I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle I was struck with how resourceful Barbara Kingsolver and her family were to keep their food local. Kingsolver's description of 30-minute Mozzarella had me sold on the idea of making my own cheese. Since then, I've made a couple batches of 30 minute mozzarella.  Feta is another easy one I've made a couple times, but I'm now ripe and ready to try my hand at something more difficult. That and the fact that my dear man bought me Ricki Carroll's Home Cheese Making.

Why even take the time myself when I can go to the grocery store and have my pick from hundreds of types of cheese?  Well, I'm always up for a good challenge. I'm curious to try things on my own, I enjoy creating and learning, and I find the whole process to be quite calming.  Also, I have no life, so it's stand in front of the stove and make something tasty, or sit in front of the TV drooling on myself. 

I also like the fact that I know what the ingredients are and their source.  As a vegetarian, I pretty much put any cheese that simply lists "enzymes" on the package back in the cooler.  Rennet, the coagulant used in many cheeses, is most often derived from animal sources.  Those sources are of the type that would put a scowl on a vegetarian's face in a heart beat. When I make my own, I know the cheese I am eating is from vegetarian sources.  Not only that, but I can support local farmers, and if I want I can see the cows and goats sharing their milk, with the satisfaction of knowing it's from reputable farms and happy animals.

So gather some supplies (a gallon of milk, citric acid, rennet, and a well-sanitized stainless steel pot, bowl and thermometer; you might also want rubber gloves to protect your hands from the heat) and get to cooking! FYI: I've edited out the microwave version of the recipe.  It is no slight to Carroll and countless other cheese makers, we just don't have a microwave, so I've never tried it and feel better sharing information I have had experience with myself. 

Without further ado, I give you Kingsolver and Carroll's 30 minute Mozzarella:

• 1 gallon pasteurized milk (NOT ultra-pasteurized)
• 1 1/2 level tsp. citric acid dissolved in ¼ cup cool water

Stir the milk on the stove in a stainless steel kettle, heating very gently. At 55° add the citric acid solution and mix thoroughly. At 88° it should begin to curdle.

• ¼ tsp. liquid rennet diluted in ¼ cup cool water

Gently stir in diluted rennet with up-and-down motion, and continue heating the milk to just over 100°, then turn off heat. Curds should be pulling away from sides of pot, ready to scoop out. The whey should be clear. (If it’s still milky, wait a few minutes.) Use a slotted spoon to move curds from pot to a 2 quart bowl. Press curds gently with hands to remove as much whey as possible. Replace the ball of curd back into the whey and heat til it's almost too hot to touch, remove the curd with the slotted spoon again and knead the cheese  with hands or a spoon to remove more whey. (Rubber gloves help – this gets hot!) Repeat this process 2 more times, kneading between each heating. At this point, salt the cheese to taste, then knead and pull until it’s smooth and elastic; a good stretching temperature is 175 degrees. When you can stretch it into ropes like taffy you are done. If the curds break instead, they need to be reheated a bit. Once cheese is smooth and shiny, roll it into small balls to eat warm or store for later in the refrigerator.

This is the recipe supplied on the Animal, Vegetable, Miracle website.  In her book, Carroll recommends the addition of Lipase to make it a softer mozzarella.  That recipe is nearly identical to the one found on the Leeners website.

So are you ready to try it?  Check out Local Harvest to find farms that sell milk nearby.  Or, if you don't have the time but want to get a little more personal with your cheese, order artisan cheeses from a farm listed on their site. If they don't have what you're looking for, try Small Dairy.com.

(above images, starting with the chevre covered tomatoes and moving clockwise--6: Bosky Acres goat cheese on a garden fresh tomato and homemade buttermilk biscuit, except I substituted the buttermilk with whey from my last cheese stint! 7: Lux Apts Milk Bottles by Julia Rothman; 8: Country Wisdom & Know-How has a little bit of everything, including home brewing, raising farm animals and several quick and easy cheese recipes; 9: 2 pictures from the last time I cooked up some cheese in my kitchen; 10: A maple and Cherry cutting board, perfect for serving cheese at your next soiree, made by Appalachian Craftsmen; 11: SMART kitchen towels have handy dandy charts to help you know how and how long some of those delicate dairy items will keep; 12: Make some butter, you don't even have to turn on the stove! Then keep it in one of Barbara Dunshee's beautiful butter crocks.)

Renee Garner has a passion to make things grow, although her brownish thumb wants her to believe otherwise.  When mud pies aren't on the menu, you can find her doodling the days away at Wolfie and the Sneak.

Comments

[beth]

yummmmmm! i want to eat that roasted veggie pizza in the top section too ;-)
great post!

[Miss Natalie]

Thanks for the great post! I've been itching to try Kingsolver's recipe for a while, after tasting my friend's version of it and loving it. I made yogurt for the first time this weekend, so cheese is definitely the next step.