domestic dilettante, humorless feminist shrew

I’ve been threatening this cheese-making post for a while, so here we go. A while back, I took it into my head to learn to make cheese, and it seemed that the easiest way to start was with mozzarella. I haven’t done any other cheeses yet, so this may or may not be true, but it is awfully easy to make your own mozzarella. In addition to feeling very proud of yourself for Making Cheese, it’s also very inexpensive (about a pound of cheese can be had from a gallon of milk, which I can get as low as $2–much cheaper than you’d buy cheese at the store) and incredibly delicious.

So here we go. This recipe was cribbed from a dozen places on the internet, but none of them had pictures.

To make the cheese, you’ll need:
A gallon of milk (from the dairy section of the supermarket is fine. Don’t use shelf-stable milk; it’s undergone additional processing that make it not work.)
1/2 tablet rennet
1 tsp cheese salt (I think popcorn salt would be a good substitute)
about 1/2 tsp lipase powder
1 1/2 tsp citric acid
a thermometer

The lipase powder is apparently optional–some recipes have it, some don’t. When I first started researching cheesemaking, I googled for where to buy lipase powder, expecting that there would be an internet shop to buy from. The very first hit, though, was for Grape and Granary, which is about four doors down from where I work. So I have lipase powder. If you’re ordering it and you’re asked if you want mild or strong, go for mild–though G&G has basically everything for cheesemaking, their customer service was, at least when I was there, really shitty, and they wouldn’t give me any guidance as to which sort I wanted. (The guy just shrugged when I asked. I was even more annoyed when I got home and realized that the packages that he was holding were labeled with what sorts of cheese you’d make with it.)

Before you start, get a half cup of cool water and dissolve your citric acid in it. Then get a quarter cup of water and dissolve your rennet in that. Then you’re good to go.

Dump your milk into a large pot and turn the heat to medium. Stick the thermometer in there. Stir the milk as it comes up to 55F. This only takes a couple of minutes, so don’t wander off. When the milk’s at 55, you’re going to mix in your citric acid and lipase powder.

It’ll look like that–the lipase is sort of an unattractive beige, and it floats and doesn’t look like it’s going to mix in well. It’s okay. Keep stirring.

You may notice little white blobs sticking to your spoon. The first time I made cheese, I was convinced that it was the lipase failing to mix in, but then I looked closer and realized that they were nascent cheese curds. Hurrah!

You’re still stirring, right? When the cheese reaches about 80 degrees, it’ll look like the picture above. I’ve given up any hope of color accuracy in that picture in an attempt to show you the texture.

If you skim the spoon over the surface of the milk, you’ll end up with a spoonful of wet, squidgy cheese cuds.

At 90F, you’re going to mix in the rennet.

Almost immediately, your cheese will start to really separate, and you’ll see large islands of cheese surrounded by a pale green-yellow water.

Skimming the spoon over the surface gets you a spoonful of almost-solid cheese.

That’s at about a hundred degrees.

105 degrees, it’s time to take the cheese off the heat. The cheese will be in large, distinct blobs.

Scoop out the cheese curds, allowing as much whey as possible to drain off of them, and transfer them to a microwave-safe bowl. (I used a large Pyrex measuring cup–it holds, I think, about two quarts.)

Drain off as much whey as you can, then stick the cheese in the microwave for a minute. A literal minute. When it comes out, it’ll look much like the cheese above. Drain off the whey, then stick your hands in there and knead the cheese for a minute. It’s sort of awkward kneading, since the cheese isn’t really holding together yet, but just reach in and squish it around.

Drain off the excess whey, then stick the cheese into the microwave for 35 seconds. Knead it again, and, again, drain off the whey.

Into the microwave one last time, again for 35 seconds. Mine looked like the picture above–there was some very milky whey, which I didn’t drain off. When the cheese comes out of the microwave, add your salt, then start kneading the cheese.

It’s a lot easier to knead this time, and all of a sudden, it’ll form a ball. Keep kneading for another minute, then form it into whatever shape you’d like–some people do bite-sized pieces, but I’m lazy and just left it as a large ball.

As you can see, I got about 19 ounces of cheese from this. It’ll last maybe a week in the fridge, if you can keep yourself from eating it all.

Success with mozzarella was pretty heady. I’m thinking that I’m going to try queso blanco next, and after that I might go crazy and try my hand at halloumi or blue cheese. There will, of course, be pictures.

Have you guys tried cheesemaking? Anyone have any favorite books or recipes to share?