There are so many amazing cheeses to make! A great one to start with is Mozzarella.

Instructions:
1. Pour 2 gallons of strained milk into a stainless steel pot (I skim the cream off first).
2. Dissolve 2 tsp Citric Acid in a 1/2 cup of cool well water.
3. Dissolve 1/8 teaspoon liquid rennet in 1/4 cup cool water.
4. Stir the Citric Acid water into the milk. Next add 1/4 teaspoon powdered lipase and stir in.
5. Slowly heat to 86 degrees. Add rennet and gentle stir. From here I pull off the heat and let sit for 2 or more hours, covered.
6. Cut the curd into 1″ squares and return to stove. Gently heat to 102-104 degrees, stirring occasionally. This releases lots of whey.
7. Strain out as much whey as you can, and put the curd into a glass bowl. You can use a water bath, but I just use a microwave. Heat 30 seconds at a time, salting each time and gently stretching to release more whey. Strain and repeat.
8. Once most of the whey is out I taste it to make sure it is salty enough, and fold it into a nice ball. I usually put the warm cheese into a square Tupperware at this point as I like that shape to cut or shred from.
Notes:
When I first started we had so much trouble getting it to have flavor and not be rubbery. It was frustrating!
After scores of batches and time I think we have finally figured it out! I just made another 4 pounds of beautiful soft, flavorful and super melty mozzarella I would be proud to share with anyone. What’s changed?
1. Ditch the 30 minute mozzarella recipes. After adding the rennet I now always let the curd sit for at least 2 hours, often longer because I forget about it. This seems to help with everything – flavor, texture, and success rate.
2. Add lipase if you can, it reallly brings out the flavor in Italian cheeses.
3. SALT! We use canning salt, and shake on to taste, lots of salt makes for some mouth watering cheese
4. Fresh milk. I like our flavor the very best if it comes in from the cow warm and straight into my cheese pot.
Would love to hear if anyone else has tips that helped them! There are so many recipes out there, but everyone’s set up is a little different.
Now to make some pizza crusts for tonight

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