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Adventures in the kitchen: Mozzarella making

Had I been born a couple centuries ago, my prospects as a mere woman would be considerably dimmer than they are today. T is indisputably the better cook.  And as this piece (originally published at Good) demonstrates, I can’t even make cheese when a Mad Millie kit puts everything I need right in front of me.

Cheese and I have always gotten along well. It’s a genetic thing. Thinking back, I can recall memories of my mother standing in the kitchen in the evenings, slicing off slivers from her trusty Colby block, enjoying a solitary snack.

Over the years I’ve progressed from sliced cheese to block cheese to soft cheeses, and now, the full gamut of Nosh’s displays. But as with other dairy products, the price of the good stuff (and even the mediocre stuff) makes it a luxury rather than a staple. So I was amped to try my hand at making my own.

The first attempt started off well on the back foot. After unpacking the entire Mad Millie cheesemaking kit, I had to make an emergency trip to the supermarket to pick up some disposable gloves. Armed with two kinds (the clear food preparation type and a hardier all purpose variety), it was game on.

I’d seen a demonstration of ricotta making first-hand, from start to finish, and while it looked easy as pie (and is therefore probably the place to start as a beginner) it’s actually not a cheese I’m a big fan of. No – straight on to mozzarella it was – how hard could it be with step-by-step guidance?

making mozzarella

They say cooking is an art, and baking a science. The boy and I both tend to fly by the seat of our pants, but it’s important to observe the times and temperatures laid out in the instructions, so I kept the booklet close at hand (too close, perhaps; it’s permanently wrinkled from rogue spills). Also, its important that you choose your kitchen utensils properly and most important the knives. I suggest you to read this article on cutco knife reviews to make sure you choose them properly.

All started off well. The mixture began to coagulate into satisfyingly solid curds:

making mozzarella 2

Once formed, we wrapped them up neatly to drain…

cheesemaking 3

and then revealed these.

cheesemaking 5

So far, so good.

Now the tricky part – the rewetting and working of the curd into balls. The general idea is that you place some curds into a slotted spoon, lower the spoon into the hot water, then pull them back out and form the mozzarella balls with your hand. The curds at this point should be lush and pliable; I’d seen this part at the demonstration. However, these specimens were neither stretchy nor particularly soft. It seemed as if they’d lost too much moisture along the way and couldn’t get their mojo back, no matter how long they spent plunged back into the pot.

cheesemaking 6

The end result? An odd texture I’d describe as something like a firm feta – not what we were going for, but at least it was vaguely cheesy and definitely edible.

cheesemaking 7

It made for a good toast topping, anyway, along with a bit of bite courtesy of a red onion.

mozzarella making 8homemade cheese 9

I should probably have prefaced this by noting that I am almost always spectacularly unsuccessful at Pioneer Woman-type pursuits. I’ve never successfully made bread from scratch at home, and I’ve never, ever had dough double in size (despite the countless times I’ve tried baking my own cinnamon rolls). I’ve failed at yoghurt, too. (I have managed to cobble together both hummus and mayonnaise from scratch, but not to the point of cracking a decent flavouring of either.) So it’s not entirely surprising that my grand ambitions in this instance also fell short.

After a couple more tries at mozzarella, again with the same result (and a separate iffy attempt at mascarpone – our improvised double boiler couldn’t hit the required temperature heights) I’ve decided I may just have to go back to basics and start with ricotta.

5 thoughts on “Adventures in the kitchen: Mozzarella making

  • Reply cantaloupe January 12, 2013 at 00:13

    I would never think to make cheese myself. I lack any of the necessary equipment too, haha. But your attempt is impressive, even if it was a failure! Be proud of even trying, girl!

    Also, this reminded me of this time I went to Wisconsin and got these cheddar cheese curds and they were soooo delicious!!! They made this squeaky noise in your mouth too that was oddly satisfying. Mmm, cheese curds.

  • Reply The Asian Pear January 12, 2013 at 07:03

    Yknow… Your 2nd pic reminded of Tofu Fa… A Chinese tofu sweet dessert. And the cheese curds look good enough for a poutine! (Fries, hot gravy with cheese curds).

    Too bad the mozzarella isn’t turning out right though. It’s a valiant effort though. More than I’m willing to do!

  • Reply Janine January 12, 2013 at 10:22

    OMG I want to make this. Looks amazing, and my boyfriend would love it!

  • Reply Pauline January 13, 2013 at 08:32

    I have wanted to give it a try as well! But I don’t have a kit so need to find all ingredients separately. It certainly looks good!

  • Reply Vanessa January 15, 2013 at 03:57

    YOU MADE CHEESE!? Colour me impressed! It doesn’t look that complicated but cheese-making is apparently super difficult to get just right and I’ve never met anyone who’s *made their own cheese*. Wow.

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