This whole thing started with a trip to the farmers market where admittedly I paid well over what I should have for some heirloom tomatoes. It may have been the weather, or the smell of kettle corn, but there I was purchasing 4 giant beauties for $6 a pound. I'm fully aware that my local grocery store charges $4, and fully aware that the money I spent on these was without a doubt more than I should have. So needless to say having spent a fair amount of money on these I wasn't about to just throw them on a BLT (which don't get me wrong would be perfectly acceptable because, well, bacon.) I needed something that would show off the flavors of the tomatoes, not hide them. It was an easy choice to make, a Caprese salad. Now I was faced with the dilemma. I could go find a very soft, great quality mozzarella from one of the many great cheese purveyors, or I could make my own. Here is something to know about me: unless I am exhausted or it's just way more cost effective to purchase, I will choose to make my own over buying. From scratch cooking is always better if you can. I found a recipe and decided it would make a pretty great Saturday project that I could share with all my awesome Forkers! ;) I figured the local health food store might carry the two things that were the most obscure, Rennet and Citric Acid.Citric Acid is a chemical that occurs naturally in citrus fruit. Be advised when making cheese, lemon juice often doesn't work, you need to find the powder form of citric acid. This has to do with some complicated chemistry that is a fun read if you have the time.
So that started a journey because of course my local health food store didn't have either, something I discovered after I drove there. I looked up a cheese shop in Denver, said a small prayer to the culinary gods, and headed in that direction. Thankfully The Truffle Cheese Shop had Rennet. I grabbed the vegetable Rennet, got some pointers from one of the nicest ladies I've met, and inquired about citric acid. They didn't have it but I was told the Apothecary two doors down carried it. I was smiling ear to ear because who doesn't love it when a plan works out. So after the quick trip I headed home to what I so desperately wanted to be my first successful attempt at mozzarella cheese. Unfortunately the first go wasn't as successful as I had hoped it would be. I even watched two different videos on the process and read a couple different recipes.
To make mozzarella you mix citric acid with 1 cup of cool water, combine that in a large pot with 1 gallon of whole milk ( non ultra pasteurized, non homogenized milk is best but I'll go into that a bit later) and heat until 90 degrees Fahrenheit. While this is heating you will mix your rennet with ¼ cup cool water. Once at 90 degrees, turn the heat off and mix in the rennet mixture stirring for 30 seconds. Cover and wait for 10-25 minutes. Here is where I started to have some trouble. From all the videos and all the pictures I looked at, my cheese mixture was supposed to congeal into one big round that I could take a knife and slice through into a checkered pattern. My milk after 10 minutes did not do this. I could feel that it had come together but the top still resembled a more curd like structure than a solid mass. I cut into it all the same and turned the heat back up where I heated it to 105 degrees and removed the solids from the whey (that's the liquid). I then heated the whey to 150 degrees and poured it into the bowl that held the curds. I let it sit for a minute, mainly because I was gathering the courage to stick my hands into the scorching hot water. Everything I read says to use gloves during this process, feel free to follow that advice. So I grab the curds into a ball and test if they're at the correct consistency. It should stretch not rip. So I stretch and fold, remembering what the woman at the Truffle Cheese shop said about not over stretching it. Of course I can't get my hands and my brain to figure out how to get this into a ball and I wind up working my cheese too much. I also, because of the advice of the recipe I'm using, wrap my poorly shaped ball in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge. If I could say there was one thing I did that ruined my cheese it was this. Although the taste was of a mozzarella, the consistency was of a cheap store bought mozzarella, which is fine for shredding and using on pizza, but not what I wanted for a fresh Caprese salad. To say I was disappointed was an understatement. I spent almost the rest of the night moping about, looking at troubleshooting tips and forums, searching for an answer that could fix my mozzarella dilemma. So many of them talked about the milk. If the milk has been pasteurized, meaning heated past 161 degrees Fahrenheit, it won't work. So when milk is pasteurized, for our own protection the milk is heated to kill off any germs or bacteria. When this happens it heats the proteins, thus affecting the quality of the curds themselves. This reason is why when I attempted the first cheese and honestly the second, I never got the solid mass I had seen in all the cheese making tutorials. So after reading all I could, I decided it must be the milk that caused my cheese to come out undesirable. I decided my beautiful tomatoes would have to wait another day and I would attempt it again, changing the milk.
The next day I headed out to my local health food store once again surveying the milk section in search for raw milk, aka unpasteurized milk. I found one that was pasteurized but not homogenized,(so it at least isn't broken down by that mechanical process, again another fun read.) and since I had spent the last 10 minutes staring at the milks, I decided this would have to do.
Fast forward to the next attempt and I've followed the same steps but I used the new milk and let my milk/rennet mixture sit for 25 minutes. When I added the hot water to my curds I also let it sit for about two minutes allowing the curds to come up in temperature. I again stretched and folded the cheese only 3 times. There were a few things that seemed to go better during the second attempt. The curds solidified better, it had a much better stretch to it, and they actually looked like a ball of mozzarella, mostly due to me actually reading the instructions all the way through. However, if I had to credit the success to one change it would certainly be storage. Instead of just throwing my painstakingly homemade cheese in plastic wrap and calling it good I took the time to research the best way to store it and every thing I read said moisture. So I made a water and salt brine that my little balls of love could sit in. That night, I took my homemade mozzarella, my heirloom tomatoes, and my basil and made one gorgeous Caprese salad that I drizzled with balsamic glaze and a sprinkle of salt.
Homemade Mozzarella
1¼ cup water, divided
1½ teaspoons citric acid
¼ teaspoon liquid rennet
1 gallon whole milk, do not use ultra pasteurized*kosher salt for sprinkling.
In a small bowl or measuring cup, mix the citric acid into 1 cup of cool water until dissolved.
Pour the milk into a 5 quart pot. Stir in the citric acid solution and set the pot over medium-high heat. Warm to 90 degrees F, stirring gently and frequently. While your milk heats, in another small bowl mix the rennet into a ¼ cup of cool water.
Turn off the heat and gently stir in the rennet solution. Count to 30 and then stop stirring. Cover the pot and allow it to sit undisturbed for 25 minutes.
After 25 minutes, check the curd which should look and feel like silken tofu, with a clear separation between the curd and the whey around the edges of the pot. (My milk never reached this stage but did solidify enough that I could move on to the next step.)
With a knife that is long enough to reach the bottom of the pot, cut
the curd into a checkerboard pattern.
Place the pot back over medium heat and warm the curds to 105 degrees F. Stir slowly and constantly. Try not to break the curds up too much, though they will eventually clump together.
Turn off the heat and continue stirring constantly for 5 more minutes.
Using a slotted spoon, ladle the curds into a bowl. Reheat the whey (the liquid) to 150 degrees F - the cheese will not stretch until it reaches 135 degrees F.
At this point you can put on culinary gloves or not depending on your tolerance for heat. Using a slotted spoon, lower the curds into the hot whey for a few minutes. To test if it's ready, pull a little piece - it should be very stretchy. Once ready, remove the curd sprinkle with salt and working quickly, pull, fold, and pull, repeating only one or two times. Then form into a ball or two by making a circle with your thumb and forefinger and pressing the mozzarella through. Place on a plate and continue to form the remaining curds in the same manner.
You can serve immediately or store. If storing combine enough water to cover your cheese and 1-2 tablespoons of salt in a plastic or glass container and cover the container.
Heirloom Caprese Salad
1-2 balls fresh Mozzarella cheese, sliced
2 large heirloom tomatoes, sliced
6-7 large basil leaves, torn in half
Balsamic glaze
Salt and pepper
On a serving dish, layer tomatoes, then basil, then Mozzarella. Continue this pattern until all tomato slices, Mozzarella and basil have been used. Drizzle with balsamic glaze and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Balsamic glaze
2 cups balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon brown sugar
Mix brown sugar and balsamic vinegar in a small sauce pan on the stove. Over medium heat let simmer until vinegar is reduced to half, stirring frequently. It should thicken and have the consistency of syrup. *Watch carefully as the vinegar and brown sugar can burn very quickly.
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