Mozzarella cheese-the challenge rises!

 The Paneer cheese was the test, and since we passed with flying colors, we chose this weeks date night to make a cheese that is a little more challenging. Mozzarella cheese has several more steps than Paneer, but it is another one of the cheeses you can make from the comfort of your own home.

Just like Paneer, we started by heating up the milk. A big difference between Paneer and Mozzarella is that Mozz has flavor that you add, plus other chemicals that you add, all while heating. The flavor is made by adding the Lipase to it, and the Citric Acid and Rennet are what cause it to curd. You can also add Calcium Chloride, all while it is heating up. We diluted all the chemicals in water except for the Lipase.

You heat up the milk with the chemicals until it curdles. Our new thermometer was not large enough for the pot that we were heating the milk in, so Sarah came up with this contraption made out of a binder clip and a bottle opener/magnet that would hold it in the milk.

Then you pour the curds into a strainer lined with cheese cloth so that you can separate the curds from the whey.

 

You take the curds in the cheese cloth and let gravity bring the whey out. Then you heat up the curds so that they are in a melty state, and bring them into a ball, wearing gloves of course. 

Then you knead the curds and shape them into balls, and you have your mozzarella. If you want to make string cheese, you knead it many many more times than we did.

It is very tasty. It is good as something you can eat all by itself. We also have put it on some salads and it also goes on pizza.