I have to admit to not following the directions. I used lemon juice instead of citric acid without looking up the ratio, and didn't put in enough. We added the rennet at the right temperature, nothing happened, Hanna looked it up online, we cooled the milk, added more lemon juice (3 ounces total), reheated it, added a few specks more rennet, and carried on reasonably successfully, all things considered.
Also, we'd bought our rennet (and all our current supplies) from Danlac Industries, our nearest cheese making supplier. Their ingredients don't translate straight across, so there was some guess work involved there too. Here Hanna is checking to see if the curds are starting to set.
The answer is yes!
Hanna squeezed out the excess whey:
And then began the process of folding it over and over with a wooden spoon, heating in between times:
Jim had taken about a fifth of the curds to do without salt at all (as an experiment for a family member with kidney disease). Here he is testing the stretchability of the mozz.
Working the cheese makes for hot, red hands!
Here's a bunch of tasty little mozza balls. Turned out pretty decent, if I do say so myself!
You did far better than I did. I haven't been able to get mozzarella to set at all. Did you use whole milk? I tried with 2% and thought maybe the low milk fat was the problem, but I know I've seen low fat mozz. in the store so there must be a way to do it. More rennet, maybe?
ReplyDeleteBTW, I guess that explains why you weren't online last night. ;)
ReplyDeleteYeah, we were a tad busy! We used whole milk but the recipe does say 2% can be used. We didn't get the whole taffy-pulling stretchiness, but it's pretty decent for all that.
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