Homemade Mozzarella Attempt 1

I know a dairy farmer. Well, actually, I know a dairy farmer's wife but met the farmer yesterday - when we got together to make fresh mozzarella. From looking online, it didn't seem too difficult but in truth, it was more finicky that I would have thought. We decided to try 2 different types of cheese - acid coagulated cheese and culture coagulated cheese. Both batches looked like cheese along the way but there were some missteps (if only we knew where they were...). Here's a look at our first attempt at cheese. In the end, we did get something that looked and tasted like cheese, so I guess that's something. By the way, shout out to Manning Farm Dairy for the milk and new friendship!

The recipe and special equipment. Perhaps our folly started here? We had enough milk to make a double batch or 2 but our pot wasn't big enough, so I had double the rennet and citric acid but only about 1 3/4 gallon of milk.

Farm fresh milk, from that morning! So yes, raw milk. The sites online said that if you can get raw milk, it's a little easier to make the cheese - anything to make the process easier!

Our very sophisticated measuring device.

First you heat the milk. This is the cultured batch, but it's generally the same process for both types. you add the rennet and let it sit.

Then you need to cut the curd - or cut the cheese...sorry couldn't help myself!

Then heat again.

Drain off the whey - but don't throw it out! I now have a quart of whey, now to decide what to do with it...

For the cultured cheese, it needs to sit in a water bath until the pH is right.

For the acid coagulated cheese, you strain off the curds from the whey. Then you microwave the curds.

Hopefully they get stringy, like cheese. Careful, this part is hot (notice the fashionable gloves).

There's some good stretch here!! But in the end, fresh mozzarella it was not. It turned more into regular aged mozzarella - not bad, just not what we were thinking.

It was soft after spending some time in the fridge, but it was easily grate-able.

It's pretty good looking cheese for pizza!

And in the end, that's what we were going to do with it all along. So, fresh mozzarella, it is not. Cheese? Yes it is. We decided that we would try again, of course. Maybe find a local cheese maker and take a class? We were going wrong somewhere, just not sure where. In all, it was a fun afternoon with a new friend (and her great kids) and I made out like a bandit with a farm frozen chicken, milk (of course) and ice cream!