Making Mozzarella

The almonds were to sustain me while making the cheese.

Have you ever made your own mozzarella cheese?  Well, it's simple, fun, and delicious!  I went online to Leeners and bought citric acid, calcium chloride, and rennet. Of course I could have bought their pre-packaged mozzarella cheese kit, but that would have been  more expensive and made less cheese. Then at WalMart, I picked up pickling salt, the slotted stainless steel spoon, and whole milk.

  

 Curd forming

My finished fresh mozzarella

Looks like part of an anatomy lesson, doesn't it!

I'm not sure exactly what I did wrong that gave it that brain-like appearance, but I think it was that it cooled down too fast when I was stretching it.

So did I save any money making my own mozzarella cheese?  Hmm.....no. Although it tasted great, I would have to have my own cow (and have it paid for) before I'd be saving any money. But then, money isn't everything, right?

 Ingredients ready to put on the pizza dough

 Just before going into the oven the first time

 Homemade pizza with FRESH mozzarella.

What could be better!

In case you'd like to do this yourself, here's the video I used to learn how to make this easy and delicious cheese:

But if you DON'T want your cheese to look like a brain, you might want to use this instructional video instead.





Try it. Your kids might enjoy this project also. And I hear that the whey left over from your mozzarella can be used to make ricotta cheese. How fantastic is that! Unfortunately, I threw the whey way away before I knew that. :-(

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This post is linked to  Made from Scratch Tuesday
and Tasty Tuesday
and Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays
and Wandering Wednesday
and What's Cookin' Wednesday
and We Did it Wednesday
and Thrilling Thursday
and Favorite Things Friday
and I'm Lovin' it Friday
and It's a Hodgepodge Friday
and Fat Camp Friday
and Fun With Food Friday