Say 'cheeez'!!

In December Charles & I attended a whole day of cheesemaking classes on a goat farm north-east of Nashville. It was informative (and tasty) and we came away with a recipe booklet and all the enzymes and rennet needed to make different chevres and fetas and mozzerella.  The feta and chevres need RAW goats milk, something that is impossible to buy and illegal for farmers to sell to you. The only way around this is to buy a 'share' of a goat herd and then you get milk every week from the farmer.  I don't really have a need for three gallons of raw goats milk each week, so that's not a very practical solution.
The mozzerella, however, is made with regular whole cow's milk. Today, we have rain. Lots of it. Beginning at 7am and going through to evening and I wasn't sure what to do with my wonderful day of homey freedom. Then it hit me! Make cheese!  I ran out and bought a gallon of whole milk, pulled the enzymes from the freezer, sterilized pots and utensils and THREE mason jars for the finished product, and got to work. There's really very little to it. You stir some citric acid and lipase into the milk, warm it to 88 degrees, then add something else (the name of which eludes me at this moment) and also stir in rennet, and continue warming to 105 degrees, pull it off the heat, cover and 'set' for twenty minutes. The whole thing seperates into curds and whey (I seem to remember a nursery rhyme about curds and whey . . .what was that?)
You strain off the whey and nuke the curds in the microwave (this is contemporary cheesemaking after all - not sure what they did for this part in the pre-microwave days) for a minute, drain off more whey and 'paddle' the curds with the back of a spoon. Repeat. Eventually it is supposed to come together into a smooth and shiny mass of mozzerella.  Mine wasn't quite like that.  It was more seperated, more granular, less smooth.  But I persevered. I continued nuking it, paddling it, nuking it some more, paddling it some more.  It started to come together but took a whole lot longer than I remember my teachers taking! And it never did become smooth and shiny.  Oh well, it held together and allowed me to pinch off small pieces which I formed into balls, dropped into cool water, drained, put in a mason jar and covered with olive oil. Mission accomplished!

After all that, a gallon of milk made very little cheese! I think it had something to do with my curds being granular (maybe I stirred too vigorously?). When I strained it, a lot of curds fell through the strainer and into my sink. Next time I'll fight my innate nature and stir gently and maybe the curds will be larger and more solid and I'll end up with more cheese. As is it, those three sterilized mason jars? Two are back in the cupboard, unused, and the one remaining is half full with cheese!   I'll try again, maybe next weekend. My plan is to perfect it and, this summer, when tomatoes and basil are at their prime, have some friends over for Salad Caprese with a little focaccia and a crisp, chilled white wine for lunch. . . . mmm . . . .the thought of that on a gray, rainy day like today makes me smile!