Making Mozzarella - Take Two

They say "The third time's the charm." I sure hope so because I haven't had much luck with take one or take two. I've wanted to try making mozzarella ever since I made the hop panir a couple of weeks ago. I purchased a 30 Minute Mozzarella and Ricotta kit online from The New England Cheesemaking Supply Company for the task and on Monday night I tried making mozzarella for the first time. It seemed simple enough - dilute some citric acid, add it to milk. Warm the milk, add some rennet. Get curds! Make cheese.

Arrghhh. Somehow I screwed it up. I think I mixed up the citric acid and rennet solutions and added them in the wrong order. I'm not sure. All I do know is that I had a big sour mess to clean up and I'd wasted a whole gallon of precious milk.

Today I had the day off and thought I'd try it again with another gallon of Evan's unhomogenized whole milk. This time I'd be sure to distinquish the citric acid and the rennet. Back to the kitchen - dilute some citric acid, add it to milk, warm the milk, add the rennet, and Bravo - I got curd. I excitedly sliced it and then managed to screw up the process again. Why didn't I read the directions?!$$* I totally missed the part about reheating after cutting the curd and then "carefully ladeling" the curd to separate it from the whey. I just skipped ahead to the next step which said to "pour off the remaining whey". Well, I tried pouring off a whole gallon of whey and consequently broke the soft curds up into ricotta sized pieces that wouldn't bind together. I tried a whole host of things - heating the curds, trying to squeeze off more whey, adding salt to dry it out. Finally, after putting the whole mess back on the stove in a gallon of hot water for about 15 minutes, I was able to get something that I could knead. My thirty minute mozzarella turned into a two hour headache and all I got were two golf-ball sized chunks of tough cheese for my trouble. I sliced one for lunch. It didn't taste bad, but it sure was rubbery. The other chunk is in the refrigerator and I'll probably put it in a salad for tomorrow's lunch.

I'm not totally discouraged. I'll give it another try - because I truly believe "The third time's the charm." Besides, I've read those directions so many times now, I think I could do it by heart. Well, maybe not. Stay tuned for take three in the continuing saga of Making Mozzarella.

PS - The troubles here are due to my own ignorance and are not in any way related to the quality of the cheese kit or the milk, both of which are excellent.