Homemade Fresh Mozzarella Cheese

If y’all like Fresh Mozzarella Cheese like we do, you are going to LOVE this recipe!!!

Have you purchased Fresh Mozzarella Cheese in the grocery store lately? The price is out of this world. This recipe will cost you approximately $3.00 for a big ol’ ball of cheese, depending on the price of your milk.

Fresh Mozzarella is actually very easy to make and the ingredients are readily available. Cheese is a staple in our homes (somewhere along the same lines as water LOL).

I saw an episode of The Pioneer Woman on TV one day and they were making this, it looked so EASY (and fun).  I ran out a couple days later and purchased everything I needed. The one thing that was not available at our grocery store was Vegetable Rennet, I easily found it by doing a search for a Brewery supply store and found the one closest to us (there were several in the area).  Let me tell y’all, this was the coolest store!!! Okay, more about that later LOL.

I followed the recipe and before I knew it, I had Fresh Mozzarella Cheese, and it was delicious!!!

Since that first time, I have tweaked the recipe and feel that the recipe below is the best thus far.

Never again will we be intimidated by Cheese LOL.  Go on, give it a try

Make it a great day, you deserve it!!!

Tracey and Aileen

Homemade Fresh Mozzarella Cheese

Ingredients

1 Gallon Whole Milk (Raw milk works best but pasteurized works also. We used pasteurized)

1/4 teaspoon Vegetable Rennet or 1/2 tablet added to 1 Cup Water

2 teaspoons Citric Acid (if this is not at your grocery store, they will have it at the Brewery supply)

1/4 cup Water

1/8 cup Salt

Directions

1. Add Citric Acid and Water to a large pot (We used a soup pot). Swish around to dissolve.

2. Add Milk to Citric Acid mixture

3. Warm over low heat, stirring occasionally, to a temperature of 90 degrees on an instant read thermometer. (Don’t worry if milk begins to curdle, it’s suppose to)

4. Remove from heat and add Rennet and Water mixture.

5. Stir with an up and down, motion for about a minute.

6. Place a lid on the pot and go find something to do for 10 minutes

7. After 10 minutes take a knife and cut down through the curd to form a checker board pattern. Make sure you cut all the way to the bottom of the pan. (Don’t worry if you do not have really firm curd at this point. I freaked out because mine was no where near firm LOL. It will all work out in the end)

8. Return the mixture to Medium heat and warm until it reaches 110 degrees.

9. Using a slotted spoon move the curd to a colander. What you will have left in the pot is the “whey”. This is great to save and use when making bread as it is full of nutrients.

10. Squeeze as much of the whey out of the curd as possible and place into a microwave safe bowl.  At this point you may find that your cheese has the texture of a Ricotta cheese if you used pasteurized milk. Don’t worry, that will change quickly.

11. Add Salt working it through the curd (Just a note about the salt. Do not use course salt as it will make your cheese grainy.)

12. Place in the microwave for 1 minute. Remove, squeeze and stretch the cheese working as much water out of it as possible. Pour off the water in the bottom of the bowl.

13. Place in the microwave for 35 seconds. Remove, squeeze and stretch as before.

14. Repeat one more time for 35 seconds and squeeze and stretch.

15. Form cheese into a ball and place into an ice bath to cool for about 10 minutes.

Enjoy!!!

At this point, you now have Fresh Mozzarella Cheese!!!

We prefer ours with olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh basil on top. Of course when I went to make this batch I didn’t have any fresh basil LOL, so I used dry and it worked out just fine.

This will last for several days in the fridge wrapped in plastic wrap. In our house, however, it doesn’t last for longer than about 5 minutes LOL. Everyone loves this.