Homemade Cheese

The past fall and winter I have been teaching cheese-making classes at Culinary School of the Rockies. Here are the recipes for homemade Ricotta and Mozzarella. The best cheese is made with the best milk so find a good source of cream-top milk fresh from the source if you can. If not you should be able to successfully make these cheeses with store-bought whole milk.

Mozzarella

Yield= about one pound

2 gallons whole milk (skim milk may be used but yield will be lower and cheese will be drier)

1T citric acid powder

¼ tablet rennet

1/4c cool water

1/4c salt (for salting whey)

1. Dissolve rennet in water.

2. Pour milk into a large pot.

3. Sprinkle citric acid onto the cold milk and stir to mix.

4. Bring milk to 88º-90º over medium heat (for goat’s milk 86º-88º) stirring the milk a few times. It will take about 10 minutes.

5. Pour dissolved rennet into the milk while stirring with an up and down motion. Then heat the milk to 100º- 105º.

6. Turn off heat.

7. Keep stirring slowly. The milk will begin to thicken and clot. Curds will separate from the whey.

8. Place a colander over another pot. Drain curds and reserve whey.

9. Press whey out of curds in colander.

10. Return whey to stove. Add salt and heat to 120º.

11. Place curds back into hot whey.

12. Heat the cheese in the hot whey and then pick up and squeeze and stretch the cheese into a rope. Wear rubber gloves if this is too hot for your hands.

13. Drop the cheese back into the hot whey for a few minutes when it starts to cool off and then take it out and stretch it again.

14. Keep heating your whey (as hot as you can stand it up to about 160º) and continue stretching your cheese until it is smooth and shiny like taffy.

Whole-Milk Ricotta

Yield= 1 ½ - 2 pounds

1 gallon whole milk

1 t citric acid

1/4c cool water

1t salt

1-2 T heavy cream (optional)

1. Place milk in large pot.

2. Dissolve citric acid in water and add solution to milk.

3. Heat mixture to 185º to 195º (do not boil) stirring often.

4. Keep at temp. turning off heat when curds and whey separate.

5. Let sit undisturbed for 10 minutes.

6. Line a colander with butter muslin.

7. Carefully ladle the curds into the colander.

8. Hang muslin to drain for 20-30 minutes until the desired consistency has been reached.

9. Add cream if desired for smoother texture.

10. Ricotta will last for 1-2 weeks refrigerated.