I made my first pound of Mozzarella this weekend. As I mentioned in my last post about Animal Vegetable Miracle there are great recipes at the end of each chapter. One such recipe is for 30 Minute Mozzarella. Barbara shares a trip with us in her book to a class at the New England Cheese Supply Company where a group of up and coming home cheese makers learned the fun and flavor of making homemade cheddar, queso blanco, and other such yummies.
As with many of Barbara's chapters I was drawn and inspired. So I went onto the New England Cheese Supply Company website and ordered myself some supplies for making my own cheese. Jody and I have already been making our own pizza from scratch- Wheat crust, fresh basil, tomato, and brocolli. The only thing needed was fresh mozzarella. Making the mozzarella was amazingly easy and went exactly according to recipe. It's really cool to see the curds pulling together and to have it scoop out nicely from the whey. I can't say I was able to fold and pull the cheese without burning my hands a little bit but all the same pretty entertaining to pretend like you're pulling fresh mozzarella in an Italian bistro (see pic).
In the end the flavor was pleasantly familiar, the only difference we found was when we baked the pizza the cheese actually began to brown a little on top and didn't melt down to that stretchy-gooey pizza cheese we see on TV. I'm guessing that is because of the speedy method of making this cheese compared to normal cheese making methods. All the same, great flavor, quick to make, and a lot of fun.
Our next cheesy adventure...ha, that's funny... is going to be an herbed goat cheese. This one will age for at least 4 weeks and I'm guessing will have some tremendous flavor. My only problem is finding goat's milk that isn't "ultra-pasteurized".
2 comments:
http://www.jumpingoodgoats.com/
A local making goat cheese. She may have some extra milk for you to practice with... Otherwise, give us a call and we can hook you up with some others who have goats.
Shazoo, Hey thanks for sharing, I have actually stopped by to see the folks at jumping good goats (their new place is on my way home) but they won't release any milk to the public because their pasturizing equipment won't be operational for another 6 months! So, yes, if you know others with goats producing milk I'd would really appreciate it. Can't find any in the store that's not Ultra-pasturized. Thanks, Brian
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