Yes, you can make your own mozzarella. It gives you a great treat if you are missing the lovely soft mozzarella from South Mountain Creamery. All you need is milk, rennet, citric acid and salt. I got my recipe here. My first venture into cheesemaking. I halved the recipe.
I had a half gallon of fresh raw milk. Friends with cows are wonderful to have. I am doing a swap. Garlic scape pesto from my garlic next month for the milk to make cheese.
Bring milk with citric acid solution to the proper temp. Add the rennet solution and let it rest off the heat. It will begin to look like this. Mine took longer than ten minutes.
We have curds and whey. Not quite firm in the pic, but they got there. Curds being firmed up in the microwave.
After two 30 second cycles in the microwave, I added the salt and started to massage it and stretch it.
It needed another 30 seconds microwaving to get to the right temperature. I also lost my photo assistant to lawn cutting, so no pics of the stretching cheese. Here is the final product.
Fresh raw whole milk makes a softer creamier cheese. 2% milk, not ultra pasteurized supposedly makes the shinier white more solid version. It will be served tonight with venison steaks, for my local meal. Pics of the chilled sliced cheese later tonight or tomorrow.
I was surprised at how easy it was. Now, I need to figure out what to do with a large amount of whey. I hear I should use it instead of water in grains, soups, couscous, stews, and that it freezes well. I have about 50 ounces of whey in the fridge. More experimentation this week.
You know you’re a locavore when you make your own cheese. Next project, maybe a simple goat cheese with herbs. We know people with goats.
hocofood@@@
AnnieRie Unplugged 
Many, many years ago I took a cooking class at Piccolo’s with Chef Michael Wagner and he had us make mozzarella. Then he gave us all sorts of fillings to make that rolled mozzarella appetizer you can buy now with cheese & some kind of meat rolled jelly roll style. What you buy is nowhere near as delicious as freshly made with fresh herbs and things. You are right, the cheese is not as hard as you might think!
Where do you buy citric acid and rennet?
I got the citric acid at Larriland. Mrs. Wages, in the canning supply area.
Rennet at Harris Teeter, in the baking supplies. It is also used to make ice cream. It isn’t the favorite type for cheese making. Liquid is, but these are tablets.
They do work though. The brand is Junket.
Oh, and if you make cheese, use distilled water to dissolve the tablets and acid. We have well water which also is fine. Chlorinated water will affect the solutions.
I think I read somewhere that whey is also a good substitute for buttermilk in baked goods.
Congratulations on making an excellent-looking mozzarella. š
I’m thinking of getting a kit so I’ll have an ample supply of cheese making supplies now that I have found a source for raw milk here in Arizona š I was so excited to find out it was legal here!
I need to do this, when I worked at a restaurant I helped the chef a few times but then he passed away and took all his cheese making knowledge and skill with him. I hear you can also get liquid rennet at home brew stores so I need to check there. I wasn’t aware you needed distilled water, thanks for the tip!
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