Easy Smeezie Mozzarella
Here’s what you need:
- 2 gallons unhomogenized, whole milk (“Cream on Top”)*
- 3 teaspoons citric acid powder
- 1/4 tablet rennet, dissolved in 1/4 cup cool water
- 4 teaspoons kosher salt
- a good thermometer
- a large pot
Here’s what you do:
Pour cold milk into a large pot. I like to use a 4 gallon, heavy bottom pot for this recipe.
Sprinkle citric acid into the cold milk and stir. Turn the burner on to medium and begin to heat the milk to 88°-90°, stirring occasionally to get an accurate temperature reading.
When the milk temperature reaches between 88°-90°, pour in the dissolved rennet while stirring gently.
Keep stirring slowly. Within a few minutes, the milk will begin to thicken. The curd (globs of clotted white curd) will separate from the whey (the clear, yellowish liquid). I usually move the pot off the burner for a couple of minutes until the milk begins to separate.
Turn up the heat to medium high. When the temperature reaches 110°, place a colander over another pot and carefully pour the curds and whey into it. Return the whey to the large pot and continue to heat. Gently press the whey out of the mass of curds remaining in the colander for a minute or so then put the mass of curds back into the heating pot of whey.
When the whey temperature reaches 120°F, start stretching the mozzarella. Lift the mass of curds out of the whey with your hands (let it cool a few seconds if it’s too hot to handle), then begin pulling and stretching the curd mass into a rope. If the curd mass breaks when stretched, press it back together and put it back into the pot of whey to heat up a little more.
Stretch the cheese into a rope, working out any lumps. Allow the ends of the rope to drop back into the whey as you go. Fold it in half and stretch it out again into a rope a few more times until you have a soft, stretchy, smooth, shiny rope of cheese. When the whey reaches 150°-160°F you should be done stretching.**
Squeeze the cheese into a ball and let it sit in the hot whey a couple of minutes until the cheese is hot throughout. Sprinkle the salt onto a work surface. Working quickly, take the hot mozzarella ball out of the whey and knead in the salt (like you’re making bread). Put the salted mozzarella back into the whey for a minute to get hot, then roll it into a log or a ball. I usually cut the cheese into 4 equal pieces.- The mozzarella is ready to eat! It is wonderful fresh. It will be good for about a week refrigerated and wrapped tightly in plastic wrap.
* I get my unhomogenized milk from Remember When Dairy which is carried at Central Market or Whole Foods.
** If you let the whey get too hot, the cheese will melt back into it. If you are using homogenized milk, it will probably start to turn grainy like ricotta as the temperature approaches 160°F. You could use calcium chloride to prevent this but I’ve never tried it.
