Cheese making in pictures

[HODAG]

Miss Lillie and I decided to make a batch of mozz. yesterday.

Chefs assistant checking curd formation


curds ready for sqeezing


curds after squeezing, ready for heating


formed ready for cooling


the finished product


the best part, testing

[BUBBAZANETTI]

looks tasty, i'd like to give it a try, you think you could send me instructions???

[HODAG]

get the 1 hour mozz kit from this site
http://www.leeners.com/mozzarella.html

[REBECCAV]

Wow - that mozz looks tasty! And you make it so easy! As if someone of my -er- limited culinary skills could be successful...

[iRene]

Hoooray! Everyone to marK11LT's for PIZZA!!!!
This was an interesting post- Thanks!

[dancogan]

And the chef's assistant is just cute as the dickens! Great shots, thanks for sharing.

[Visian]

My wife has the bright idea of making and selling organic goat cheese in our retirement years.

We spent Christmas day reading one of her presents... a book titled The Perils and Pleasures of Domesticating Goat Cheese.

The reason I support this endeavor is that the goats will take care of my yard maintenance responsibilities.

Cheese-making is a labor of love. Thanks, Mark for sharing yours!

Ian

[BRADFORDBENN]

So when do we get our free samples?

[RIDERR1150GSADV]

Thanks for the link!

[braddog]

You and Miss Lillie sure made it look easy, Mark.

That young lady could have a future in front of the camera, for sure.

[GREGFEELER]

My wife has the bright idea of making and selling organic goat cheese in our retirement years.

We spent Christmas day reading one of her presents... a book titled The Perils and Pleasures of Domesticating Goat Cheese.

The reason I support this endeavor is that the goats will take care of my yard maintenance responsibilities.

Cheese-making is a labor of love. Thanks, Mark for sharing yours!

Ian

That's a cheezy idea, Ian. Hopefully somone won't get your goat.

[HODAG]

I've done about 5 batches of mozz. so far, and only had to toss one batch. My second batch I tried to quick cool it using cold water and it turned spongy, not good. I've read a bunch on the art and they suggest you start with mozz. and move on from there.
I use a mix of store and fresh raw milk. The store milk is milder, and easier to use. The raw milk gives you a much richer and a higher yield per gallon.
This last batch was 3/4 gal of raw and 1/2 gal of store bought 1%. If you look closely at the picture of the curd ball in the measuring bowl you can see white and yellowish curds because of the different milks.
I'll start doing the hard cheeses next, either a gouda or colby. The bad part is the 30-60 day wait.
Its nice involving Miss Lillie she just loves cheese, and thinks it neat to make. Also it is relatively safe to have her help as the highest temp the milk gets is 115 degrees. When I pull it though the curd is pretty hot and gets a little tricky.

Maybe samples at the solstice, a smoked gouda would be nice. My goal is eventually doing a 3-4 lb block of parmesan aged 2-3 years.

[BRADFORDBENN]

Maybe samples at the solstice, a smoked gouda would be nice. My goal is eventually doing a 3-4 lb block of parmesan aged 2-3 years.

Good for you to find something to do with Lillie. I will wait the couple of years for the cheese.

Last night on Dirty Jobs they made cheese and it was pretty cool. They did a colby in about eight hours.... Might be hard to do with a little one around, but might be a good time to practice the song without words.

[kreinke]

Mark,
after draining the whey off and pressing the curd, try taking a Kitchenaid mixer with a dough hook and put the curd in with some near-boiling water. You can cause more consistent casein "knitting" and get more moist mozz my mixing and stretching the curd mass in hot water. Truly "gourmet" Italian cheese factories actually use giant Hobart mixers. How much the cheese is "stretched" in the hot water in a semi-molten state makes a world of difference in how the pizza "flows" across a pizza.

Really good mozz stays beige colored even when the crust is burned black.

The "wash water" should have roughly a slightly opaque creamy color.

What % butterfat milk did you use? The mozz factories usually use 1 1/2%.

How do I know? I worked in one of the more modern Italian cheese factories as a maintenance electrician for 9 years.

[HODAG]

Mark,
after draining the whey off and pressing the curd, try taking a Kitchenaid mixer with a dough hook and put the curd in with some near-boiling water. You can cause more consistent casein "knitting" and get more moist mozz my mixing and stretching the curd mass in hot water. Truly "gourmet" Italian cheese factories actually use giant Hobart mixers. How much the cheese is "stretched" in the hot water in a semi-molten state makes a world of difference in how the pizza "flows" across a pizza.

Really good mozz stays beige colored even when the crust is burned black.

The "wash water" should have roughly a slightly opaque creamy color.

What % butterfat milk did you use? The mozz factories usually use 1 1/2%.

How do I know? I worked in one of the more modern Italian cheese factories as a maintenance electrician for 9 years.

thanks for the tips,
Did they use buffalo milk?
is the wash water a brine?
I've used 1%, whole (4-5%) from store
5-6% to almost all cream skimmed off raw.

Using whole raw milk resulted in the richest cheese I've ever had, almost like a butter kasse.