Homemade Mozerella Cheese.....YUMMY!!!

***The Ultra-Pasturized milk in this photo did NOT turn out as good, it was very crumbly

I found this recipe at: http://heart-hands-home.blogspot.com/2011/01/homemade-mozzarella-cheese.html

It's pretty simple to make and doesn't require the most complicated ingredients.

But here it is slightly altered:

1 gallon whole milk (just be sure that it is not Ultra-pasteurized)
     *for those of you who don't know this is the Vitamin D milk
1  tsp. citric acid (food grade-Amazon or Homebrew store)
1/4 rennet tablet
     *there is a liquid rennet, but you only use 1/2 this amount!
     *so this would be 1/8 tsp :)
2 tsp. cheese salt 
    *Kosher salt is fine, that's what I use, but USE LESS--1 tsp.
A big pot
Thermometer
Slotted spoon 
*Cheese cloth works awesome for getting as much liquid out and keeping as much cheese as possible

**I couldn't find these, but I did find liquid vegetable rennet at Good Earth, cost around $4-$6 I think and will last you a REALLY long time because you only use 1/8 tsp. There are two different kinds of rennet: animal and vegetable.

Heart, Hands, Home has amazing directions so I suggest you check out her page for photos and better instructions than I am giving.

How-to: Pour milk in pot over med heat, sprinkle citric acid over and stir a little,  heat to 90 degrees, turn off heat and stir in rennet for 20-30 sec, let this sit for 8-10 minutes undisturbed, slice into small cubes with a knife and use your slotted spoon to take out all the white chunks leaving as much of the liquid behind as possible.

I put my cheese into cheese cloth the 2nd time around so I could squeeze out the liquid-- this seemed to work really good! Then put your cheese in a pyrex measuring up, heat in microwave for 1 minute. Pour off more liquid, then if you need to reheat for 30 sec doing the same thing.

This is what happened with ULTRA pasteurized milk, still tasted good and I used it to sprinkle over eggs for breakfast, when you don't use the ultra pasteurized milk it gets stringy and you can make a proper cheese log

Eventually your cheese will look stringy, once this happens you can knead in your cheese (if using Kosher start with 1 tsp and slowly add more). Once you have the salt all worked in, form it into whatever shape you want and drop it into a ice bath for 5 minutes.

So far my favorite thing to do with this cheese is make mini caprese toothpick appetizers (I stole the idea from my good friend Lisa :)
* small grape or cherry tomatoes
*Basil leaves
*small chunk of your newly made mozarella
*sprinkle on a little salt and pepper
*drizzle some good balsamic vinegar over and enjoy! :)       


**********Update*************
I found another recipe that is a lot closer to the one that I use here:
http://www.simplebites.net/the-best-party-trick-ever-how-to-make-thirty-minute-mozzarella/