Monday, November 9, 2020

Cheese Making

I started an exciting new hobby today—cheese making. I made my first pound of mozzarella today. 

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1_9D8qQkHW9MlfM3kqnthxuDJCLxpt3eh

I started with a thermometer and a basic cheese making kit that I ordered from Amazon (above).

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1uFSEOsBssbBtjJdNIOEBQSQ8c1je1RG2

It was cool to watch the chemical reaction of the curds separating from the whey (future science experiment coming!) 

I'm often a messy cook.  I spread everything out on the counter by my stove.


I'm glad I got the cheese kit that had the cheese cloth in it.  I tried straining them out with the strainer as the recipe suggested.  It was much easier just dumping them in the colander with the cheese cloth in it and gently encouraging the whey to drip out.


One gallon of milk makes about one pound of mozzarella cheese.  (The pic below shows a little bit less than one pound of cheese because it was just so good.)  I did the microwave process of nuking it 60 seconds twice and kneeded it a bit and got rid of the grainy texture (above) to the smooth, shiny texture (below).  It really was easy to make.


You may wonder why I'm buying a gallon of milk to make only one pound of cheese... well, since I no longer can go to my job we have been getting different grocery giveaways locally.  Every kid in our school district (and most kids in our county in public schools) get the free breakfast/lunch program.  Each week we get one gallon of milk along with some other food items for our son provided by our school.  We have a scheduled weekly pick-up time.

Our church also distributed a Farmers to Families program where we get a large box of groceries with tons of great stuff from local farmers.  That was another gallon of milk.  Then my friend didn't want the gallon of milk in her box, hence another gallon of milk.  I know I could freeze milk, but my friend told me that her husband was making cheese with theirs.  It worked out great.

Someday I'll be able to go back to work and Owen will be back in school -- right?  Someday.  As for now we learn to adapt.   



5 comments:

Needled Mom said...

Looks like a fun and yummy new hobby.

Linda Swanekamp said...

The saying goes "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade". Well, you are making cheese out of the difficult situation you are in. Congrats to trying something new and tasty!

patty a. said...

How fun is this! I have made ricotta and yogurt, but never mozzarella. I even bought a book on cheesemaking - One Hour Cheese - but have never attempted to make anything else. Getting that kit was a great idea instead of trying to source everything you need. How did the cheese taste? I bet it was the best mozzarella you ever had! So now you will have to spread the word so anyone else with too much milk can pass it your way.

The Joyful Quilter said...

Very cool, Kathy!! What's the next step? Is it grate-able at its current state? I'm interested to know how you plan to use that fresh mozzarella. Layered with roasted red peppers? YUM!!

My Sister Made Me Do It.... said...

wow......definitely a fun thing to do with kids too!