Homemade Mozzarella Cheese

Learning new skills is always a good idea especially when you are a prepper or even just concerned over current events or even just because.  I've been making easy soft cheeses like yogurt, farmers and ricotta for quite some time.  I even tried my hand at making cream cheese that came out very close to store bought.  So I decided that branching out from making simple cheeses might be rather interesting.

The first rule of thumb with cheesemaking is to use the best milk possible.  Unfortunately, all of our milk is pasteurized but after a bit of experimentation, I found a brand that gave rather good results.  If you try cheesemaking, keep that in mind.  One brand may work better for you than another.

Fresh mozzarella cheese is not difficult to make but there are two steps where the process can fail:  at the curd stage and at the stretch stage.   Other necessary ingredients are rennet, citric acid and non-iodized salt.  A thermometer is essential as different stages require different temperatures.  It's important to take that stage to that temperature and no further.  I also found a good pair of heavy vinyl gloves quite useful because forming a ball for stretching involves putting your hands into rather hot whey.

For fresh eating, the mozzarella cheese can be stored in whey and refrigerated for an hour.  For longer storage, rinse in a cold water bath the store for upto 3 days in the refrigerator.  The mozzarella cheese will shred easier after a day and it does freeze nicely for later use.