Cheese making

Today my friend and I tried our hand at making CHEESE! We started out by making Mozzarella! We tried two different recipes. Mine was a "20 min mozzarella" that took a few hours! But hers was a few hour one that totally didn't work! CRAZY! But mine turned out great!

The process of cheese from a gallon of milk was fascinating! The cheese cloth died a sad death after the cheese making. I think it's because it was a softer cheese, maybe a cheese muslin would work better. Or another 30 mins wait time, and more draining time, instead of a rush and squeeze job.

After we separated the curds into mozzarella we took the whey and made whey ricotta! Amazing that after all that we could still get more cheese out of it. For cheese making you bring it up to a certain temp, add something (in this case a vinegar) and let it react and sit creating the separation of curds and whey.

See the reaction? Look closer... The little clouds? At first we couldn't see it, but it was awesome!

Look how much we got! Since we ruined the cheese cloth (and it would have been to wide) we used a towel lined with paper towels. A cheese muslin would be perfect for this. After it drained I added a bit of salt (you could also add herbs) and it was perfect! LOVED it! I wish it had made a bit more, it wasn't enough to make anything out of. Next time I'll make some cheese ravioli out of it.