The 4th Gallon

Finally. It took screwing up three gallons worth of milk before I figured out how to make good fresh mozzarella. The first gallon's cheese, I stretched too little (bread dough texture). The second gallon's cheese I stretched too much (dry texture, like normal pizza mozzarella). The third gallon God only knows what I screwed up since it remained a curd puddle and I couldn't get it to form a ball at all. That batch was dumped into the trash.

But last night I finally shook off the cheese incompetence curse and made this:

Firm, but creamy.

And just in time too since my tomatoes and basil are all ready to be picked and turned into this little darling that we consumed at dinner last night:

Tomato mozzarella salad--dressed with a little good balsamic, olive oil, salt, pepper, chopped up basil and a few chopped chives.

I gotta say, the instructions in the mozzarella kit suck. I ended up taking what I had learned from the previous three gallons and finally getting it right. One thing I did was use the damn cheese cloth that came with the kit and that they never tell you to use. It made draining the curds from the whey so much faster--I was actually able to make the successful mozzarella in about 30 minutes. And I was very careful not to over stretch or under stretch the cheese--I ended up reheating it twice and stretching it just until it turned shiny and then I shaped it into balls and popped them in cool water.

By my count I have enough rennet left to make 36 more batches which should take me through tomato season nicely.