cheese update–take 2

Over the weekend, I enticed my dh (dear husband) to assist me with the second attempt at mozzarella. I also selected a different brand of milk since I had no success in getting the hormone-free brand to curdle last time. The joint effort in the kitchen gave my dh & I time to talk about prioritizing our food supply and resources. Overall, I think we’re on the same page. One source of contention: school lunches (which by August, I figure I’ll have worn him down to my way of thinking).

Getting the milk to curddle took longer than the instructions indicated. We waited 8 minutes of the 5-8 minutes required. We should have probably waited longer. The curds were soft (as they were supposed to be), but perhaps too soft. Our yield was only about 4 ropes of string cheese.

The cheese is really hot to handle. It must be stretched like taffy at about 130 degrees. Next time I’ll need to invest in some good kitchen gloves.

We salvaged the rest of the curds and whey by making ricotta of what was left. We’ll use it in lasagne latter this week. The kids really liked the string cheese which (yes) did taste just like mozzarella. While this second attempt wasn’t perfected, we’re certainly on our way. Two trials down, 28 more batches of mozzarella to go.