Home Made Cheese 4: 30 Minute Mozzarella

Cheese making is the art of removing whey from curd. There are a million ways to do that, which is why there are a million types of cheese.

A ball of mozzarella ready to plunge in the ice bath.

Let's review the lessons we have learned from this Home Made Cheese series about ways to separate curds and whey:

• in the paneer/ricotta blog, we learned that the addition of vinegar to hot milk is one way to separate curds from whey

• in the labneh blog, we learned that adding a culture of beneficial bacteria to milk and incubating it will naturally acidify milk, causing the curd to thicken for an acid-set cheese

• in the feta blog, we learned that rennet is a natural enzyme that sets curd quickly and makes a (potentially) elastic curd; bacteria also serve to slightly acidify milk and add flavor

30 Minute Mozzarella is a fun rearranging of these principles. The result is a delightfully soft, springy cheese that is delicious eaten fresh or cooked till it's melty.

Before we get to 30 minute mozza, though, let's talk about old fashioned mozzarella.

The traditional way to make mozzarella is to inocculate milk with thermophilic bacteria, add rennet to create a curd, and then let the bacteria multiply until it reaches a certain acidity, at which point the curds magically become stretchy when heated. You heat the curds, then stretch and fold them kind of like kneading bread dough, until the lumpy curd mass becomes a silky smooth ball of cheese. The process is nothing short of witchery.

But it takes hours for the bacteria to conjure their enchantment and bring the curds to just the right level of acidity. Who has time for that?

You can cheat the system and have quick mozzarella that is just as stringy and yummy as old fashioned mozzarella by achieving instant acidity through the use of vinegar, rather than waiting for bacteria to do their thing. In this case, the vinegar serves to make the rennet curd stretchy, rather than being the causal agent of separating curd and whey.

You can literally make fresh mozzarella in just 30 minutes. It is quick enough to whip up while you are getting dinner ready.

People will think your Italian grandmother made it!

You don't need bacteria culture, cheese cloth, a cheese press, or a cheese cave to make quick mozza. The only special thing you need, besides really good milk, is rennet. (see the feta blog for a discussion about rennet)

There is a down side to 30 minute mozza. Because of using vinegar rather than bacteria to acidify the milk, it has a short shelf life. It is good for about two days. After that, the texture and taste turn bland. Don't worry, you will have eaten it well before that happens!

A Note About Milk Quality

Cheese making reveals a lot about the quality of milk. If you try to make mozzarella with milk that was pasteurized at high temperatures, like Ultra Heat Treated or Ultra Pasteurized milk, you will end up with a disappointing mushy curd that will not stretch into silky cheese.

Why? Because high heat denatures protein. It changes the shape of the molecules so that they no longer interact with each other the way they should.

Interestingly, this is the same reason many people think that they are "lactose intolerant". Many cases of "lactose intolerance" have nothing to do with lactose, which is milk sugar; it is because the enzymes that should fit perfectly into the protein molecule to break it down for digestion no longer fit like a perfect lock and key because it was ultra heated. Milk proteins make their way undigested into the large intestine, at which point bacteria finally start to ferment them, and terrible pain results.

Milking hygeine also matters a lot if you are making cheese. Milk that was handled poorly by the farmer will have high bacteria counts (undesireable bacteria, not the ones used for cheese culture), and even high coliform counts (those are bacteria from manure), which can ruin your cheese and/or make it unsafe to eat. I speak from personal experience. When I first had dairy goats, I did not care about proper milking hygiene like I do now, and I had a difficult time successfully making cheese because of bacterial contamination. Then when I was buying raw organic milk from a farmer friend, whose milk was intended to ship to a plant for pasteurization (she was not a "raw milk" farmer), cheese from that milk made me sick.

Even if you can buy gently pasteurized (below 170F) milk at the store, it will not have as strong of a curd as raw milk. Good mozzarella is all about having a good strong curd that can be kneaded into a silky cheese.

It really is worth buying the best milk possible if you are going to make cheese--especially mozzarella! Find my grass fed raw milk here.

String Cheese Please!

Did you know that string cheese is just mozzarella in stick form? Seriously.

You can make string cheese out of this recipe. Rather than shaping it into balls, once it has become silky, pull it into a rope. You may choose to braid three strands together, or just leave it single.

In Mexico, it is traditional (using old fashioned bacterial ripened curd) to make a really long single strand rope, and then roll it up like a ball of yarn. It's fun to eat, unwinding the ball of cheese and pulling the string cheese apart as you do so.

Equipment you will need is:

• heavy bottomed pot

• measuring cups and spoons

• perforated strainer spoon

• rubber gloves

• thermometer

• 3 quart bowl for an ice bath

• large bowl to gather the curds into

Ingredients:

• 1 gallon raw milk

• 1/4 cup vinegar

• 1/4 tsp liquid rennet diluted in a 1/4 cup water

• 1/4 cup salt (sea salt is great, but not himalayan salt, because it makes it gritty)

• ice and water for an ice bath, filled to 2 quarts in the bowl

Get all ingredients measured and prepped before you get your milk out of the fridge, because once it gets going, you won’t have a chance!

After the rennet has set the curd, it becomes firm and can be broken into curds and whey.

1. Pour the milk into a heavy bottomed pot and add the vinegar. Heat on medium high while stirring to 90F. (Unlike paneer and ricotta, the vinegar doesn't cause the curds and whey to separate because it's not hot enough.)

2. Turn off the heat. Add the diluted rennet and stir for 10 seconds.

3. Feel it after a few minutes by gently pressing down on the surface of the milk. When it is firm and springy like jello (should only take a few minutes), it is ready for the next step.

4. Sprinkle the salt over the curd.

When it gets hot enough, the curds stick together in one mass and are ready to stretch and fold.

5. Turn heat on high.  Resume stirring it and break up the curd into small, roughly 1" pieces.

6. When the temperature gets to about 140F, you will notice that the curds begin to stick together and get stringy. Turn off the heat. Now the fun begins!

7. Put on dish gloves. Gather all of the curd with your slotted spoon and set them in a bowl. Be sure to find all the last stragglers hiding in the whey. Pick up the curd mass and begin stretching and folding it back on itself, kind of like kneading bread dough in the air.

Curds that have been folded and are ready to shape into a ball.

8. If the curd cools down too much, it will get hard to stretch. You can reheat it in the hot whey. Don’t get carried away stretching and folding or you will make the cheese tough. Do it just enough times to transform the lumpy curds into a glossy, silky mass.

9. You can make one large mozzarella ball, or pinch it into multiple small ones. When I make several smaller balls, I place the pieces that have not been shaped yet in the whey to stay hot. Shape them by making a round ball and tucking the ends in on themselves, kind of pinching and pressing the edge in with your hands.

A mozza ball peeking through ice water.

10. Put the ball/s in the ice water so it/they can chill in the shape you just gave it/them. Larger balls take longer to chill than small balls, so don’t remove a large ball while it is still warm inside or it will sag when removed from the ice bath.

Fresh 30 minute mozzarella tastes amazing within a few hours of being made, and still pretty good the next day. After that, it loses texture. You can freeze whatever you aren’t going to use quickly.

• Slice it with tomatoes and fresh basil, and drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar for a stunning caprese salad. 

• Put slices on a pizza with basil and tomato slices for a real margherita pizza. 

• Eat it fresh with olive oil and garlic.

• Shape it into string cheese and have fun playing with your food.
  

If you love the idea of making quick mozzarella but want someone to show you how the first time, I teach cheese making classes!