First added the citric acid and then rennet.

Then you wait for the curds to form.

Then you cut the curds, (notice how it is nice and think, almost gelatinous)

Then you heat it back up and the curds start to shrink and mush all up.

Then you strain.  You can use the yellow stuff to make ricotta and then after that you can use it in biscuits or bread recipes that call for milk.  I find it really cool that you don’t have to leave any of it to go to waste.

Our final product!  They say you get about a pound to a pound and a half of cheese per gallon.  I think we got somewhere around that.  This mozzarella is better than any dry store bought mozzarella I have ever had.  It is not as good as the fresh mozzarella we can get in brine but its our first attempt.  We followed the microwave directions for this guy and I think next time we are going to try using hot water to work it instead of the microwave.  They say that microwave gives it a stringier texture, which we appreciate, but would like to try other ways as well.  This cheese melted amazingly though.  On our way to being able to make a pizza from scratch.

Some thoughts: Cheesemaking looks to be one of those things that is hard to perfect, but even if you screw up you wind up with something good tasting.   For cheeses other than mozzeralla and a few farmer cheese it is also a process that requires having starters on hand.  I would like to one day grow and maintain these starters.  It would be nice to be able to get into the habit of making sourdough and cheese twice a week.  I have been making focacci the last two days and it is super easy, but more on that in the next post.