Tags
Cheese. It’s one of the things I miss the very most about Italy when we are not there. Cheese has always been one of my major food groups (others: vegetables, fruit, rice-bread-potatoes, and chocolate; I believe that adds up to the requisite five). We are spoiled in Italy – the Italian Cheese book put out by Slow Food (edited by Rubino, Sardo and Surrusca) describes 293 different kinds of cheese. Granted some of these are kissin’ cousins: add a little smoke to fresh mozzarella and you have smoked mozzarella, two different cheeses but close relatives. Still, you can eat a different cheese every day in Italy and not run out for almost a full year.
Speaking of mozzarella, it is the comfort food of the cheese world. Soft, not really bland but not challenging, it goes with everything. On its own with a bit of oil, salt and basil it is the perfect first course. Mix it into pasta, make a sandwich, put cubes of it in your salads, make pizza – there’s little that is not improved by the addition of fresh mozzarella.
Photo courtesy of Woodstock Water Buffalo Company
Sad to say it is almost impossible to find it here in the States (unless you live near Quebec). And when you do find it, it is generally shrink-wrapped with a token amount of liquid, not swimming in the briny water it prefers. Store-bought mozzarella here is of dubious age and provenance, not like Italy where we know it has come from very nearby, unless it is mozarella di bufala – then it is made from the milk of water buffalos (see the winsome face above) from ‘the south’ – Campania, Lazio, Apulia or Molise.
Map courtesy of understandingitaly.com
What to do about this sad lack in our lives? You already know the answer – we decided to make our own. Thanks to Emma Christensen’s delightful website thekitchn we discovered that mozzarella is not only easy to make, it’s FUN to make. Basically all you need is a gallon of milk, some citric acid and rennet (readily available online) and about an hour.
The hardest part of the exercise for Speedy and me was getting the temperatures right; but evidently we didn’t do too bad a job. In the photo above you see the milk, to which has been added the citric acid and rennet, coming up to temperature. Curds and whey are already forming – this so so much fun!
Once the curds had clumped up we separated them from the whey (Emma suggests using whey for bread-making, soups, smoothies and so forth) and… microwaved them! I know – we were really surprised too, but it turns out to work very well. We had to bring the cheese up to an interior temperature of 135 F in order for it to become elastic.
After that it was a simple matter of adding salt and ‘kneading’ to make the cheese elastic and glossy.
Our finished ‘balls!’ I’m not sure why ours flattened out so much. Perhaps we left too much whey in, or perhaps we didn’t knead enough – or too little – or perhaps we were off on our temperatures (a new instant thermometer is on the shopping list). In any event, they taste just fine. Maybe not quite as good as what we buy in Liguria… but maybe so.*
Now… what to do with 3 quarts of whey. If only we had a pig…
*Honesty compels me to admit our cheese was a bit strange. The balls didn’t hold their shape; instead they flattened out into large discs. The texture of the cheese was denser than we expected, though the flavor was just fine, sweet and rich. Bottom line: we need to do this again!
A week later and a second try: better, but still not *perfect*.
An Ex-Expatriate 
If you have access to it, ewes milk has a composition similar to water buffalo. I find it works quite well and the ricotta is fantastic. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for the tip, Mary. We don’t have access to ewes milk here in AZ, at least not that I’ve seen yet. But I bet we could find it if we looked hard enough, and surely we can find it when we’re back in Italy.
How utterly delicious! Leave it to you guys to try another do-it-yourself adventure. Who knew mozzarella could be made in one’s own kitchen? Not I. The opening picture is just gorgeous and is enough to make one want to lick the computer screen…well, at least this one. Have you changed your blog format? Perhaps I’m attesting to my own obliviousness, but I find the format fresh and eye-catching!
Thank you for noticing. Yes, Hilary, new format for the blog. I saw it on someone else’s page and he was nice enough to share. The cheese needs some work, but the ricotta made from the leftover whey was fabulous. Stay tuned…
What a great idea! We can buy excellent mozzarella in Australia, both from cows’ milk and buffalo, but making your own would be fun.
It is, Debra, though we certainly need to refine our techniques.
Sounds great. Woodstock Water Buffalo Company makes delicious fresh mozzarella. We had some at L’Orcio’s restaurant in New Haven, CT.
I’m glad to hear they’re still operating. Their website says they’ve moved all the water buffalos and the operation up to Canada. I wonder why? New Haven is rather near our old stomping grounds, but we never had the good fortune to eat at L’Orcio’s or find good fresh mozz.
It has to be about five years since we ate at Orcio’s. Local woman met chef while studying visiting Florence, got married and opened up a great place. A place in North Haven makes fresh mozz: http://www.liuzzicheese.com/ Enough for now it is late.
I’m surprised it’s not more readily available given how easy it is to make – but I guess it doesn’t have enough shelf life to make it worthwhile in a lot of parts of the country. Like Arizona. sigh.
Too many people don’t know what it is and too many people that do know what it is are too cheap to buy it.
I think if you haven’t eaten fresh mozzarella in Italy you don’t know what it is… and you don’t know what you’re missing.
Yes, To really know what it is you have to be at one of the farms in Campania biting into a ball of fresh mozzarella just out of the water bath and having the juices run right down both sides of your face!!!
Oh stop! You’re killing me. Yum!
Looks fun. I think cheese making is going to be one of this year’s endeavors. I’ve done simple stuff (paneer, yogurt) but I’ve never had the courage to branch out. It’s time. Thanks for the inspiration.
Well, we figured it was worth a try – and though the first attempt was less than stellar, it was good enough that we’ve bought another gallon of milk for this weekend’s try. Hope you have good luck with it.
Our library has a mini-course on home cheese-making next week. I think I’ll check that out, and then try the mozzarella. Did you use ordinary grocery-store milk?
On the other hand, we do have access to very good mozzarella here in providence, ri, because of the italian import delis, and one place on Atwells makes its own fresh mozzarella nearly every day. Still–I do like to do things at home, for the cost-savings and the fun.
Aren’t libraries Great??! What a good course to be offering – wish I could go and get some tips. Yes, we use regular milk. In Italy I actually prefer the mozz made from regular milk instead of buffalo – which puts me in a distinct minority – perhaps it’s just because that’s what we’re used to? Anyway, I’d love to hear about your cheese course and subsequent experiments at home.