A time for a Big Celebration
Joan has mastered making Mozzarella the traditional way
Made 4/12/2018

Joan has wanted to do this from the beginning of her cheese making career.
She wanted to make pizza with "real" mozzarella.

Note: there are easier ways to make Mozzarella
but the taste is not the same
Mozzarella make by the traditional method is just fantastically delicious

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Stretching the curds

The final product

Major Steps involved in making Mozzarella 1) Heat two gallons of minimally pasteurized milk to 95 degrees Note: Normal store bought milk is pasteurized at 155 degrees One must use minimally pasteurized milk that is pasteurized at 144 degrees The minimally pasteurized milk cost $9.50 per gallon 2) Add 4 oz of Yogurt culture 3) Let the milk with added culture sit undisturbed for one hour 4) Add Rennet 6) Let the milk with rennet added sit undisturbed for 45 minutes 7) At this point the milk will have coagulated into a semi-solid mass of curds
8) Next the curds need be cut into small cubes The best way to do this is to use a specially designed curd cutter that Elmer made (with some major help by our friend Don) see picture of curd cutter on the right
9) The curd cubes are then put in a cylinder with holes. The cyclinder is put in a pot and that pot is put in a sink filled with water at 100 degress. In this way the cheese is maintained at 100 degrees. The whey slowly drains and the curds slowly coagulate. The Ph is periodically measured. The Ph of the curds will gradually decease as the enzymes in the rennet cure the curds. When the Ph reaches 5.2 the cheese is ready of the next step
10) The coagulated curds are removed and then again cut into cubes
11) The cut cubes are salted
12) The salted cubes are dipped into the hot whey to soften them
13) The curds are again compressed into a ball
14) Now comes the fun part The cheese is stretched to give it the Mozzarella "stretchy" quality. The best Mozzarella is very stretchy when heated, for example, on pizza. When the curds are stretched the protein strands in the curd are lined up. Later when the cheese is again heated, since the strands are aligned, the cheese will have that delightful stretch quality.
Finally we have Mozzarella Ready to be sliced and eaten or ready for a pizza topping