Saturday, September 24, 2011

Cheese Quest, Chapter 1

I have wanted to make cheese for years now.  
I know that the aged cheeses take some specialized equipment and time to make 
but there are several fresh cheeses that I have wanted to make. 
Mozzarella in particular.  

I read several cheese sources on the internet.
Ordered the few non-milk ingredients that I would need.
Bought 2% homogenized, pasteurized milk.

Allison and I were all set to make our first batch of 30-minute Mozzarella cheese.

It all started wonderfully.
We gently heated the milk, added the correct potions to the pot at the correct time.
We waited the appropriate amount of time.  
It was looking just like the pictures on the recipe.

And then it started to go all pear-shaped.
My lovely soft curds started to fall apart!
What should have been a custard consistency turned into tiny little shred-like curds!
Dang it!

I looked at the trouble shooting section of the cheese-making website and discovered our problem.

It said that if the curds fell apart that our homogenized milk was probably closer 
to ultra-homogenized milk which will not make curds.  
Dang it. Dang it!

So tomorrow starts the quest to find a milk that will work.
Two steps forward, one step backward.

No comments:

Post a Comment