Little Green Cheese

Cheese making at home with Gavin Webber the Cheeseman

30 Minute Mozzarella

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30 Minute Mozzarella is so easy to make. So why did I wait so long to taste you, my delicious creation?

quick-mozzarella-2
One cheese that I have been procrastinating about is Mozzarella.  Don’t ask me why; I just was!  The Mozzarella recipe listed in Ricky Carrol’s Home Cheesemaking book had quite a few precautions as did her instructions on her website, but I figured that now that I had a few kinds of cheese under my belt (an understatement I suppose?), I should be able to rescue any potential disaster.

Quick Mozzarella

Ingredients

  • 4 litres of full cream milk, preferably unhomogenized.
  • 1½ teaspoons of citric acid mixed with a ½ cup of non-chlorinated water,
  • 1 teaspoon of non-iodised salt,
  • ½ teaspoon of liquid rennet or ½ a rennet tablet mixed with a quarter of a cup of non-chlorinated water,
  • 1/8th of a teaspoon of lipase mixed with a quarter of a cup of water (let this sit for 20 minutes before hand).
  • ¼ teaspoon of Calcium Chloride in ¼ cup unchlorinated water if using homogenised milk.

Equipment

  • 6-8 Litre Stock Pot
  • Stainless Steel stirring spoon
  • Dairy Thermometer
  • Measuring Spoons
  • Measuring Cups
  • 4 litre Pyrex Bowl
  • Large Bowl filled with cold water and ice
  • Loose weave Cheese cloth
  • Colander
  • Kitchen rubber gloves

Method

  1.  Clean and sanitise your equipment and utensils and leave to air dry.
  2.  Heat the milk to 13°C then add the citric acid solution to which you add the calcium chloride. Add the lipase and stir well and continue to heat.  The milk will curdle a little on the surface due to the increased acidity.
  3.  Heat to 33°C (90F), then add the rennet solution and stir gently for 1 minute. Keep heating the milk to 38-40°C and the curd may begin to come away from the edges of the pot or look like the consistency of scrambled eggs.  This happens in about 5-8 minutes.
  4.  Pour off some whey, and gently pour the curds into a cheese cloth lined colander. The whey becomes clear and yellow.  Drain as much whey from the curds in the Pyrex bowl and then put it in the Microwave Oven (1000w) for 1 minute on High.  Put on your gloves as the curd begins to get hot during handling.
  5.  Drain the whey again, then into the Microwave for another 30 seconds on High, drain and form into a single mass, and back into the Microwave for a final 30 seconds.
  6.  Add the salt and start gently kneading quickly like bread dough until it is smooth and shiny and it can be stretched like melted cheese. Form the cheese into smaller balls and then put them in the big bowl of iced water for 5-10 minutes.  This helps the cheese to form the same consistency throughout as it cools rapidly.
  7.  Take it out of the ice water and try a slice on a cracker with fresh tomato and freshly cracked pepper and salt. It is delicious!

When the salt is added and started kneading quickly like bread dough until it was smooth and shiny and it could be stretched like Taffy .  This is as simple as forming the cheese into five balls and then put them in a big bowl of cold water for 30 minutes.  This helped the cheese to have the same consistency throughout and cools it rapidly.

We then took it out of the water and have already eaten one ball sliced onto crackers, topped with tomato and freshly cracked pepper and salt.  Delicious!  Apparently, it can be stored covered in the fridge for a few days, but don’t think it will last that long.  I usually make it on Friday night, and we use it on homemade pizza on a Saturday night!

There is nothing quite like fresh Mozzarella!  Why did I wait so long to make it, I will never know.

Wensleydale Video Tutorial

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As promised, here is another of the cheese making tutorials.  This time it is a Wensleydale video tutorial.  I made it about a year ago, but the method is still the same as the last post. I hope you enjoy it and if you have any questions, please leave a comment and I will endeavour to answer it.

No wonder Wallace and Gromit like it so much!

Now for a little joke;

I was having lunch with my son Adam a year ago, and he asked, “Dad, what are you doing tonight?”

I replied, “I am waxing the Wensleydale”.

He retorted, “So that’s what the kids call it these days!”

I just could not stop laughing. He is a funny lad, and a chip of the old block. Cheese block that is!

wensleydale video tutorial - waxing the wensleydale

Wensleydale Cheese

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Of all the cheese that I have made so far, I believe that Wensleydale is my sentimental favourite.  Why you ask?  Well if you like Wallace and Gromit as much as our family does, then you would have figured it out already

You see, both Wallace and Gromit have a fancy for Wensleydale, as do I.

Here is a bit about the cheese itself. Wensleydale cheese is a firm and slightly flaky cheese but not dry and crumbly, in fact quite the reverse, it’s moist and quite succulent with a melt in the mouth forte to it. Slightly sweet but not that it is immediately noticeable and with no after-taste, Wensleydale is perfect to accompany all fresh fruits including apples, pears, grapes, grapefruit and strawberries to name but a few.

Also nice with a glass of light wine, or a cold beer with a Wensleydale ploughman’s lunch, Wensleydale is also great on rye or crackers.  It was made popular again by the Wallace and Gromit movies, and sales took off in the UK.

Anyway, enough about those two.  Have a look at this one that I prepared earlier

Here is the cheese recipe I use for Wensleydale. Just make sure you have at least 9 hours up your sleeve and don’t start making it at 7pm and end up finishing at 3am like I did a few weeks ago!

Wensleydale Cheese

Makes about 850 gm (2 pounds)

  • 8 litres (2 gallons) whole milk
  • 1/8 teaspoon Direct set Mesophilic culture
  • 2.5 ml Rennet mixed with 25 ml non-chlorinated water
  • 3 ml Calcium Chloride if using homogenised milk
  • 3 teaspoons non-ionised salt

Sterilise all equipment. I put a litre of water into the pot, put all utensils in it, cover and boil for 15 minutes. Anything that may melt, I wipe down with vinegar and a boiled cloth. If I handle the milk/curds or finished cheese, I spray vinegar on my hands from a spray bottle and rub together until dry. That way the milk will not get infected by any wild yeasts or molds that maybe on my hands.

Using a double boiler, heat the milk to 30°C (86°F). If using homogenised milk, add calcium chloride to 2 tablespoons water and mix to the milk gently. Add Mesophilic starter, mix well for a minute, cover and allow milk to ripen for 45 minutes.

Add rennet whilst stirring and stir bottom to top for 2 minutes. Cover and allow to stand for 45 minutes until the curd sets, maintaining the temperature. Test with your finger for a clean break in the curds, then cut the curd into 13 mm cubes and allow to rest for 5 minutes.

Stir the curds and whey for 10 minutes, then let rest for 15 minutes. Stir the curd again as you raise the temperature to 32°C (90°F). Maintain this temperature, and stir the curd as often as necessary to stop the curd knitting together. Do this for 2 hours.

Drain the whey off and ladle the curd into a colander lined with cheesecloth. Tie in a bundle and for 2 hours, open every 15 minutes to break the curd into small pieces.

After the two hours break up the curd for one final time and apply the salt. Mix the curds and salt well.

Place half the curd into a cheesecloth lined 1 kg cheese basket and apply a layer of sterilised sage leaves (sterilise on clean oven tray at 120C (250F) for 10 minutes), pressing down well.

Fill with remainder of curd and press at 5kg (10 pounds) for 15 minutes. Carefully remove cheese from cloth, turn over and press at 25kg (50 pounds) for 12 hours.

Remove from press and cheesecloth. Place on a board and allow to dry for 2 days. Apply wax and store at 13-15°C (55-59F) at 80-85% humidity. Can be eaten in 3 weeks or aged for up to 3 months.

This is a wonderful cheese, and I have never been able to find Wensleydale in the local grocery store. There is no equal as far as I am concerned and beats the store bought tasty cheddar any day.

Cheesy dreams everyone!

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