Pomelo Projects

  

Thursday 5 April 2012

Mozzarella Cottage Cheese


I have tried four times and I have not succeeded in making mozzarella. But it is possible to make something that tastes like mozzarella, even if it doesn’t have the right texture. So rather than the documentation of an out and out failure, this post is will present my findings in the business of fresh cheese-making, and the unintended, though delicious, results.

My mozzarella quest began when I saw Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s article on the subject in the Guardian last summer. I wasn’t sure where to get raw or unhomogenised milk from but when I discovered that Selfridge’s food hall stocks Laverstoke Park buffalo milk I sought some out to have a go. (This kind of milk is occasionally and randomly stocked in some branches of Waitrose and Sainsbury’s but it’s near impossible to track down – I tried calling both supermarkets and Laverstoke Park and was advised just to keep an eye out for it on the shelves. But Selfridge’s seems to keep it in reasonably steady supply.) Here is the recipe.

Attempt No. 1:
Done without a thermometer – pretty dumb of me. But it was really delicious. The curds were the texture of cottage cheese and incredibly rich.


Attempt No. 2:
Convinced that my texture-related problems were to do with temperature control, I bought a digital thermometer and had another go. This time I decided to try the recipe with cow’s milk and I used Duchy originals organic whole milk (pasturised but not homogenised). The texture was improved but Hugh’s instructions to “stretch out the cheese, folding it back on itself and working it just until it’s stretchy, shiny and smooth” were no good to me. There was no stretching taking place, just tearing and general disintegration. Very frustrating. So I gave up stretching and simply started moulding the chunks of curd into rough balls. It kiiiind of worked but the balls kept leaking their moisture and gradually became smaller and tougher. I could practically wring them out. And the other consideration was that the flavour of the cow’s milk mozzarella did not come near the complex taste of the buffalo milk.


Attempt No. 3:
I spent hours researching what might be going wrong. Some websites suggested putting the curds in the microwave, others that it was something to do with the Ph levels of the cheese. I finally hit upon a possible solution – Hugh’s recipe calls for ¼ tsp rennet but it occurred to me that he might be using powdered animal rennet which is much more powerful than the liquid VegeRen I had been using. So I followed the advice on the VegeRen packet and used 10 drops for every pint of milk. Of all the attempts, this was the worst. The cheese was tough and almost flavourless. I ate it, but…

Attempt No. 4:
I was completely out of ideas as to what I could do to make my mozzarella recipe successful. So I decided to salvage the fruits of my research to see what I might reasonably suggest as a recipe. I realised two things. One, that the recipe only actually takes about 30 mins to do – it’s very easy. And two, that the best version of mozzarella I had attempted was my very first batch. So I set about recreating it. Here is the resulting recipe:

Equipment:

Sieve
Thermometer
Large pan

Ingredients

1tsp citric acid
2 litres milk, raw or unhomogenised
5 drops liquid rennet
2 tbsp salt

1)      Dissolve the citric acid in 60mls warm water.
2)      Put the milk in a pan and heat very slightly to 13C (if it needs to be heated at all).
3)      Add the citric acid and heat to 30C, stirring gently. It will start to curdle.
4)      Dilute the rennet in a tablespoon of warm water and add immediately to the milk.
5)      Warm the milk gently to 38-39C stirring occasionally.
6)      Remove from heat, add the salt and leave for 15 mins.
7)      Scoop curds out of pan and into a sieve.
8)      Press curds gently to remove a little more whey, but not too much otherwise the cheese will be hard.
9)      Break and crumble the soft curds into a bowl.

Swirl olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and thyme into the cheese and serve with ciabatta.



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