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.

Butter

Making butter has been on my to do list for some time now, ever since I saw Darina Allen’s piece in the Guardian about how easy it is to do. I knew that to make butter all you have to do is get some cream, whip it and then keep on whipping. And that really is all there is to it. Here is the process for making unsalted butter that worked for me*. I used smaller quantities than Darina which are a bit easier to handle- unsalted butter doesn't last longer in the fridge than a few days so you also need to think about how much of the stuff you're actually going to be able to consume. It's vital to keep all your equipment as cold and sterilised as possible.

*When I say it worked for me, I really should be crediting my sister Cescy, who took the lead on the butter production, and whose freezing skinny fingers you can see in the photos. Here she is doing some whisking in her coat:

1)      Put a large mixing bowl, your whisk attachments and a sieve into the fridge a couple of hours before you begin.

2)      Leave 1.2 litres of cream out of the fridge for a couple of hours as well.

3)      Pour the cream into the cold bowl and start whipping. After it has past the stage of looking like stiffly whipped cream, it starts to become more yellow and begins to look like pale scrambled egg. A faint sloshing sound starts to be heard as the buttermilk is released, becoming more audible until the whisk is clogged with thick globules of butter.

4)      When you feel you can whisk no more, pour the whole lot through the sieve with a bowl underneath to collect the buttermilk (this has its uses, particularly in making soda bread).

5)      Put the butter back into the bowl and whisk for a minute more to release even more buttermilk. Drain again.

6)      Fill the bowl with very cold water and squeeze the butter to release as much buttermilk as possible. Drain and repeat until the water in the bowl remains clear.

7)      With cold hands and as quickly as possible, form the butter into pats.

To make salted butter you need to seek out some dairy salt which is just a very pure type of salt. I have done some cursory googling but I’m afraid it doesn’t seem very easy to come by so I’m inclined to advise keeping homemade butter unsalted. But there are all kinds of flavours you can add to your butter – herbs, garlic, brandy – if you can bear to sully its pale beauty.