Making fresh mozzarella cheese

I've always wanted to try making cheese. I've hated the thought of wasting mik doing so. But when sorting out the milk cartons, there were 20 gallons that weren't expired yet, both skim and whole milk. Excellent! Fresh cheese it is.

Finding a recipe on the internet is always an iffy proposition. What I do is go and find 5 or 6, and then average them out. For the cheese, you need rennet, citric acid, milk and some kitchen utensils. The recipes have different types of rennet (tablet, liquid) and different amounts of citric acid needed (1-3 teaspoons). Some called for unclorinated water, others didn't. Since i've got the luxury of lots of milk, and because I'd like to try the simplest way to make this, here's what I'm going to do.

All of the recipies specifc a non-reactive container -- glass, stainless steel, that sort of thing.

Using a thermometer, I bring the milk up to 50 degrees. I add one teaspoon of the citric acid. I found powdered citric acid in the canning section of a local store.

Adding the amount of rennet indicated on the rennet package itself. I purchased this vegetarian rennet at a small shop called "the creamery" in the pike place market, but you can get it mail order or from cheesemaking supply folks. In this case it called for 5 drops of rennet per quart of milk diluted into 1 tablespoon of water. 20 drops for a gallon.

For this first attempt, I'm going to ignore the filtered / non-chlorinated water thing and use tap water. If it works, it simplifies the whole thing.

Then I heat the milk from 50 degrees to 88 degrees and add the rennet dilution and a second teaspoon of citric acid. I stirred this for 15 seconds.

Then I let it sit in a covered pot for 30 minutes.

The milk turned into a pudding. I cut it into 1/2" squares and then let it sit for 15 minutes more.

This is really soft at this point, and really doesn't taste like anything.

Now I heated it to 108 degrees and stirred it while it heated. At the end, the curds looked like this

They are firmer but still contain quite a bit of liquid.

After letting it sit for another 10 minutes I strained out the curds. A gallon of milk produces about 2 cups of curds.

The puppies appreciate the whey

Here's the strained curds. From here it's just heat in the microwave for 10-15 seconds, knead and squeeze, and then heat again. Repeat until you have a shiny ball. I found it easier to split it into 6 equal portions about the size of a handball.

and voila! fresh mozzarella!

I like the fresh cheese sliced on top of a slice of tomato, topped with a leaf of basil, and drizzled with a finishing sauce -- in this case, balsamic vinegar and sugar. Delicious.

Giant milk score

I got a call from Charlie, who I'd done some business with earlier in the year. He is a retired postal worker who has a farm 10 miles north of mine.

One of your major costs in raising pigs is the feed. So if you're going to have any success at it, you'll keep your eyes out for free or low cost pig food. Quality is important, too. I'd rather not feed a pig something that I wouldn't eat.

So Charlie called me and asked if I was interested in 300 gallons of either expired or soon-to-expire cow milk. I was all over that, and picked it up Thursday morning.

Pigs love cows milk. The gallon containers aren't bad, you just slice them with a razor knife and they empty pretty quickly, but the little pint containers are a pain in the ass. Finally discovered you can treat them like grapes -- put them into a garbage can and stomp them flat, pour off the milk, repeat.

In cold weather the pigs cram themselves into as few shelters as can fit all of the pigs. So even though they have 4 shelters that are all bedded with dry hay, 2 of them will be full of pigs, and 2 empties. Guess it's warmer that way.

The shelter in the pictures above is the 2nd from the right in the next photo.

These are the new additions to the herd. They weigh between 80 and 100lbs right now. Some of these guys will go for christmas at about this weight, others will be held and grown out. A few will be bred, if they show good temprament, conformation and work within our system.

Tank pregnancy update

Snowing today, and very cold. My farm is only a mile or so from puget sound, a huge inland ocean, and we enjoy a marine climate most of the year. That means that it doesn't get much above 90 in the summer, or much below 40 in the winter, with some exceptions. Today is one of those exceptions. You folks in the midwest will probably laugh, but 30 degrees as a high temperature is considered extremely cold here.

She's ready to give birth. At this point, she'd be relieved. Andrea rubs her stomach and she flops right over

Once she's down, a quick squeeze of a nipple produces milk. Yep, she's ready to go.

Last time she was pregnant she started producing a small amount of milk about 48 hours before she gave birth; so she's due probably tonight.

Please rub my stomach!!