For a long time I have used naturally acidified mozzarella as a rescue recipe for pots of curds that have become forgotten on the stove. How many times have I started a morning making cheese, only to be pulled away from the pot for hours after already adding the culture and rennet. The principals of this mozzarella recipe can be used as either a rescue recipe or a stand alone recipe.
4gallonsFresh Raw Cows Milk (Unfortunately goats milk does not give the same stretch as cows)
1cup Clabber/Kefir or 1 tsp Mesophilic CultureBe sure that your clabber or kefir is at a good stage for cheesemaking. You can find information on using clabber as a starter culture in the cheesemaking troubleshooting area. Alternatively Substitute 1tsp Mesophilic culture, sprinkle over the surface of the milk and let sit 5 min to rehydrate before incorporating in.
RennetFollow your package directions for how much rennet needed to coagulate 4 gallons of milk.
SaltAt the bottom of this recipe you will find various options for salting your cheese.
Instructions
Put warm fresh milk in the cheese pot. If using milk that is not fresh or milk that has cooled, heat the milk to 90F (32C).
Add in culture using an up and down stirring motion.
Add in rennet using and up and down stirring motion. Be sure to incorporate in well. Put the lid on the pot and let rest for 30 min.
After 30 min come back and check for a clean break. If you are able to get a clean break you can move on to the next step. If not, let it rest for another 10 min before checking again.
Cut a grid of 1 inch cubes. Cut horizontal and vertical lines in the pot. Wait 5 min, before coming back to cut underneath the surface and make your long strips of curds into 1 inch cubes. Wait 5 min for them to firm up before moving on to the next step.
Gently stir curds for a few minutes. Work to get all large chunks in the pot down to a similar size of 1x1. After a few minutes of stirring, take a curd from the pot, (whom's size represents the majority of the curds in the pot) hold it 30 cm above the counter and let it drop. If it splats into a bunch of pieces, stir the curds for a few more minutes. However if it bounces slightly, you are ready to move on to the next step.
Put the lid on the pot and let rest for 3-5 hours. Depending on the warmth of your house, the quality of the starter culture and the milk, you will want to start checking your culture to see if it will stretch after about 3 hours. To check if it will stretch boil a small amount of hot water. Submerge one of the curds into the hot water and let rest for 1 min. Using a fork to lift the curd out of the pot gently begin dipping the curd in and out of the hot water as you would dip a tea bag in and out of a cup of tea. Up, down, up, down; do this until the curd breaks. If the curd does not break, but instead stretches indefinitely (Im talking, you could stretch it to the roof), it is ready to move on to the next step. You will most likely have to do this stretch test more than once throughout the course of the next few hours. You will notice that the cheese does begin to stretch more and more, but it is not ready until it no longer breaks off, but instead stretches almost indefinitely until the weight of the bottom curd inevitably pulls the stretch apart. Imagine the ultimate cheese pull! That is what you are looking for. When you do finally achieve the ultimate stretch, you have a very short window to catch it. If it goes too far, it will no longer stretch, so plan to move onto the next step as soon as possible and for sure within the hour.
To stretch your cheese boil a 8 quart pot of water. Dip the whey off of your curd mass, and pour off any remaining whey. Reserve the whey to use for ricotta tomorrow morning. Pour approximately half of the boiling water onto your curd mass. Using a wooden spoon, slowly start to knead the cheese under the hot water. As soon as it starts stretching you can do 1 of 3 things. 1)Pull and fold chunks of cheese into mozzarella balls. Be careful not to overwork these balls. I liken the technique of forming mozzarella balls to making buns. Submerge them in a cold water bath after stretching to keep them round. 2)As soon as your cheese begins to stretch, knead the mass of curd a few times before transferring the whole mass to a holed cheese form. Use my easy shredding technique to make this into shreddable mozzarella cheese. 3) As soon as the cheese begins to stretch begin folding and pulling the cheese into a long rope. You can make one long rope out of the entire curd mass by pulling the rope from the pot as you work, and laying it flat on the counter. After you have made the entire mass into a rope, sprinkle salt on the surface of the rope and roll it into a giant ball.
To salt your cheese you have 3 options. 1) Make a light 2% brine using the reserved whey. Store your cheese in this brine in the fridge. 2) Brine your cheese in your 18% brine. You can brine it at the ratio of 2 hours per pound of cheese. If you have made multiple cheeses, weigh each cheese separately and calculate brine time for each cheese. For example if you made 2 mozzarella balls and one was 0.5 lbs verses one that was 1 lb, you would brine the smaller cheese for 1 hour and the larger for 2. It is very easy to over salt mozzarella in a saturated brine so I really only recommend this technique for the easy shredding technique. 3)Surface salt your cheese. Sprinkle a small amount of salt onto the surface of your cheese and enjoy right away!