We don’t know about you, but we love cheese. We love eating it in sandwiches, salads, on pizza, and with crackers. Also, we don’t care how stinky it is. With the holidays just around the corner, what better way to show up to a holiday potluck than with some homemade cheese? Homemade cheese, you ask? Yes, you don’t have to be like the founders of San Francisco’s famed Cowgirl Creamery and hone your craft for many years. All you have to do is purchase a Roaring Brook Dairy Mozzarella Cheesemaking Kit.
Once you get the kit, it’s pretty easy. Just pick up a gallon of milk from the grocery store — we prefer the organic variety — and if you want flavored cheese, get any herbs you want to use to add a little extra spunk. Now once you get home, pull out your kit and get out the directions. Now prepare the rennet water solution and the citric acid solution as directed. Next, get a huge pot and pour the milk — not the ultra-pasteurized variety — into it. Boil it to 85 degrees and stir in the citric acid mixture. When it rises to 100, stir in the rennet mixture and then use and up and down motion to mix everything up well. You’ll start to see that curds and whey that would make Little Miss Muffet envious. Check on the curds, and when they bounce back drain the whey out with a strainer. Next, use a colander to get rid of more whey. Next you go through a microwaving process of heating and draining out more whey. Keep on repeating until the curds have hardly any whey left, then add salt and if you want, herbs like dill or basil.
Microwave again, and then knead knead knead until it gets to a nice consistency, mix it into one ball or several and knot — the kit yields four pounds. Either mix it up with some tomatoes and olive oil for a nice salad, or heck, bring it to your next holiday function. We promise your friends will be quite impressed when you show up with your very own artisanal ball of cheese.
Roaring Brook Dairy Mozzarella Cheesemaking Kit, $17.99 at amazon.com.
