Second attempt at cheese

We still had another gallon of whole milk and wanted more mozzarella after using it all on our pizza last week.  After making another delicious batch, most of which went into our mouths without using it for any specific recipe, he used the whey for ricotta again.  (Don't tell Shelly, but we only ate a little bit.  There's still 6 oz in the fridge. -J)  He'd read somewhere that if you add a cup of whole milk to the whey you can increase your yield.  Since we used the entire gallon on the mozzarella, he used about 1/3 cup of the cream we had in the fridge.  That increased our yield almost three-fold from the last time to a full pound!  So, if you're thinking of making ricotta from the whey, I suggest adding either whole milk, half and half, or cream to make more.

making cheese - ricotta and gjetost

With the whey you have from making mozzarella, you can make ricotta cheese.  The kit that we'd used for instructions didn't have the recipe for ricotta from whey so I used the recipe found at instructables.com and combined it with another recipe.  Basically, you heat up the whey to about 200 degrees.  Then you let it cool down to about 140.

Put a piece of cheesecloth or a reusable coffee strainer into your colander and pour it in.

Let it drain for 15 minutes or so, then, if you're using cheesecloth, gather up the ends and twist everything down to one end.

Don't twist too hard too quickly, or you'll squeeze your cheese out.  Let it drain for another 30-60 minutes, tightening the twist slightly every ten minutes or so.  (If you're using a coffee filter, just leave it sit for 30-60 minutes)  Voila!  You've got ricotta cheese.

It's smooth, creamy and delicate.  Store it in an airtight container in your fridge.

You still will have leftover whey, but there's still more use for the whey.
You can use the whey as you would water in your baking recipes (I use the whey from our yogurt to make our bread).  You can use it to mix into smoothies.  You can use it to water your plants and give them a nutritional boost.  You can boil it down to make MORE cheese.

I had too much whey to use just for baking and I refused to toss it.  I found this recipe to make gjetost (sounds like "yea - toast"). You reduce down your whey to about 1/4 of what it was before you started boiling.  Start by boiling and then just put it on a simmer till it reduces the volume.  When it starts to become viscous, stir regularly.  When it starts to resemble a fudge texture, stir vigorously, then put it in a buttered pan that had been frozen in the freezer.  That will cool it down quickly so that it doesn't get grainy.   Slice it up and eat it on crackers.  I haven't tasted it yet, though I'm hoping it's good.

(Note:  Our gjetost didn't get viscous, no matter how much we reduced it, so we put it in a jar to use in bread [still not gonna waste it!].  We figure there just wasn't enough protein left to solidify.  Oh, well.  Maybe next time.)

making cheese - mozzarella

We were armed with our whole milk, rennet, citric acid, and curiosity.  We wanted to try an easier cheese and one that we could sample right away.  I have recipes for cheddar and some others but I'd much rather start our first batch as something I know tastes good before moving on to something that will take months and months to be ready.

With a stainless steel pot, a colander, a large slotted spoon and a thermometer we were ready to go.

My MIL bought us a cheese making kit (Ricki's Mozzarella and Ricotta kit) for the holidays so we used a lot of the supplies from that, though you can easily get them individually.  We used the directions on the kit.

First, you put 1/4 tablet of rennet into 1/4 cup of cool water.  (You can store your rennet in the freezer for years - just re-wrap the used part and put with the rest of the pack).  Let that rennet & water mix sit.  Mix 1 1/2 tsp citric acid into 1 cup cool water. You can find the citric acid at cheese shops, but I've also seen it at places like Fleet Farm where they have the canning stuff.  It's labeled for processing meat.

Put 1 gallon of whole milk (can be pasteurized, but not ultra-pasteurized) into your pot.  While mixing, add the citric acid and water mix.

Keep mixing "vigorously" (doesn't that word make you think of the Zorro movie?).  Keep stirring while heating the milk to 90 degrees.  Now, take it from me, it's useful to have the Ove Glove for this project because your hands get awfully hot.

Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the rennet with up and down mixing for about 30 seconds.

Cover your pot and leave it alone for 5 minutes.  You'll be able to see the separation between the curd and whey.  Cut the curd with a knife.

Heat it back up to 110.  Take it off the burner and stir it slowly for a few minutes.  Meanwhile, heat another pot of water to 185.

Ladle your curds into a colander, folding them gently to drain the whey.

We put our colander into another container so that we could save the whey.

With the curds in the colander, put the colander into the hot water very slowly.  Pick it up and put it back in several times.  Then take spoon to see if the curds have become elastic.  If not, then continue doing this until they do.  If so, then remove them and pull it like taffy.  If it's not stretching, then you should return it to the hot water and try again.

You can add about a tsp or so of salt, or even herbs, and work it into the cheese.  Form the cheese as you'd like (string cheese, a ball, little balls, a log, a braid, etc).  Put the cheese into 50 degree water for 5 minutes and then ice water for 15 minutes.

That allows the cheese to cool and to hold its shape.

Eat and enjoy.  Don't toss that whey - you'll want it for making ricotta.