Making Fresh Mozzarella

I’ve tried making fresh mozzarella before but never really had much success. Since pizza making is kind of my thing I really wanted to learn so I could make the cheese fresh and top my pizzas with it. I did some research and found a local dairy farm that had cheese making classes and immediately signed up.

I rolled up on a warm April morning and waved to the cows thanking them for their contribution to the world of cheese – they didn’t wave back but I know they herd.  This class included fresh mozzarella as well as burrata – so… bonus cheese! The only drawback to that was they started with pressed curds as opposed to milk due to the time constraints. However – that being said the basic concept is the same (and I’ve made the curd before so it’s not that hard to make and you can buy it in 10lb bags that freeze really well).

The first step is to break the curds up into small crumbles in a large stainless steel bowl.   Once that is completed pour hot (under 170 degrees) water on top of the curds and wait a few minutes to let the hot water do it’s work. Put on a couple of pairs of plastic gloves (the water is really hot) and pull all the curds into a rough ball of cheese. Take this ball of cheese then stretch it out as much as you can then sprinkle it with some kosher salt fold it over itself, rotate, and repeat. Do this 5 or 6 times and you should have the makings of a ball of fresh mozzarella. If you can’t get it to seal right you can always pour some more hot water on the sides of the bowl and press the cheese against it to help seal the ball shut.

Take a deli takeout container and fill it with water – add a little more salt (to taste) and submerge the cheese in the water. If you are going to use it the same day leave it out to cool in the water. If you aren’t going to eat it that day you can put it in the fridge until you need it (make sure to change the water out daily to help keep it fresh)

For burrata you take some of the curds you broke up into small bits and mix them with heavy cream in a separate bowl. Once you stretch the cheese into a ball pull the edges of the ball to make a flat cheese square. Form a pocket in your hand and cup the cheese square in it – once that’s done fill it with the cream/curd mixture. Carefully fold up the edges of the cheese to cover the curds and seal the edges (using hot water on the steel bowl trick if it doesn’t seal correctly). Store it in the same deli container with salted water.

Overall I found the class very instructive and being able to stretch the cheese myself and understand how it’s supposed to look was the missing key for me. Last few times It tried it the cheese just didn’t stretch and I suspect it was the heat of the water wasn’t high enough. I haven’t tried to replicate at home yet but I’m eying a 10 pound Grande cheese bag of mozzarella curds that would make a LOT of cheese.