The gift that keeps on giving! Win this 30 minute Mozzarella Kit. Consider it a Christmas present to yourself! We had a great time making this together. And we have supplies to do it 29 more times! Of course the "taffy stretching" hands-on part was a favorite...but I'm getting ahead of myself!
I've recently had an opportunity to try out the
30 Minute Mozzarella Cheesemaking Kit from the
New England Cheesemaking Supply Company.
The kit includes everything you need to make a 1# batch of mozzarella cheese ~ 30 times! That's right, 30# of cheese with one kit! All you add is the milk. We had a great time and it was really easy to do.
We used raw milk from a local farm. First, we heated the milk to 145°F for 30 minutes. Then we cooled the milk quickly by placing the kettle in a sink of ice water.
We added the citric acid which was dissolved in water. It's important to be sure the water doesn't contain chlorine.
Then we heated the milk again to 90°F stirring constantly.
At this point, we removed the kettle from the stove and slowly stirred in the rennet solution we'd made earlier. The pot was covered and allowed to rest for 5+ minutes.
Now we could see the separation begin to happen. But the curds weren't quite set enough so we gave it a few more minutes.
Using a knife that would reach the bottom of the pot, we cut the curd into cubes and made diagonal slices as shown in the directions. Now we could see the whey begin to separate more.
We put the pot back on the stove and heated the curds to 110°F while slowly moving the curds around in the pot to help separate the solids. Then we took it off the heat and continued stirring gently for 2-5 more minutes.
The whey was poured off into a pitcher and the solids remained in the colander.
We heated a pot of water to 185°F. Then we dipped the colander with the curds into the water several times to rinse the whey off and heat the cheese again. After folding the curds over to drain the whey, they began to get stretchy and elastic.
Here's the fun part! You pull the cheese like taffy to lengthen the proteins.
You can add some cheese salt (included in the kit) while you stretch the cheese until it's shiny and smooth. Once you reach this stage, you can form a braid, a log or a ball with your cheese.
If you want to make string cheese, simply stretch the cheese into long pieces and cut. Drop them into cold water for 5 minutes to set the cheese. Then let set in ice water for another 15 minutes. This is important to keep the cheese from becoming grainy and protects it's silky texture.
Voila! 30 minute mozzarella right in your own kitchen! This is a great project to do with kids!
Now, here's the exciting part! The folks at New England Cheesemaking Company have offered to sponsor a giveaway for one 30 Minute Mozzarella Kit to a lucky person somewhere in Canada or the US!
You have 5 chances to enter!
1) Follow
The Woodwife's Journal and leave a comment below telling me that you're following,
2) Blog about my giveaway and leave a comment below with the link to your post.
3) Tweet about my giveaway and leave a comment below.
4) Visit
New England Cheesemaking Supply Company and leave a comment below telling me what product interests you the most.
5) Follow New England Cheesemaking Supply Company on
Facebook and leave a comment below.
At 6PM on Christmas Eve 2011, I'll draw a random number from the comments section to choose the winner!
I'm sharing this with the folks @ Homestead Barn Hop, Simple Lives Thursday and Miz Helen's Full Plate Thursday.
Click on their buttons to see what's happening there.
Much herbal love,
LearningHerbs.com offers the perfect starting point for your herbal learning experience. It's like taking 8 herbal classes in a box with all the supplies you'll need for this hands-on course. A great way to introduce herbal remedies to your family. 
Hello, again! Can you believe it's December already!? With Christmas just around the corner, we thought we'd focus this week's gathering of wildcrafting ideas on projects for Christmas gift giving! Do you have an herbal/natural craft or gift idea you'd like to share with us and all our readers?
