Cheesemaking

A while back we were watching this tv show. On said tv show they were making homemade Mozzarella. Kevin's eyes lit up and we decided we should totally make homemade mozzarella. So, we tracked down the ingredients (they make kits for these things) and made a not so successful attempt at Mozzarella. It was like a really smooth, creamy ricotta. So we tried again. And again... and so forth. There is some problem with some milks in regards to cheese making. Many of the brands "ultra" pasteurize the milk, getting it really, really hot, and thus killing off the goodness of the milk that let's us create cheese. Also, even more irritating, that most of the time they don't label the milk as ultra...it just says pasteurized. So we tried brand after brand of milk.

TG Lee, Publix, Sweetbay, Target, 365, Golden Fleece (local to FL and specifically says on the label it is processed at a low temperature.)

We did get something resembling cheese from the Golden Fleece milk. However, it should have worked perfectly, since it was LOCAL (which everything we've read recommends) and not heated to a zillion degrees, killing all that is healthy and cheese producing.

After much thought and discussion, we decided it might be the rennet, acquired new rennet, and tried again last night. With dismal results. I'm left to the option of finding a dairy and buying some farm fresh (maybe raw) milk and trying that. Or I could just go buy some fresh mozz from Publix, put it on some tomatos and top it with some basil. I'm about 50/50 on which to do, but I seem to have this compulsion now to make this work. So I'll probably keep flogging away at it until I have the most expensive lump of mozzarella on the planet. Hopefully it will taste good.