Why labels are good

Let me tell you a small story.

Many years ago, back when we lived in Oregon, we needed a chest freezer. Montgomery Wards was going out of business at the time, so we went and bought the biggest chest freezer they had (it was enormous).

Our Oregon house was old (1874) and small (850 square feet), and we had had absolutely no room for such a monstrous appliance. There was no question where it would go: the basement, which was little more than a dirt-floored half-space between the floor of the house above and the sloped hill beneath.

The basement was damp and dark, with no lights and only accessible by an outside door. Except for the darkness, it was a great place for a freezer, and we used it a lot. It allowed us to do things like freeze surplus meals and take advantage of inexpensive or past-its-prime produce.

One day Don expressed interest in some homemade onion soup I had previously frozen in individual-sized portions. "I know just where it is," I said confidently. Taking a flashlight, I went into the basement, fetched the onion soup in its baggie, and brought it into the kitchen where I put it on the stove to heat.

As the soup heated, I noticed a lovely, fragrant smell permeating the kitchen. It smelled delicious, but most decidedly NOT like onion soup. Further investigation revealed I was simmering puréed bananas from a too-good-to-pass-up sale the week before, which I had frozen for future batches of banana bread. We chuckled over the "banana soup" incident for a long time.

Now fast forward to yesterday. I had plans to make pizza for dinner, so the first thing I did was reach into the chest freezer for the shredded mozzarella cheese I always keep there. (You can guess where this is going, right?)

I let the cheese defrost for a couple hours. Meanwhile I made the pizza dough, let it rise, and formed the pizzas.

But when I reached into the bag of cheese to spread it over the sauce, I pulled out -- rice. Leftover rice I'd frozen a couple weeks ago.

Labels. Yes, labels are good.

Making mozzarella

A neighbor named Wendy had a cow who lost a calf at birth, and Wendy's been forced to milk the new mama in the absence of the baby. Wendy called and asked if I could make her some mozzarella cheese out of the milk.

It's been over a year since I've milked Matilda, so I said sure! I wanted to see if my cheesemaking skills had atrophied. So Wendy brought over five gallons of fresh milk. (I kept it in our "outdoor refrigerator" until I had a free day to make cheese.)

Cheesemaking isn't arduous -- it's mostly a matter of keeping an eagle-eye on the temperature -- but it's a lengthy and drawn-out process. Don't try making cheese unless you plan to be home the whole day.

I followed the directions found in this book, Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carroll. If you're serious about making cheese, this is a wonderful reference book.

I won't repeat the recipe since it's too much typing, but I do have another blog post on mozzarella cheese here.

To two gallons of milk, I added some citric acid to make sure the acidity was high enough. Mozzarella cheese has to be somewhat acidic in order to have that "stretch."

Adding lipase powder. This helps give mozzarella its characteristic taste.

My thermophilic starter was a little old, so I wasn't sure it had enough kick. Fortunately it did. However I plan to use some of the leftover fresh milk to re-culture my starter. (Don't worry, I'll blog about it.)

All the ingredients are added and the temperature is correct...

...so now it's time to add rennet. This thickens and "gels" the milk into curds. Takes about 75 minutes for this process to occur.

Cutting the curds. Cut in about 1/2" strips one way, then the other way (criss-cross), then diagonally one way, then the other way.

The curds end up looking like this. Stir, then let them rest for 20 minutes.

Pouring off the whey. Whey can be used to make ricotta cheese, but I wasn't making that today.

As with canning, kitchen timers are your best friend while making cheese.

The drained curds are kept in the colander over a pot of hot water to keep draining, and they're flipped every 20 minutes for 2 1/2 hours. (Sorry, didn't take any photos of this process.)

At the end of this process, it's time to turn the curds into cheese. Start with broad wooden spoons. Do NOT use slotted spoons of any sort (as I found out the hard way) because the gooey cheese oozes between the slots and makes a mess.

Start a pot of water heating toward 170F.

Meanwhile, take the dried curds...

...and start slicing 'n dicing.

It's a juicy process, so be sure to keep a towel beneath the cutting board. During the second batch of cheese, I balanced the cutting board across the sink and let the excess whey drain directly, which worked much better.

When the water in the pot reaches 170F, add the curd cubes. Adding the curd will cool the water, so add more heat as necessary to keep the temperature at 170. Don't go any higher.

Then take the wooden spoons and start working the curds, pressing them together. The water will get very cloudy with whey. Keep working the curds, and keep the temp at 170.

The curds will start to get shiny...

...and stretchy. It's now officially cheese.

Next take the hot and stretchy cheese and plop it in a bowl of cold water to cool.

Here's the two batches of cheese I made from Wendy's milk. Looks like nothing more than a couple of brains sitting on my counter, doesn't it?

I still need to reach Wendy to find out whether or not she wants me to brine the cheese. Personally I like fresh mozzarella better when it's lightly brined, but of course it's her call.

Homesteading Question #3 - Making mozzarella cheese

Here are the steps for making mozzarella cheese. The recipe for this version came from Ricki Carrol's Home Cheese Making. Some of these photos will be used to illustrate a comprehensive article on basic cheesemaking that will appear in a future issue of Backwoods Home Magazine. I'm posting them here so the editor has a chance to look over the pictures and select the ones she needs.

I start with two gallons of fresh milk:


I use two pots nested together to act as a double boiler.


Add 1 1/2 teaspoons citric acid to milk, and heat the milk slowly to 90F.


While the milk is heating, dissolve 1/4 teaspoon lipase powder in 1/4 cup cool water, and put it aside to dissolve.


These are frozen thermophilic starter cubes. Once the milk hits 90F, I add three or four to the milk and stir until the cubes are melted and mixed. I also add the dissolved lipase powder at this time. Then I cover the milk and let it ripen for 30 minutes.


Add 1/2 teaspoon rennet (I use liquid animal rennet) to 1/4 cup cool water...


...and add to the milk. Mix thoroughly, then cover and let set, undisturbed, for 75 minutes.


Using a long, thin kitchen knife, slice the curds in a criss-cross pattern to make about 1/2" checks...


...then criss-cross again, this time at an angle.


This cuts the curds into smallish cubes. Don't stir. Now let the curds rest for 20 minutes.


Slowly heat the curds to 100F, raising the temperature no more than two degrees every five minutes. Gently stir the curds during this process. As they heat, the curds will slowly shrink and become firmer. Once they have reached 100F, let them set, undisturbed, for five minutes.

Line a colander with a clean pillowcase:


Pour the curds and whey into the pillowcase:


You can see how heavy the proto-cheese is. The whey needs to drain some more from the pillowcase...


...so I put the pillowcase back in the colander, place it inside (or on the lip of) the pot, and cover to keep the heat in. I let it sit this way for about 15 minutes to drain.


Pour the wet curds back into the pot.


Keep the curds at this temperature for 2½ hours. Every 20 minutes, drain the whey and flip the curds over. The curds will get drier and firmer.


At the end of the 2 1/2 hours, heat a pot of water to 170F.


Take the mat of curds out of the pot...


And slice in a criss-cross pattern to cube the curds.


Add the cubes to the hot water.


Works the curds with wooden spoons. The water will start to get cloudy as the whey presses out of the curds. Keep working until you have a large mass.


It will get very stretchy!


When the cheese has all melded together and is stretchy, take it out and put it into a bowl of cold water in order to cool and firm.


After this, you can brine the cheese (a brine is made by taking 1 gallon of water and adding two pounds of non-iodized salt and letting it dissolve). Soak the cooled cheese in the brine for about 30 to 35 minutes.

I like to let the cheese sit in the fridge overnight to improve the flavor. Grated on pizza, this cheese is delicious.