Skill Share Dinners - Making Mozzarella

We decided that there are a lot of skills floating around out there, and we wanted to learn them. We also decided we don't get a chance to hang out with friends nearly enough. So we came up with the idea of a skill share dinner. We're hope to have it every other week or so. It can be anything from making yogurt to how to knit to cider/beer brewing to how to make a fantastic apple pie to how to properly cook beans to painting to baking bread.

Our first skillshare dinner was making mozzarella. Yes. We began a bit ambitiously. Tany, one of my amazing coworkers, brought us quite a treat: 2 gallons of raw milk from New Hampshire. We all got to try some.

We used instructions (and supplies such as rennet and citric acid) from the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company. A fantastic source for beginners and the advanced cheesemaker!

Here is Desiree stirring in the citric acid to curdle the milk.

We added rennet, and let it sit 5 minutes. Rennet contains enzymes that break down the lactose in milk so they form curds. It happens fast. Here Lisa is already cutting the curds.

Separating the curds from the whey. More than once we had some cheese-inspired puns: "Check out these curds." "No whey!?!"

Ready to stretch them.

And stretch some more. They are starting to get nice and shiny.

After a quick salt brine bath dip, they're ready for eating on crackers or on pizzas. Notice the crispy cheese edges on that butternut squash, spinach, caramelized onion and blue cheese pizza. "Yummy!" is definitely an understatement here.