for those who have made their own Mozzerella, where do I buy Rennet & Citric acid?


 
Clint

Clint

TVWBB Olympian
for those who have made their own Mozzerella, where do I buy Rennet & Citric acid?

I remember being surprised a couple years ago here when someone posted about making their own Mozzarella....... I've read a few recipes and I'm ready to try it myself, but today for the first time I looked at the grocery store (Smith's) and had no luck. I looked in the baking isle & near the supplements.....

Where do people typically buy rennet & citric acid?
 
I don't do my own Mozz, but make stuffed cabbage rolls and citric acid or sour salt is one ingredient. You should be able to find it in the canning or pickling aisle or the Kosher section of a supermarket.

Tim
 
found them both @ the grocery store yesterday....think I'll try my luck in the next couple of days.
 
I made it, still draining the ricotta (byproduct).

Not much pics on the cheese (none, actually :( ), but we made a few pies.

I used this for the Mozzarella: http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-homemade-mozzarella-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-174355

And this for the Ricotta: http://www.instructables.com/id/Great-Ricotta-Cheese-From-Whey/?ALLSTEPS

I did a simplified (no spices) version of the crust (cracker thin): http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?50098-quick-pizza-dough&p=547633&viewfull=1#post547633

I used the Junkett brand Rennet tablets, don't buy them..... see the warning. Anyway it was a good first try!

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on the 18" wsm
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Clint, those pies look amazin! Howd ya like the mozz ( would you do it again and was it worth it ) ?

Tim
 
It's definitely on rotation but I need to learn what's going on with it.

If you look at the first link (click on each picture for the next step's text to appear), when it's supposed to look like silken tofu-------- .....mine didn't. I gave it another 5 minutes like it said, still only my top layer was turning to curds (you'll have to see it for yourself to really understand). I tried heating it to the next step but it wasn't going as expected. I re-read the instructions and noticed the warning about Junket tablets (not as concentrated, instead of using a 1/4 tablet, use 1-2. So I used one, gave it 5 minutes, still not enough action so I gave it another (total of 3 Junket brand Rennet tabs). I gave it another 5 minutes, I'd taken the temp to the next stage already, and it looked like cottage cheese.

When I started working it with my hands it was good to have my friends there to read me the instructions. It was fun to see it becoming more firm as I worked it (from a mush), and then it started to resemble string cheese! I started giving out samples at that point :)

it was SNAFU, but delicious!

I used whole milk from Winder Dairy.

The yield was just over 16oz Mozzarella cheese, & I forgot to weigh the ricotta, but I'm guessing 5-6 oz. Don't buy the citric acid & rennet in bulk - you'll never use it all... this takes very little besides a gallon of milk to make a batch.

So my temps were off, my ingredients were off, my technique was off, and it still turned out good.
 
So, homemade usually tastes better than name brand BUT was this taste a lot better than name brand? Or was it really not worth the effort? Up here at least, a gallon of milk is about the same price as a pound of name brand mozz.
 
It tasted good but I think the texture was a little different than commercial. I didn't get to the stretching phase, maybe I quit too soon but it said don't over work it. My temps/ingredients were off, I got it to where I could use it & stopped. the texture changed rapidly while kneading and I thought it was getting too firm.

I only used 1.5 tsp salt like it called for, next time I'll try more salt, working my way to maybe 2.5tsp. I thought about adding in flavors too, just before mixing/stretching, like chopped sun-dried tomatoes or red pepper flakes or black pepper or some dried basil.. might be a bad idea but...

Maybe someone more experienced can chime in? I think Dave from Denver is the first person who posted it here (blew my mind a couple years ago, I didn't think that it was something you could do at home).

Milk here is around $3.50/gallon, mozz is between $10-16/lb, ricotta?? (my prices may be way off). Last week I picked up an 8oz "manager's special" of mozz from Smith's for $2.49, I think it was half off. I'm not really doing it to save money, more just for something to do.

It was super easy - I'm looking forward to using the mozz/ricotta in a Lasagna
 
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Never seen flavoured mozz. Havarti or gouda yes because those two are "appetizer" cheeses whereas I don't see mozz as an appetizer.

For me the flavour and "stretchiness" has to be worth the effort.
 
The Italian deli where I get my fresh mozz makes some flavored ones ( I don't recall what they call them, it's in Italian ) anyway, one has hot red pepper, sun dried tomatoes and it's packed in EVO. Really good on a Caprese salad or stuffed shells,lasagne, meatball subs..
Oh, and they do an Italian herb-ed one that is excellent on crashed/smashed taters.

Tim
 
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Round 2 - not much to look at but this time I used 2% milk from Viva, a little more citric acid & 2.5 junket brand Rennet tablets. I did it according to the recipe. Only got ~14 oz instead of 16oz like last time but it was a lot more like described. I added ~1.5T .....some sort of red pepper flakes, & probably 1.5t fresh ground black pepper too, while stirring & raising the heat to 105F.

It stretched like taffy like at the fair, but that part goes quickly.... still a lot of room to experiment,

and not much to look at.... but:

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