Crinella Family Cookbook
Our Grandparents' Favorites
Anti Pasti
Soups
Salads
Pasta
Vegetables
Fish
Poultry
Meat
Wild Game
Sweets
Brunch or Luncheon Dishes
Odds & Ends
Sour Dough
Other Breads ETC
New Italian Sauce Recipes
New Lower Fat Recipes
Slow Cooker Recipes
Entertaining Ideas
Table of Contents
People
Family Photos
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Odds & Ends
White Sangria
Clarified Butter (Ghee)
Dried Lemon or Orange Peel
Brandied Fruit
Cherries in White Rum
Dried Mushrooms
Brined Grape Leaves
Home Made Ricotta Cheese
Home Made Mozarella Cheese
Orange Flavored Olives
Lemon-Lavender Marmalade
Home Cured Olives
Citrus Roses
2005 Sauvignon Blanc
2005 Glissando
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Home Made Mozzarella Cheese
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It is not too much trouble to make fresh mozzarella cheese at home and it
is far superior to what you can buy already made. First you need to make
a starter or thermophillic culture.
Starter Ingredients:
2 cups fresh milk
1 tablespoon fresh yogurt, either homemade or such as Dannon
Cheese Ingredients:
1 gallon milk
2 ounces thermophilac culture (2 ice cubes defrosted)
1/2 rennet tablet
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Starter Instructions:
Sterilize a one quart canning jar and the cover in boiling water for ten
minutes.
Heat milk to 185 degrees. Cool milk to 125 degrees.
Add one
tablespoon fresh plain yogurt and mix together.
Put mixture into jar and
put
into a pot with warm water half way up the jar.
Keep the water warm,
110 degrees, for about eight hours, or more.
You can do this by using the
warm setting on your stove.
When the mixture thickens it is ready.
Cool
and pour into ice cube trays and freeze.
Then store until
needed in plastic bags. Each cube is about one ounce. Use 2 cubes to make
fresh starter when you need it. ( Ramona made her culture on a warm summer
day
and put the jar in the sun where she left it alone until it thickened.
It worked fine.)
Cheese Instructions:
Heat milk to ninety degrees.
Mix milk and culture and let sit one hour
to ripen.
Dissolve 1/2 rennet in 1/4 cup water and mix in milk mixture and
let cook another hour at ninety degrees.
The curd will thicken or set.
Cut the curds into in half inch cubes and leave in the pot for fifteen
minutes.
Drain the curds into a cheesecloth lined colander. (Save the
liquid
for ricotta.)
Drain for several hours until fully drained using a
cheescloth
or muslin bag if you have it.
Place curds in stainless steel pot and
refrigerate to develop for 24 hours.
Remove curds from refrigerator and place some test curds in a stainless
steel
pot with water at 170 degrees.
Using two wooden spoons begin pressing the
curds
together so that the shape of the cubes no longer shows. If the curds do
not press together, wait an hour and try again. Do not overheat the water.
When test curds take shape, put the remaining curds into the pot at 170
degrees and work into balls about the size of a baseball using the two
wooden spoons.
Remove the ball from the water and work the cheese over
itself a few times to stretch. If this get too difficult place the cheese
back in the warm water and then continue to stretch.
Place in a bowl of
ice
water or cold brine solution made of 1 gallon of water and 2 pounds of salt
for
an hour.
Remove cheese from water and dry.
Wrap in plastic wrap.
The
cheese
tastes best if cured 24 hours before using.
To make cheese you should have a cheese thermometer as the exact temperature
is
important. You also have to have the correct rennet tablet and which you
can buy from the New England Cheese Compnay at:
www.cheesemaking.com. This company will also sell you freeze dried starter
culture, also.
Enjoy with our 2005 Sauvignon Blanc.
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