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I've been looking at easy to make cheese because I have a boat=load of family coming to visit soon and I think mozzarella would be both the easiest and pleasing to most people and probably all the kids. Today I scoured the stores in Hilo for rennet. I checked walmart, kta, suck n'save, down to earth and safeway. I even asked the butcher at safeway; he didn't know what it was. That's wierd.
Maybe I have to buy it online?
Thanks for any help. If I find it tomorrow; I'll post where I got it.
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Saw some at Island Naturals @hilo shopping center in a refrigerator at the back where they keep the vitamins or just ask one of the clerks.
Joy
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Yeah, island naturals does sell rennet.
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Wait a minute. You know how to make mozarella? Do tella.
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Funny thing is, I don't know anyone that doesn't like mozzarella. You can melt it, it's agreeable on sandwiches, crackers...anywhere you'd put cheese. Kids will eat it by the fistfull. It's even fun to make and can be a lab experiment for young and old alike.
The best recipe/web site I've found is this one:
http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/cheese/cheese.html
He goes into detail the chemistry behind the process; but understand that you can't really screw it up. It's basically just a gallon of milk.
Don't use ultra-pasteurize or organic milk. You can use goats milk; be sure to pasteurize it. You can use the leftover whey to make ricotta; I think I only make the mozzarella so I can have they whey to make ricotta. A little pasta, a little ricotta, a fresh tomatoe and a slice of basil...heaven.
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Hey thanks, Island Naturals does sell it. I've only called. It's $3.89 but she didn't say how many ounces. She said it's in liquid form rather than the tablets and it's the vege kind...most is these days. I already ordered some from Amazon in the tablet form but I'm going to buy some from them on Friday and see how it works out. A cheese making I will go, hi=ho the dairy-o......
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Actually, I noticed he uses the microwave that process makes a rubbery cheese. Here's basically what I do following my grandmas OntheCheap/OntheFly Florida Mozzarella Recipe:
Put 2 teaspoons citric acid and 1 cup cool water in a stainless steel pot..mix very well
Pour in a gallon of milk; fast and stir fast and well. (citric acid is for acidity to stretch it)
Bring the milk to 90 degrees on medium heat (thick bottomed pans work best, if you have a double boiler hats off to you).
You should see a slight curdling, if not heat to 95 or even up to 100 degrees.
Turn off the heat. I like to let it sit for an hour to ripen, but you don't have to
If you let it sit, bring the temperature back up to 90 degrees;
Mash together a 1/2 rennet tablet in 1/4 cup cool water (unchlorinated!!)
Add the now fairly liquified rennet to the milk slowly while stiring top to botton in a circular motion
My potato masher works great (Is potatoe really NOT spelled with an e on the end? All these years..)
Stir,stir,stir; for about a minute. Cover and let it sit for and hour.
Cut your mixture into 1" vertical squares; I mean, cut 1" parallel lines, turn the pot 90 degrees and cut 1" parallel lines.
Turn the heat back on gently stirring your mixture (curds and whey now) with a slotted spoon until you hit 90 degrees.
Keep at 90 degrees for an hour, stir every 10 minutes for the first half hour, no stirring the 2nd half hour.
Scoop your curds into a strainer that's lined with cheese cloth (or burlap, even a old, cheap bed sheet will work ok)
and press them with your hand to remove as much whey as possible
Tie your cheese in the cheese cloth and let it hand over the sink for 4 hours or in the fridge overnight
At this point, the best thing to do is make your ricotta and use it's leftover whey to string the mozzarella
So, use your ricotta whey or your original mozzarella whey or 7 cups of water and 1/2 cup kosher salt:
Heat your liquid to 170 degrees, cut your mozzarella into cubes and drop into the pot for maybe 2 minutes
It'll be barely soft in the middle, not more than that
Laddle it into a bowl and fold it in on itself....don't squeeze it; you'll remove the cream!
Pick up the cheese and let it stretch from it's own weight until it virtually stops, fold it in half
and let it stretch again; continue until it doesn't stretch by itself anymore (cooled down)
Then, stretch it purposefully, folding in half and continuing until it's shiny and smooth (maybe 15 or 20 pulls)
Form it into a ball/balls/roll/sticks/heart shaped cookie cutter, put it in a glass bowl with ice water (1cup and 2 tsp of salt)
Home made mozzarella is only good for about 4 days but you can freeze it for about 3 months.
Some recipes call for calcium chloride, I find the cheese doesn't melt very well with this additive.
Also, if you can get it, lipase adds that Italian flavor (add it to your cold gallon of milk).
Gramps used to add liquid smoke to his.
Cheese making is fun and cheap. You get about 12 ounces of mozzarella and about a pound of ricotta from 1 gallon of milk.
Someone must have a great recipe for yogurt.....yogurt flavorings would be great too!
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Update: Island Naturals does sell rennet in the liquid form. Thank you very much!!! Conversion; 1 tsp = 1 rennet tablet.
A neighbor Ann got a 50lb bag of citric acid for the coqui eradication program from a group in our subdivision; puts a new spin on free gov't cheese. Considering 7oz is over $5 on Amazon, that would be $115 for the 50Lb. bag. Score!! Ok, go ahead, I'm ready for the scorn from those who realize this is misappropriation of gov't funds.
Speaking of Coquis, I've been able to catch the little *@%+&@/'ers at night and put 'em in a jar and feed them to the chickens...just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Now if I could only get the chickens to be nocturnal! Imagine the profit margins on that venture.
