Ingredients
Scale
- For Cheese:
- 2 gallons whole milk
- 2 1/2 t. citric acid, dissolved in 1/2 c. water
- 4 oz. mesophilic culture cubes
- 1/2 t. liquid rennet, dissolved in 1/2 c. water
- Â
- For Stretching:
- 1/2 c. salt (pickling salt is a lot like flake cheese salt and works well) dissolved in a gallon of hot water
Instructions
- Pour milk into a very large stockpot
- Add citric acid and stir very thoroughly for a couple of minutes
- Add the culture cubes
- Slowly heat the milk over medium heat until it reaches a temperature of 90-91 degrees.
- Remove from heat.
- Allow to sit for an hour.
- Add rennet and stir very thoroughly, yet gently with an up and down motion for about half a minute. Stop the motion of the liquid since the rennet will start the coagulation process immediately.
- Allow to sit for 15 minutes or until the curds form and break clean.
- Cut into 1/2″ cubes.
- Allow to sit for 5 minutes.
- Reheat the curds to 90-91 degrees, very gently stirring in an upward motion to evenly distribute the heat. This should only take a few minutes since the curds & whey will probably be less than 10 degrees cooler than that. Breaking up any large curds that weren’t cut.
- Cook the curds by allowing them to sit at temperature for 15 minutes. Stir, cutting curd clumps. Cover and sit for 20 additional minutes.
- Strain off whey.
- Allow the curds to sit in the strainer overnight or 5-10 hours. Alternately, you could hang the cheese in cheesecloth to drain out every last bit of whey. (I buy use this one. It has a nice close weave.) I find that with using the strainer, I need to flip the curd mass over ever now and then because it will get a little puddle of whey sitting in top.
- You can test to see if the acidity is developed by microwaving a cup of water for two minutes and then adding a small chunk of curd. Allow it to sit in the hot water for several seconds, remove and if it stretches and strings, it’s ready. If it breaks, allow it to sit longer.
- Heat a gallon of water to near boiling.
- Dissolve 1/2 c. canning/pickling salt in the water.
- Turn off the heat and remove the curd mass from the strainer.
- Cut into 1/2″ cubes.
- Working with a quarter of the cubes at a time, add them to the hot water and stir until they begin to melt together.
- Scoop them out to a plate or bowl and quickly give them a knead or two to bring them all together.
- Stretch the cheese, pulling and folding it in half and then in half again.
- Re-submerge in the water if necessary. (Remember this is where the salt is, and the salt adds flavor, so let it hang out for just a bit.) Repeat with the pulling and folding.
- When the cheese is shiny and taffy-like, shape it into a ball, briefly re-submerge in the hot water, remove and roll it around in your hands for a second to smooth out the wrinkles.
- Run in under cold water to begin the cooling process and prevent the cheese from losing shape.