Making Mozzarella

I know I've been pretty absent lately - and the truth is there's been very little crafting (nothing crafted = nothing to blog). Mostly I've been working, visiting family, nesting, and obsessively researching wedding stuff. No plans of yet, but... stay tuned.

I did make a little time this morning to make some mozzarella. Once you get your hands on some rennet, it's quite simple. (I found mine at Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco - otherwise, buying it online costs 5x the cost of the actual product...so instead I drove around for ~5 hours looking for the stuff to avoid a $6 shipping fee. Possible exaggeration.)

The book from whenceforth the recipe did cometh (look it up, it's totally proper English):

stir and warm up your milk and citric acid (yes, something I actually had lying around):

It will start curdling a little, but nothing compared to the clumping that happens once you add the rennet:

You actually don't have to stir fast and furiously, this is just how it looks when you turn your flash off:

See such clumpage?

You ladle it out, squeeze out the water, microwave it, squeeze, stretch, repeat until you get something like this. Wear gloves, it's hot!

Voila! His and hers mozzarella balls. Mine is the twisty, D's is the roundy moundy.

It was a little rubbery and not salty at all. Next time, I'll do a little less squeezing/pulling and a lot more salting. But a quick, satifying activity always makes me happy.