Reframe the Mozzarella Fail: When Cheese-Making Goes Wrong

Everything was going great. It was 6pm. The recipe says you can make Mozzarella in a little over half an hour. My Cheddar had turned out great, so this simple cheese would be a breeze. I had left the 2 gallons of whole pasteurized milk sit out all after­noon to save heating time later. With my cocky “I-can-do-all things” attitude, forgetting the latter part of that quote, I thought nothing of tacking on the project this late in the day.

But the milk got too hot, too fast, even in my double-boiler (See Mozzarella Instructions). I knew from my recent feta cheese-making that the rennet is fussy. That doesn’t sit well with my nature. I’m all about NOT being too fussy, or nothing will ever get done around here. But I had to let it cool down, and that would take over an hour to go from 99° to the needed 90° on this warm evening.

And I'm impatient, so after one hour, I dumped in the rennet at 93°. Close enough.

I had made my creamy sausage pasta to feed the six of us for dinner (see recipe) in my 8 qt Instant Pot Pro Crisp while waiting for the milk to cool, and it was now after 7pm. I'm trying to be better at cleaning-as-I- go. I don't need the pressure of picking dried-on whey off a double boiler at 8am when the teens get on the school bus. But I can't clean anything yet as it feels like every pot and plate in my kitchen is being used at the same time.

Anxious to get the cheese finished, I started heating the curds a little too fast, and I got a little too lazy, adding extra salt and my fresh basil before all the whey was drained. I figured some salt would be lost if I drained more whey later. And I like it salty.

Suddenly I had a hot mess of very salty soft ricotta-like cheese, with the extra whey having thickened into the curds. Trouble-shooting said I must have used Ultra-pasteurized milk. I check the jug labels - Nope. I didn't.

What happened to this simple quick recipe?

Was it too much acid development because I let the milk sit out?

Was it adding the rennet too soon?

Was it adding extra salt and not removing all the whey?

Ahh... doesn’t matter. It was the rush. The impatience. The always trying to push push push instead of proper timing.

So I hear God in my head once again reminding me to not rush, to not force, to not forget the point. I remember why I'm making my own Mozzarella in the first place.

It’s not to save $10. It’s to have wholesome food to snack on without chemicals. It's to make a healthy protein for my food-aversion-prone kid. It's about learning. It's about listening to my God.

So I don't have mozzarella now, but that’s okay. Instead I have these big yummy loaves of semi-soft Basil-Onion cheese, so I’ll rename it that on the container. Whatever I call it, it tastes fantastic on my sour-dough. This mozzarella fail inspires me to grind some wheat berries tomorrow and whip up some onion crackers to eat with it for lunch. And to enjoy that process, however that turns out.