Have you been wanting to learn to make homemade mozzarella cheese from scratch, but are intimidated by the process? This is the easiest tutorial you will find and it consistently gives amazing results. Use it to make homemade string cheese, mozzarella cheese sticks, top a pizza, or just eat it straight.
When I first started at looking how I could make more of our meals from scratch, making homemade mozzarella got added to my “learn to make” list. The problem was that every tutorial and recipe I came across (even ones claiming they took 30 minutes) were very intimidating.
Many of the methods for making quick mozzarella cheese also required the use of a microwave. For many years we didn’t own a microwave. We now have one, but prefer not to use it.
Finally, when we got a milk cow, I dove head-first into the world of cheese making. After learning the basics of cheesemaking with hard cheeses like cheddar and Colby, I decided to master mozzarella. After all, it was supposed to be the easy one!
After a few failed attempts and a ton of experimentation, I have learned to make amazing mozzarella cheese. The best part though is that I have simplified the process!
No gloves, microwaves, or complicated steps are needed for this method of making mozzarella cheese. You will be whipping up a fresh batch for your next family pizza night and your family and friends will be amazed.
If you would like to watch the process, I’ve included the video here. In this video, I also cover some frequently asked questions about getting and caring for a family milk cow.
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To make the world’s easiest mozzarella cheese you are going to need 1 – 4 gallons of milk. Raw milk or store-bought is fine, but either way, you are going to want a little butterfat in there. I sometimes will skim some of the cream off of our raw milk before making mozzarella. I’ve found though that a 1-inch cream line is what gives me the best consistency. If you are using store-bought, 2% or whole milk is fine.
You will also need citric acid, which you can find in the canning section of many stores, and rennet which is available from cheese-making supply stores.
Begin by adding the milk to a large pot.
Then dissolve the citric acid in some cool water. You need 1 ½ tsp. citric acid and ½ cup of water per gallon of milk. So for 2 gallons, I’m doing 3 tsp. citric acid and 1 cup of water. Stir until well dissolved and then mix it into the milk. You can whisk it in, but I will say that a cheese-making spoon is very handy because it allows you to stir up and down in the pot and it’s going to make working with the curd easier too. Don’t worry if you don’t have though, just use a large spoon.
Next, you are going to slowly heat up the milk to 100 degrees Fahrenheit over medium heat. Continue to stir every once in a while during this process and use an instant-read thermometer to check the temperature.
While the milk is heating up you are going to prepare the rennet. This is the rennet I use, but no matter what you buy you will find instructions that tell you how much is needed to set up each gallon of milk on the bottle. The one I use says I need ½ tsp. per gallon of milk, so I’m going to use 1 tsp. for 2 gallons. Dissolve that rennet into 1/2 cup of cool water.
When the milk hits 100 degrees, turn off the heat, add the diluted rennet as evenly as possible, and spend a few minutes stirring in up and down motions
Then, cover the pot with a lid and set a timer for 15 minutes.
When the timer goes off, remove the lid. You should see that the milk has set up. Use a large knife to cut a grid pattern into the now-hardened curd. Aim for about 1” squares, but it definitely doesn’t have to be perfect. Then let it sit for another 5 minutes.
Towards the end of that 5 minutes, turn your sink water on hot to heat up.
After the 5 minutes is up you are going to use the spoon to gently stir the curds and cut the rest of it into 1-inch cubes. Again, don’t worry about perfection here.
Next, you are going to drain the whey off of the curds. You can set a colander on a pot to save the whey for other things or to give to your chickens.
Then, fill the pot with hot sink water until it covers the curds, gently stirring it with your hands to break the curds apart.
Dump the curds back into the colander a second time. This time you can just let the water go down the sink.
Now we are going to add a little salt. Sprinkle 1 tsp. per gallon of milk over the curds and mix it in. After it is mixed well, ball the curds together as best you can and place the ball back into the pot.
Let the pot fill up with hot water again until it covers the curds. Then, take that pot back to the stove.
Turn the stove back on to low heat. As the water heats up, the curds are going to more easily stick together and form a ball. If you have more than a gallon of milk that you started with, you may want to separate the large ball into two smaller ones.
Now it’s time for the fun part. Start picking up each ball with your hands and letting the cheese stretch down towards the water. Dip the whole ball back in, and repeat the process, this time grabbing another part of the ball. This is not an art, so don’t stress about technique here, you are simply dipping it in hot water and letting it stretch out. This is going to give you that mozzarella consistency.
The water should now be too hot to put your hands in. Taking tongs or whatever kitchen tool that will do the job (a spoon works in a pinch) you are going to pick up the cheese ball and continue letting it stretch in the same way until it stretches easily without breaking and develops a glossy appearance. When you hit this point, you are done!
If you want to form your cheese into cheese sticks or use it fresh, it’s ready to work with at this point.
What I usually do to finish it off is press it into a ball, knead in a bit more salt, just to taste, and then form it into a ball to harden. I stretch out the top as I form my ball to get a nice shape and texture, and then I will place it into a bowl, cover it, and it will be ready to use.
Yield: Varies
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour
This simple recipe for homemade mozzarella cheese requires no fancy equipment, no microwave, and very little time. Best of all, it tastes amazing!
Ingredients
- 2% or whole milk
- Citric acid
- Liquid rennet
- Salt
Instructions
- Add 1-4 gallons of milk to a large nonreactive pot.
- For every gallon of milk, dissolve 1-1/2 tsp. citric acid in 1/2 cup of water.
- Stir to combine. Then evenly add the dissolved citric acid to the milk.
- Stir the milk in an up-and-down motion to blend well.
- Turn the heat to med-low and slowly heat up the milk to 100 degrees F. Stir occasionally.
- While the milk is heating, prepare the rennet. Your rennet bottle should tell you how much rennet and water per gallon of milk. Mine says 1/2 tsp. of rennet per gallon of milk and I dilute this in 1/2 cup of cool water.
- When the milk comes to temperature, turn off the heat, add the diluted rennet, and stir in an up-and-down motion until the rennet has been evenly distributed.
- Cover the pot with a lid and set a timer for 15 minutes.
- When the timer goes off, remove the lid. The milk should now be set up. Use a large knife (I use a bread knife), to cut a grid pattern into the now-hardened curd. Aim for about 1” squares, but it definitely doesn’t have to be perfect. Then let it sit for another 5 minutes.
- Towards the end of that 5 minutes, turn your sink water on hot to heat up.
- After the 5 minutes is up you are going to use the spoon to gently stir the curds and cut the rest of it into 1-inch cubes. Again, don’t worry about perfection here.
- Next, you are going to drain the whey off of the curds. You can set a colander on a pot to save the whey for other things or to give to your chickens.
- Then, fill the pot with that hot water until it covers the curds, gently stirring it with your hands to break the curds apart.
- Dump the curds back into the colander a second time and this time you can just let the water go down the sink.
- Now we are going to add a little salt. Sprinkle 1 tsp. per gallon of milk over the curds and mix it in. After it is mixed well, ball the curds together as best you can and place the ball back into the pot.
- Let the pot fill up with hot water again until it covers the curds. Then take that pot back to the stove.
- Turn the stove back on to low heat. As the water heats up, the curds are going to more easily stick together and form a ball. If you have more than a gallon of milk that you started with, you may want to separate the large ball into two smaller ones.
- Now it’s time for the fun part. Start picking up each ball with your hands and letting the cheese stretch down towards the water. Dip the whole ball back in, and repeat the process, this time grabbing another part of the ball. This is not an art, so don’t stress about technique here, you are simply dipping it in hot water and letting it stretch out. This is going to give you that mozzarella consistency.
- The water should now be too hot to put your hands in. Taking tongs or whatever kitchen tool that will do the job, a spoon works in a pinch, you are going to pick up the cheese ball and continue letting it stretch in the same way until it stretches easily without breaking and develops a glossy appearance. When you hit this point, you are done!
- If you want to form it into cheese sticks or use it fresh, it’s ready to work with at this point. I usually add a little more salt to taste, stretch it into a tight ball (see video), cover, and refrigerate.
Notes
This cheese freezes well, but it is easiest to shred it first.
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Mozzarella cheese is so easy and fun to make, but my favorite part is how versatile it is. We like to use it on pizza, eat it as a snack, or mix it in with a variety of dishes.
If this just blew your mind how easy making mozzarella cheese is, let me know in the comments and tell me how you are going to use your first batch of this amazing homemade cheese.
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