In an effort to complicate life even further we are attempting to try our 1st attempt at Home-made Mozzarella. The benefit of knowing the ingredients is of course one factor. Also the ability to make string cheese and teach the children how cheese is made is another.

The first attempt at home-made Mozzarella was not a resounding success. I have been inspired to attempt making cheese from Suzanne McMinn.

She has had a reoccurring feature on her blog about the different types of cheeses that she has made. While reading her blog I became familiar with the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company. What a wonderful site if you are a fan of cheese.

After reading about the ease of making cheese we decided to try the “easy” Mozzarella. Well there are many things in life that are harder than they appear.

We were able to get some “good” milk from the farm stand at Smith’s Nursery, which of course is from Mapleview Dairy. The taste of this milk is very good and is considered a treat in our house.

So the wife and I decided to team together and make the cheese. We got out the necessary pots and utensils and the fun began.

I thing everything went well until we got to step #3. I believe that is where the problem began. Something as simple as waiting on the curds to thicken should not be a fundamental problem.

We even searched the world wide web and found a great video on Vimeo that showcased Ricki Carroll herself. After looking at her curds we knew we had problems.

The great debate began as to why our curds were running. Was the milk bad? Had it been pasteurized too high? Could we not follow simple instructions? After reflection we believe that the milk was not heated to 90 degrees before adding the rennet.

The reason that we practice is to get better. Some would say the worst part was explaining to the children why they were not getting string cheese. We believe that there were many lessons taught by this undesirable result for the children and adults.

Stay tuned for a better result.