Curds & Whey~

...that's what filled my day today.

We love having goats and besides

drinking fresh, raw milk,

we're finding lots of ways to use our milk.

Kefir, yogurt, buttermilk, soft cheese, and now

MOZZERELLA~

Heating up the milk after adding the culture and then rennet.
Curds begin to form and then you cut them...

Separating the curds & whey~ 

This is a little more than half the whey drained off
of the curds.  I went on to make ricotta, since
you just heat it to 200 degrees and then drain it.
It's not a 'raw' cheese, but still great for cooking with.
Although my chickens fight over it-they l.o.v.e whey~
I think there's a quiche in my menu plan!

The curds 'cooking' in a hot water bath while
they drain more whey and acidify~

This is when you wear your gloves and cut off a
chunk of the curds and add hot (like 180 degrees HOT)
to begin the stretching process~

Almost ready~ 

Nice~
Smooth and shiny
(you can't stretch too much or your cheese will
be rubbery)

You can roll it in a ball, braid it, make chunks,
or do whatever you want~

I like the nice round ball for slicing~ 

Set in ice cold water (lightly salted) for about an hour

Mmmm~
I don't know about you, but this is what I'm eating
for dinner tonight.
(I'll have you know I had 3 utter failures, and have
now made this twice successfully.  I'm not giving up!
Cheesemaking takes time, for sure, and is SO good.)