Little Miss Muffett and Her Mozzarella

I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver this summer. Afterward, just like everyone else who has read that book, I wrestled with a question: should I order the cheese making kit??? I'd never even heard of home cheese making; it was as if someone had proposed to me that I fabricate a cow in my kitchen with the contents of my refrigerator and a couple mail-order chemicals. Fascinating.

I ordered the kit. After 5 business days, I began to beat David to the mailbox, eagerly awaiting the package slip. On the 8th business day, it arrived, and I promptly opened the box and laid the contents out on the bed. In my beginner's cheese making kit I had: 10 rennet tablets, a bag of citric acid, a bag of cheese salt, a cheese thermometer, cheese cloth, a DVD of 7 different cheeses being made, a book about cheesemaking and an instruction booklet for "30-minute Mozzarella".

I bought a gallon of whole milk from Randall's with visions of mozzarella, tomato and basil salads dancing in my head. I read through the instruction booklet, which specified that the milk should be pasteurized but not ultra pasteurized, the pot used must be non-aluminum and non-cast iron, and the water must be chlorine-free. I started to get the feeling that making cheese was a delicate process.

With nose to the instruction booklet, I heated, stirred and drained. When it came time for the curds to stretch and become smooth and shiny...I had a pot of sickly-looking whey and hundreds of white balls of curd that seemed to have no intention of folding and becoming one piece. I worked on my 30-minute mozzarella for an hour before squawking in exasperation and abandoning the pot.

Was it because the milk wasn't organic or fresh from a local dairy? Is there chlorine in Austin's tap water? Did I stir the milk too long after I heated it? Should I have given the curd more time to set? Did I only heat it to 105 degrees when I should have heated it to 110? And just what is my pot made of?

Later I reread the instructions and opened the book about cheese making. From the Austin Farmer's Market I bought a gallon of what the farmer called "regular" milk (i.e. whole). I called to find out what my cookware was made of and looked up Austin's tap water make up on the Internet.

The result of my research and strict adherence to every letter of the recipe was a fine lump of mozzarella cheese!

I learned lots of things during this experience. First, I learned that cheese making is a very precise craft, and I have newfound awe for cheese artisans. Second, I learned that it would be nice to have someone who knows what they're doing around (or at least a second opinion) when trying something totally new. Third, I proved that if at first you don't succeed, buy higher quality milk and try again.

The mozzarella kit is the product of the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company, headed up by "Cheese Queen" Ricki Carroll. If you're interested in this endeavor, check out their web site: www.cheesemaking.com