‘The Big Fromage’ blogs about Cheese Making

Published 14 January 2013

As mentioned recently, I was bought a cheese-making kit. This weekend saw The Big Fromage successfully churn out (!) 10 balls of mozzarella which then became part of tomato & basil salads as well as a pizza topping – we don’t talk about the latter though as my poor choice of baking trays meant that both doughs stuck horribly and it all turned into a bit of a car crash dinner.

Back to the cheese. The kit, made by The Big Cheese Making Kit, came with all ingredients apart from the milk, as well as a thermometer and cheese cloth. The process was pretty simple. In short:

• heat up the milk + rennet
• Stir in the citric acid
• Heat again
• Leave
• Microwave
• Knead
• Microwave
• Knead
• Microwave
• Knead
• Stretch, stretch, stretch
• Eat

There’s an optional step at the end of plunging your balls into icy water to keep their shape – which I did but can’t comment on what would have happened had I not.

The cheese tasted good: comparable to anything you’d get from a supermarket. However, in 2012 I was treated to a lunch which focused on authentic Italian mozzarella in Campania (as part of IWINETC 2012) and have to admit that authentic, top quality Buffalo Mozzarella is in a different league. Maybe I could find some buffalos in Oxfordshire for my next batch …

A variety of cheese-making kits are available from The Big Cheese Making Kit for £19.