
Homemade Fresh Mozzarella Cheese
This recipe for Homemade Fresh Mozzarella Cheese is so easy and uses minimal, easy to find ingredients. You will never want to buy fresh mozzarella in the store ever again.
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Have you purchased Fresh Mozzarella Cheese in the grocery store lately? The price is out of this world. This recipe will cost you approximately $3.00 for a big ol’ ball of cheese, depending on the price of your milk.
Fresh Mozzarella is actually very easy to make and the ingredients are readily available. Cheese is a staple in our homes (somewhere along the same lines as water LOL).
I saw an episode of The Pioneer Woman on TV one day and they were making this, it looked so EASY (and fun). I ran out a couple days later and purchased everything I needed. The one thing that was not available at our grocery store was Vegetable Rennet, I easily found it by doing a search for a Brewery supply store and found the one closest to us (there were several in the area). Let me tell y’all, this was the coolest store!!! Okay, more about that later LOL.
***UPDATE*** I have found that I am able to purchase the Rennet on Amazon instead of having to find a Brewery supply store.
I followed the recipe and before I knew it, I had Fresh Mozzarella Cheese, and it was delicious!!!
Since that first time, I have tweaked the recipe and feel that the recipe below is the best thus far.
Never again will we be intimidated by Cheese LOL. Go on, give it a try

Homemade Fresh Mozzarella Cheese
Ingredients
1 Gallon Whole Milk (Raw milk works best but pasteurized works also. We used pasteurized)
1/4 teaspoon Vegetable Rennet or 1/2 tablet added to 1 Cup Water
2 teaspoons Citric Acid (if this is not at your grocery store, they will have it at the Brewery supply)
1/4 cup Water
1/8 cup fine grain Salt
Directions
1. Add Citric Acid and Water to a large pot (We used a soup pot). Swish around to dissolve.
2. Add Milk to Citric Acid mixture
3. Warm over low heat, stirring occasionally, to a temperature of 90 degrees on an instant read thermometer. (Don’t worry if milk begins to curdle, it’s suppose to)
4. Remove from heat and add Rennet and Water mixture.
5. Stir with an up and down, motion for about a minute.
6. Place a lid on the pot and go find something to do for 10 minutes
7. After 10 minutes take a knife and cut down through the curd to form a checker board pattern. Make sure you cut all the way to the bottom of the pan. (Don’t worry if you do not have really firm curd at this point. I freaked out because mine was no where near firm LOL. It will all work out in the end)
8. Return the mixture to Medium heat and warm until it reaches 110 degrees.
9. Using a slotted spoon move the curd to a colander. What you will have left in the pot is the “whey”. This is great to save and use when making bread as it is full of nutrients.
10. Squeeze as much of the whey out of the curd as possible and place into a microwave safe bowl. At this point you may find that your cheese has the texture of a Ricotta cheese if you used pasteurized milk. Don’t worry, that will change quickly.
11. Add Salt working it through the curd (Just a note about the salt. Do not use course salt as it will make your cheese grainy.)
12. Place in the microwave for 1 minute. Remove, squeeze and stretch the cheese working as much water out of it as possible. Pour off the water in the bottom of the bowl.
13. Place in the microwave for 35 seconds. Remove, squeeze and stretch as before.
14. Repeat one more time for 35 seconds and squeeze and stretch.
15. Form cheese into a ball and place into an ice bath to cool for about 10 minutes.
Enjoy!!!
At this point, you now have Fresh Mozzarella Cheese!!!
We prefer ours with olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh basil on top. Of course when I went to make this batch I didn’t have any fresh basil LOL, so I used dry and it worked out just fine.
This will last for several days in the fridge wrapped in plastic wrap. In our house, however, it doesn’t last for longer than about 5 minutes LOL. Everyone loves this.
If you enjoyed this post you may also like…
Authentic Sicilian Pizza
Crock-Pot Rotisserie Chicken
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6 Comments
gardenoflisa
I’ve got to try this! I recently found a local source for raw milk…perfect!
I would love to have you visit my blog and vote for your favorite post on Wildcrafting Wednesdays People’s Choice Awards! Next week we will be back to our regular blog hop, but you can find the poll here:
http://www.theselfsufficienthomeacre.com/2012/12/peoples-choice-award-for-wildcrafting-wednesday.html
twosouthernsweeties
Awesome!!! Please let us know how it turns out for you. We will be stopping by and checking this out on your blog.
Make it a great day, you deserve it!
Nicole
What a great idea! Yours looks really really good. Cheese making is something I have never attempted at home, but I just might now! I never realized it was that easy. Fresh mozzarella is ridiculously expensive at the grocery store.
Mizz Snarkity Snark (
Great idea and super-easy, as long as you can find milk that has not been ultra-high-temp pasteurized (UT). We can’t get that in our remote area without paying for milk that’d be more expensive than buying fresh mozzarella from the store.
lisa
Thank you for the wonderful recipe – I can’t wait to try it! Hope you can stop by my enchanted oven and say hi.
xo,
Lisa
Linda
What is an alternative to using a microwave?