Homemade Mozzarella -Cow Milk - FIORE DI LATTE

dan - love the cheese, and also appreciate the link to riki's site ~ next time you make it, i'd be interested in any tweaks you made in order to get it closer to what you're looking for ~

 

 I've been lucky enough, living close to Chicago, to be able to have fresh Mozzarella di Bufala. It is a wonderful product...clean, light...effortless (if that makes any sense).  Texture, taste, color is certainly different from cows milk product.  But, to take this a little further...Take two cows fed very different diets, producing very different tasting milk...I don't believe you would say the taste, texture color from two differing cows milk cheeses were the same. 

When I taste a fresh cheese I do think there are similarities.  In each example you have a clean, fresh, light flavor that offers more similarities to the milk which it came from.  Fresh ricotta, mozzarella, fiore di latte, cream cheese...these all have that familiar taste that is specific to that particular animals milk.  

 

    Organic milk is milk from cows that have been exclusively fed organic feed, have not been given synthetic hormones, are not given other medications to treat sickness.

   From here, the producer can use a variety of pasteurization processes.  Organic milk doesn't have to use High Temp Pasteurization methods, and they don't have to use Low Temp methods either. 

   The milk I picked did happen to be organic, this was not the reason I picked it for making cheese.  The reason I picked, Kalona Milk, was because it was Low Temp Pasteurized @145f, uses grass fed cows, non-homogenize.  I've had fresh cows milk before, it is good.  But using responsible methods (non-homogenized and low heat pasteurization) with quality cows (grass fed) gave me a better tasting product than farm fresh cow's milk I've had.  Again, there is no doubt in my mind this is due to the feed.  But, had Kalona not treated the (grass fed) milk in a respectable manner...it wouldn't have been the same product. 

   Again, to me, fresh cheese is about tasting the milk in varying forms and textures.  Much like a good butter, it's all about the milk.  But the milk is all about the feed, you just need to use a process that isn't too obtrusive.

 

Margi Cintrano wrote: a) the braiding process  and very important:    b) the non reactive pot  ???

   Are you saying the stretching process is important, or the braiding?  

   Yes, I use non-reactive cookware.

 

 

Margi Cintrano wrote: c) the thermometer 88 degrees Farenheit and then 105 degrees Farenheit  ???

   I used 89f and 105f

 

 Not sure if this helps to clear anything up...but I tried to answer everything.

  Have fun all!

  Dan