Matt has a new hobby of late. He likes to watch the food network channel. Then usually on Sunday afternoons he whips something up for the family to enjoy. There have been many comments of appreciation for Matt's new found interest.
Well, last night he REALLY surprised us. He wanted to make CHEESE! He had purchased all the ingredients...Milk, Citric Acid, and Rennet....and he was ready to go. I was curious, so I stood by to lend him a hand. (Basically, I was his "go-fer") As he proceeded, we found that our kitchen is lacking a thermometer, so he decided that using our "fever" thermometer would do the trick. Sounds good, but the recipie says that you heat the milk and citric acid to 55 degrees. Then at 88 degrees you add the rennet. Well the fever thermometer doesn't even register until 90 degrees, so Matt was making comparisons with the air temp, and figured his hands were about 90 degrees, etc. It made for some pretty funny conversation.
After the rennet is added you heat it up to 100 - 105 degrees and hold it there for 5 to 8 minutes. Well, FINALLY a temperature range we can register! So here we are cooking and waiting, waiting and cooking....but it doesn't seem to be doing what the directions SAY it should be doing. Our cook time is up, and NOPE...not happening. Matt disappears for a while and then comes back and says, "Let's turn it up. It says if you are using store bought milk you may have to cook it at a higher temp." Sure enough, we turn it up and it starts to do it's thing.
Finally we have the finished product. FRESH Mozzerella Cheese. Matt had even purchased the bread to eat with it. MMMmmmm, it was good!
When I walked out of the kitchen last night, I went into the Office, and Matt said, "You'd better not blog about this!" Who ME? Never! LOL I don't have any picture to prove it, but we did it! Who'd of thought, WE could make Cheese?
Lighting up the torch
The sugar starts to brown....
Doesn't that look good??? I LOVE the Food Network Channel....and I don't even watch!
