Mozzarella and Ricotta Cheeses

This looks like pizza dough, but it's homemade mozzarella cheese.

As a kid, I was obsessed with craft-making kits. As a grown-up, I have the same feeling about cheese-making kits. And so my darling husband got me these for my birthday. He did this because he is thoughtful and knows me well, and also because I sent him the Amazon links a few weeks ago.

I should have worn a crown like the girl on the box.

And so I spent a fair portion of my 33rd birthday concocting mozzarella and ricotta cheese in the kitchen. (I'll save the goat cheese kit for another day. There's only so much cheese we can eat around here.)

I won't outline all of the instructions here, because they're long, and there are plenty of good guides on the internet. But, I will summarize as follows:

1) Homemade cheese is delicious.

2) It's extremely satisfying to turn a gallon of milk into something as cool as mozzarella or ricotta cheese.

3) Ricotta cheese is ridiculously easy to make.

4) Mozzarella cheese involves more steps, but it certainly isn't difficult.

5) By my calculation, fresh mozzarella and goat cheese are significantly cheaper to make than to buy. Ricotta cheese is only slightly cheaper, but it's so easy that it's still worth it.

6) Before making cheese, decide what you're going to do with the end product. Otherwise, you might eat way more fresh mozzarella than a person should eat.

This ricotta cheese is now in the freezer awaiting future use.

Fresh mozzarella marinating in olive oil, garlic, and garden-grown parsley... seriously.

The Verdict:

Overall grade: A

Overall reason: That moment when the mozzarella curds start behaving like cheese... magic.

Time to prepare: Ask me again when I'm not pausing to read instructions after every step. But it's pretty fast, as evidenced by the husband quote...

Husband quote: Woah, it's done already?

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