Things don’t always turn out right. We’ve made some good wines and some wines destined to end up mulled during the winter or in Sangria during the summer. Perhaps one of the wines may be turned into vinegar. Other than those few tribulations, the other wines are good to great. So we had some confidence in trying our hand at making cheese.
We were told at a creamery to make Mozzarella cheese because it is so simple. It was suggested that we try the recipe called Instraella Mozzarella. We did OK until direction #8. The cheese never stretched. A comment from a different set of directions suggested that the cheese needs to reach a temperature of 130º F to 140º F in order to begin to stretch. I don’t believe we managed to get the cheese to that temperature. So it looked like our first attempt to make cheese failed.
It didn’t take long to learn that misery enjoys company. Several people have had trouble making Mozzarella especially at the stretching stage. Even the winemaker at Tin Lizzie Wineworks said he tried to make Mozzarella five different times without success. We found a different set of directions and will try it again.
I did have success making Ricotta with the leftover whey but then learned that some do not consider Ricotta a cheese. So back to the drawing board. Not every wine turned out as hoped. We keep on trying. We’ll do the same with cheese. Eventually we might get it right.
Cheers,
Terry
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