Cheese Making

My coworkers think I'm crazy. I make my own bread? Crazy. Yogurt? Preposterous. Now cheese? They've never heard of such nonsense! They really are just jealous because I won't share.

The first attempt at mozzarella was only mildly successful. There was some cheese, but not enough curd separated from the whey. Then Dan insisted I brine it (because he read it in the cheese book he bought me). It started melting in the water. Fail.

I thought it was the milk, so I hunted down some real good milk and tried again. When I did some more reading I learned you need to use 1/2 a tablet of rennet (which coagulates the milk), and we'd only used 1/4 in the last batch. So it wasn't the milk, it was the bad recipe (or recipe reading).

This time, success! Fresh mozzarella is so good and it makes you feel so accomplished. The only problem is, you suddenly have a huge ball of cheese. That's really good. And you're all alone. Don't eat to much cheese, it might come back to haunt you.

If you'd like to get into cheese making, it's really easy and you can use milk from the grocery store (as long as it's only pasteurized, not ULTRA pasteurized). It seems that the best site for information and supplies is the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company. Dan bought most of my supplies through there.

Dan does a lot of research before buying anything, and cheese making books are no exception. He came to the conclusion that Artisan Cheese Making at Home: Techniques and Recipes for Mastering World-Class Cheeses by Mary Karlin is the best. Honestly, I haven't read through it yet, but it is packed full of information and all kinds of recipes. It'll be great for the basics, but it seems to have fancy-pants recipes. I'll most likely pick up a more laid back cheese making book at some point.

Do you make cheese? Do you have any cheese making books to recommend?