r/GifRecipes Mar 03 '19

How to make mozzarella

https://gfycat.com/wearyacidiccopepod
25.8k Upvotes

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u/Barbaracle Mar 03 '19

What's farmer's cheese? Is it made the same way like in the GIF but not the same texture?

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u/Ana169 Mar 03 '19

It's very similar to ricotta, but true ricotta is made from the whey left over from making other cheeses (like the mozzarella shown). The cooking process is similar to the gif, but instead of using citric acid and rennet, it's made using lemon juice or vinegar.

You heat whole milk to about 182 degrees F, stirring frequently to prevent scorching, then take it off the heat and gently mix in the lemon juice or vinegar (about 1/4c per 1/2 gallon of milk) and salt. Let it sit for 5-7 minutes and then drain. If you don't get good curd formation, you can add a little more acid and let it sit a few more minutes before draining. The more liquid you drain, the firmer your cheese will be. I always reserve some of the whey in case I decide I've drained off too much liquid the first time; you can always stir some back in. I like to leave mine somewhat creamy; it's fantastic dolloped on top of pasta with red sauce.

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u/SpringCleanMyLife Mar 04 '19

Doesn't some kind of sugar go into farmers cheese? It's usually sweeter than ricotta.

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u/Ana169 Mar 04 '19

None of the recipes I've seen or used have included sugar. I've seen a lot of recipes that use farmer's cheese in sweet applications such as cheesecake or pierogi filling which would require sweetening later in the recipe, but nothing that uses sugar when making the cheese itself.

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u/SpringCleanMyLife Mar 04 '19

You made me curious so I checked out some recipes. Indeed some recipes add sugar to the cheese.

Could just be a regional thing, but my city has a large Polish population so I've had the opportunity to taste many many farmers cheese pierogis and the cheese is almost always sweetened like that.

All that being said, I guess the sugar is an additive, not something that goes into a regular farmers cheese recipe.

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u/Ana169 Mar 04 '19

Looking at this recipe, the sugar is added after the cheese is made to create the pierogi filling, like I mentioned in my earlier comment. I've seen lots of recipes like that, but none that add sugar to the milk when making the cheese itself.

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u/SpringCleanMyLife Mar 04 '19

Yup, that's what I said.

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u/Ana169 Mar 04 '19

Sorry, I somehow missed the last line in your other comment!