What?!? You mean the cartoon lady on the box is "lying" when she says that its so easy?!?
I read a couple other posts and saw more "aged" members say that mozz is not such an easy cheesy thing to do. I was lulled into a false sense of security when I made my first batch and it came out perfect - beautiful mozzarella balls and a nice bowl of riccotta. The milk wasn't perfect either, it was the end of a gallon that someone left out on the counter after making his coffee and the balance was a fresh gallon. I didn't follow the "cartoon lady's" instructions, I got mine from the Serious Eats post.
So, wanting to experiment a bit, I bought a gallon of local, low-temp pasteurized/homogenized whole milk. Two mistakes pretty quickly: I dissolved the rennet in tap, rather than boiled water (I used boiled the first time) and then I think I over-stirred it when I added the rennet. When I went to strain it, I noticed it wasn't nice big blobs like before, more like rice with an occasional blob. I dumped everything back into the pot, gave it a good stir, and added another 1/4 tablet of rennet (done with bottled water I had handy) and heated it like before. Let it rest and it seemed even worse! The curds were too small to be caught up in my slotted spoon.
I was not going to let this get the better of me. I cranked the heat up under the pot, brought it to a fierce simmer (so I didn't make a mess of the kitchen) and cussed it out a bit. Strained off the whey and I was left with a bowl full of tasty ricotta (that desperately needed salt). What I learned from this: if I need to make a big batch of ricotta, over-stir the rennet when I add it to the pot.
So, oh cheezy experts out there, what is an "easy" cheese? I want to try making others, especially if the cheap milk works out. I have the rennet from the kit, LOTS of citric acid (I make all sorts of cocktail mixers and bitters), just got started making Kefir, we started cooking sous vide (can't wait to try making yogurt with it), and other stuff so I may not need to invest in more stuff other than molds or bacteria.