I do 1 to 2 gallons of this a week. We love our Friday night pizza. This recipe works great for me and I find it very easy to do. I do use raw whole milk and I have started leaving all the cream in it too and it makes a really nice creamy melting mozz on our pizzas. the Milk your using though should do fine with this. Dont give up and give it another try. There is also a great video on youtube of a guy showing you how to stretch and work the curds. my Mozzarella recipe that i use is below the video.
Mozzarella
1 gallon milk
1 ¼ tsp citric acid
½ junket tablet
¼ cup salt
1. Warm milk over gentle heat to 88° - 91° F.
2. Dissolve citric acid in ½ cup cool water add to milk, stir well and let ripen for 1 hour covered. You can skip the ripening and ripen after the junket is added. I don’t do this though. I let it sit for about an hour.
3. keeping at 88° - 91° F dissolve junket in ¼ cup cool water and stir thoroughly into warmed milk mixture. Let set undisturbed for 1 – 2 hours, until a clean break is achieved.
4. Cut the curd but do not stir yet. Let the curds rest for 5 minutes. The curds are delicate right after you cut them and they need to "harden up" up a little bit before you stir them.
5. After 5 minutes stir the curds gently with a slotted ladle. Cut any large curds you missed when cutting the first time.
6. Keep the curds at 90° - 91°, covered, for an hour or so, stirring occasionally during the first half hour. I call this "cooking" the curds, even though you really are not cooking them per se. Cooking" at a higher temperature will result in a cheese with less moisture. You can experiment with this if you wish; just don't raise the temperature over 100° and raise the temp slowly (no more than 2° every 5 minutes). I stir once every 10 minutes of the first half hour of "cooking" for a total of three stirring sessions. After that, just let curd settle on the bottom of the pot where it will start to mat together
7. collect curds by pouring curds and whey through a fine cloth Tie up the ends of the cheesecloth and hang the curds to drain for a few hours (3-4). I put it over a bowl and let it drain overnight in the fridge. Save the whey and make Ricotta while the Moz is hanging.
8. When the curd is ready to be "worked" heat a large pot of water to 170° and add 1/4 cup Kosher salt. If I am working the curd the same day I made it and also made Riccota (I always make Riccota the same day I make Moz) I use the hot whey from making the Riccota instead of water; this makes the cheese even tastier and I find the curds "work" better as well.
9. Now work the curds.. see link
http://fiascofarm.com/dairy/mozzarella.htm 10. put worked cheese in a mold (plastic container) and let the cheese cool at room temperature for a couple hours.
11. Place the cheese (in it's mold) into the fridge overnight. I don't bother to cover it, but you can if you wish. The next day, pop and/or bang the cheese out of it's mold and your ready to make pizza. Put the cheese in a ziplock bag and store it in the fridge. It's ready to use right away, but is really better after a few days. This is one the few cheeses that freezes fairly well.
