An in-depth and detailed recipe for making homemade mozzarella cheese in your very own kitchen. It’s so much fun to make and can be used with so many different recipes such as homemade pizzas, pasta dishes and salads.
This is just one of the recipes included in my Simple Cheesemaking ebook. Follow the link to find more wonderful cheese recipes with easy to follow instructions and much more!
Having our own family milk cow means we normally have a lot of wonderful raw milk on hand. Besides drinking it and making kefir or yogurt an easy way to use the milk is the following making homemade mozzarella cheese.
Mozzarella is an Italian cheese which is quick, easy and fun to make. We enjoy eating it fresh, as well as on pizza and in lasagna. Be sure to try it on Homemade Wheat Thins! Made fresh, it stores in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks and in the freezer for several months.
How Is Homemade Mozzarella Cheese Different From Other Cheeses?
Unlike other cheese making processes, this homemade mozzarella cheese recipe calls for heating the curds to 170 F and then stretching it like taffy – who hasn’t heard of an old fashioned taffy pull?
Well, I never took part in one but pulling mozzarella cheese reminds me of what they must have been like! This pulling and stretching gives the mozzarella cheese the stringiness it is famous for. Mozzarella cheese is also one of the easiest soft cheeses to make!
I have found that the process of making homemade Mozzarella cheese is very forgiving. I use to be careful to use milk that was at least 3 days old as many recipes require – As milk sits, the acidity increases which allows the cheese to stretch. But, I have found with the milk Emme gives this waiting period is unnecessary.
Before getting started, be sure to check out Cheese Making Basics for helpful tips, supplies and ordering information.
A printable recipe version of the homemade mozzarella cheese follows the photo tutorial.
How to Make This Homemade Mozzarella Cheese Recipe
Pour milk into pot, sprinkle with citric acid and stir well. Milk must be cold or the citric acid does not work well.
Pour dissolved rennet into the milk while stirring.
Turn off the heat.
Stir slowly and after a few minutes, the milk will begin to thicken. Globs of white curd will separate from the liquid (whey). If it doesn’t coagulate immediately, let the milk sit for about 30 minutes.
Once the milk has coagulated and the whey separated, turn heat to high and heat milk to 110F.
Place a colander over another pot and pour or spoon out the curds into the colander.
Continue to heat the whey.
Press whey out of the curds in the colander.
Place the curds back into the pot of whey and heat until 120 F.
Now, for the fun part of making homemade mozzarella cheese!
With a spoon, lift the curds out of the whey – cool a few seconds, if necessary, and begin pulling and stretching it into a rope. The cheese will break apart at this point if it is not hot enough – just put it back into the whey and let it heat further.
After stretching it into a rope, return it back into the whey to heat back up.
Once heated again, stretch it again. Continue this process several times until it takes on a shiny, soft and smooth appearance. The photo above is from the first stretching and as you can see it is tearing on the left side. It needs a few more stretches. It should be ready by the time the whey reaches 150F – 160F. (If the whey gets too hot, the cheese will melt into it.) As the whey heats to higher degrees be sure to protect your hands and use gloves – it is hot!
You will know the mozzarella cheese is done when it no longer breaks and tears during the stretching process – it also becomes shiny and smooth in appearance.
Once stretched enough, pour 4 tsp (may use more if desired) salt on the counter. Remove mozzarella from the whey and place it on the salt. Knead the salt into the cheese but work quickly as it must be hot to absorb the salt. Place the cheese back into the whey briefly until it is hot. Remove and roll into a log or place in the desired container.
Sometimes when I am feeling lazy, I just sprinkle the salt over the cheese as I am holding it and work it into the Mozzarella – this works too!
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
I make 4-gallon batches at a time and place it into a rectangular dish similar to a loaf pan. Once chilled, we either eat it fresh with crackers or grate and freeze it.
As you can see from the photo below, this batch is intended for grating so I am was not so concerned about the finished appearance – I just plopped it into the dish!
After thoroughly chilling in the refrigerator, I will grate this batch and we will have pizza!
Enjoy!
Another cheese you might be interested in trying your hand in is Feta Cheese! That’s another one we love to put on crackers.
If you’ve tried this Homemade Mozzarella Cheese Recipe or any other recipe on Cultured Palate please take a minute to rate the recipe and leave a comment letting me know how you liked it. I love hearing from you! You can also FOLLOW ME on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, YouTube and TWITTER.
It's easier to make cheese at home than you'd think!
- 2 gallons whole or skim milk whole milk gives a larger yield than skim
- 3 tsp citric acid powder
- 1/4 tsp tablet (or 1/2 tsp liquid) rennet , dissolved in 1/4 cup cool water
- 4 tsp salt
- Pour milk into pot, sprinkle with citric acid and stir well. Milk must be cold or the citric acid does not work well.
- Heat milk to 88F - 90F over medium heat. If you overheat - just let it cool back down!
- Pour dissolved rennet into the milk while stirring.
- Turn off the heat.
- Stir slowly and after a few minutes, the milk will begin to thicken. Globs of white curd will separate from the liquid (whey). If it doesn't coagulate immediately, let the milk sit for about 30 minutes.
- Once the milk has coagulated and the whey separated, turn heat to high and heat milk to 110F.
- Place a colander over another pot and pour or spoon out the curds into the colander.
- Continue to heat the whey.
- Press whey out of the curds in the colander.
- Place the curds back into the pot of whey and heat until 120 F.
- With a spoon, lift the curds out of the whey - cool a few seconds, if necessary, and begin pulling and stretching it into a rope. The cheese will break apart at this point if it is not hot enough - just put it back into the whey and let it heat further.
- After stretching it into a rope, return it back into the whey to heat back up.
- Once heated again, stretch it again. Continue this process several times until it takes on a shiny, soft and smooth appearance. It should be ready by the time the whey reaches 150F - 160F. (If the whey gets too hot, the cheese will melt into it.) As the whey heats to higher degrees be sure to protect your hands and use gloves - it is hot!
- You will know the mozzarella cheese is done when it no longer breaks and tears during the stretching process - it also becomes shiny and smooth in appearance.
- Once stretched enough, pour 4 tsp (may use more if desired) salt on the counter.
- Remove mozzarella from the whey and place it on the salt. Knead the salt into the cheese but work quickly as it must be hot to absorb the salt.
- Place the cheese back into the whey briefly until it is hot.
- Remove and roll into a log or place in the desired container.
- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
- Use as desired - grated, sliced...
- To make a 4 gallon batch use 5 tsp citric acid and 1 tsp rennet.
- You can freeze the mozzrella once it's ready
- Before getting started, be sure to check out Cheese Making Basics for helpful tips, supplies and ordering information. If you are interested in cheese making, I would highly recommend the book, available from my affiliate partner, Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carroll – it is an excellent resource.
Ty Langis says
February 5, 2018 at 9:36 amHi i followed your instructions and came out with a great cheese however I find it much to soft to grate. Is there a step that I missed or can add so that my cheese grates like the cheese in your picture.
Dina-Marie says
February 5, 2018 at 10:28 amTy, once you put it in the refrigerator and chill it, it should grate just fine. Sometimes, it may be a bit soft – by this, I mean that it smears a bit on the grater when grating by hand. But, it still grates very well. Let me know if this doesn’t work.
Ty Langis says
February 5, 2018 at 1:47 pmI have had it in thr fridge in a pan covered with wrap for a day. When i took it out if the pan i cut it in half and wrapped it up and even then does not seem to be holding the initial shape that it was when cut.
Dina-Marie says
February 5, 2018 at 3:30 pmTy, I am not sure. My first thought is to double check your temperatures and make sure you are cooking and stretching it completely. Let me know if this works.
Emily says
March 14, 2018 at 6:51 amI had no idea you could make mozzarella at home so easily, I can’t wait to try it!
Dina-Marie says
March 14, 2018 at 5:56 pmEmily, be sure to let me know how it goes for you! Making it yourself really is easy.
Michelle says
March 15, 2018 at 8:49 pmSo when I made it, I only did one gallon, this halved the recipe. But after I cooled it, it was very hard, dry, sorta yellow & transparent… any idea what I did wrong?
Dina-Marie says
March 16, 2018 at 4:12 pmMichelle, it would not be a problem halving the recipe as long as you halved everything else. The only thing I can think of is that you added to much rennet? Were you using raw milk or store bought? Still, I don’t know what would cause this unless you added too much of either rennet or citric acid.
Jon says
April 23, 2018 at 2:52 pmHi
I folowed your recipe and i made a very good cheese
But i got only 320 grams of cheese
Did i make a mistake?
I suppose it should be more
Dina-Marie says
April 24, 2018 at 6:06 amJon, it is normal for the amount of cheese made to vary and it all depends on the amount of fat/cream in the milk. I hope this helps and I am so glad you enjoyed it!
Tammy Sanford says
June 26, 2018 at 4:05 pmWhat is rennet and is it found in the grocery store or speciality food store.
Dina-Marie says
June 26, 2018 at 4:22 pmTammy, rennet is used in cheesemaking and is an enzyme that causes the milk to coagulate. You can find more information on the Basics of Cheesemaking by clicking the link. Here is the type of rennet I use: Animal Rennet. You may also be interested in my Simple Cheesemaking ebook that gives not only more info on the process, as well as, plenty of recipes.
Patti Z says
April 1, 2019 at 11:55 amI found a recipe that called for Calcium Chloride if using whole store bought milk and to add it to the cold milk. It also called for Citric Acid and Rennet. Do you know why that recipe calls for Calcium Chloride when using whole store bought milk?
Dina-Marie says
April 11, 2019 at 5:23 pmPatti, calcium chloride is used to help make the cheese firmer. I would try making it first without it – I have not had a problem without it and the cheese turns our fine.
Mindy says
April 9, 2019 at 6:24 pmJust finished and it came out perfect! So easy and fun. I’m curious to know what you do with your whey.
Dina-Marie says
April 10, 2019 at 7:18 pmMindy, I love making whey ricotta out of the whey. And, the ricotta made from the whey of mozzarella is a finer ricotta that works great for most recipes in which it is an ingredient.