Pizza from First Principles: Mozzarella

Hi there and welcome to the first post in the Pizza from First Principles series! This blog post will cover making your own fresh mozzarella from scratch to be used on pizza.

To begin, let’s talk about the qualities of a good mozzarella cheese for pizza:

• It should be incredibly fatty, ideally made from raw Jersey cow milk.

  • Jersey cow milk contains on average double the amount of fat compared to to a store bought whole milk. More fat == more flavor.

• It should have a slightly salty, slightly acidic taste without being overpowering.

  • The salt is there to add flavor, but be careful! If you’re planning on salting the pizza before launching, you may accidentally oversalt.

  • The acidity is a required ingredient for curds to properly form. Usually this is from pure citric acid, a common ingredient in cheesemaking.

• It should have a low moisture content.

  • The lower the moisture content of the cheese, the less likely you are to have grease puddles form on the top of the pizza as it bakes. Additionally, a drier top on the pizza aids in building an open crumb, otherwise known as the crust. No one likes a wet pizza.

Now that we know what qualities we’re looking for in our mozzarella cheese, we can begin the process. All in all, it shouldn’t take more than two hours, with only around 25 minutes of active cooking time.

NB: This is a slightly modified recipe from Alex the French Guy, a popular Youtuber. He has a great series that breaks down mozzarella in much more detail than I could ever hope to achieve in this blog post. I highly encourage you to check it out!

Ingredient List

• 1L of milk, ideally raw¹
• 2g of citric acid
• 4 drops of liquid rennet (ideally veal, but vegetarian rennet works too!)
• 1/2 cup of non-chlorinated water (can be distilled!) + another 1/4 cup later
• Salt, to taste

1. Begin by adding 1L of raw milk to a medium sized pot. Add 4g of citric acid that has been dissolved in 1/2 cup of non-chlorinated water and add this to the raw milk.

2. Heat the milk mixture to 95°F over medium low heat and then immediately turn it off.

3. While milk mixture is heating, add 8 drops of rennet to 1/4 of a cup of non-chlorinated water and stir to combine. After reaching 95°F, add the rennet and water and stir softly using an up and down motion for 30 seconds. Be gentle while stirring! The curds are already starting to form.

4. Wait 45-60 minutes until curd has fully formed. If it has not fully formed after sixty minutes, you can wait a bit longer, but after 1.5 hrs, it probably won’t form a curd and is likely due to your milk.

5. Slice the curd gently with a knife or curd cutter if you have one. Transfer curd to a colander gently.

6. Begin rotating the curd around the colander slowly, letting the weight of the curd squeeze the whey out of the mixture. Do this for 5-10 minutes, until the curd is quite dry. The drier the curd, the lower moisture content of the final product!

7. Slice the curd again and transfer to another pot. Slowly add hot tap water (chlorinated is fine now) to temper the curd and bring it to heat.

8. Add hot, but not quite boiling water to the curd (ideally around 185°F). The curd should be stretchable at this point and can be formed into your mozzarella ball!

Notes

¹ Raw milk isn't necessary if you cannot find it or if it is illegal to buy in your jurisdiction, however you must use a non ultra-high pastuerized (UHT) milk. Pasteurized and homoginized milk is fine. Don't try this with skim milk or a nut-based milk. Accept that pizza isn't healthy and indulge yourself.