• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Venison for Dinner
  • Homepage
  • Recipe Index
  • Shop
  • Become an Insider
  • Insider Exclusive Content
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube
menu icon
go to homepage
search icon
Homepage link
  • Homepage
  • Recipe Index
  • Shop
  • Become an Insider
  • Insider Exclusive Content
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
  • ×

    Home » Most Recently Added » Dairy

    Homemade Mozzarella Cheese Recipe

    Published: Jul 29, 2019 · Modified: Aug 11, 2020 by kateschat · This post may contain affiliate links · 20 Comments

    Jump to Recipe Jump to Video Print Recipe

    There's nothing that compares with fresh Homemade Mozzarella Cheese! You can have the stretchiest mozzarella cheese ready for pizzas and more in about 30 minutes with this recipe! It's a quick mozzarella recipe thanks to citric acid which eliminates the need for the traditional acidifying process which can take all day. Be sure to check out my video tutorial so you can how easily you can make cheese at home!

    Though this Homemade Mozzarella Cheese recipe uses one gallon of milk, I'll admit I never make just a gallon worth. It's worth your time to make a bigger batch if you have access to good milk! Jersey cow milk will give you a better yield than Holstein due to high milk fat and proteins. I get a fat pound from Jersey milk, you'll get a scant pound from Holstein or store-bought milk per gallon of milk. You can always freeze the extra cheese!

    You'll find it doesn't behave quite like you are used to with mozzarella, after all, this is a far superior product! But the taste and freshness will be worth it as you learn to adapt how you use it. If it won't shred well, its either still warm and try popping it in the freezer for a bit. Or I find when a cheese was really well stretched it does shred better. You can always slice rounds and lay those on your pizza or lasagna as that also looks impressive.

    How to Make Homemade Mozzarella

    How to Make Homemade Mozzarella

    Homemade Mozzarella

    Kate Schat
    There's nothing that compares with fresh homemade Mozzarella Cheese! You can have the stretchiest mozzarella cheese ready for pizzas and more in about 30 minutes with this recipe!
    4.78 from 9 votes
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    Prep Time 45 minutes mins
    Total Time 45 minutes mins
    Course Cheese
    Cuisine Italian
    Servings 8 ounces
    Calories 287 kcal

    Ingredients
      

    • 1 gallon whole milk (4 litres) raw or pasteurized, NOT ultra-pasteurized
    • 1 ½ teaspoon citric acid dissolved in ¼ c cool water (Find it at the grocery store or online here
    • ¼ teaspoon liquid rennet 300 IMU strength. This is a strong rennet, bought here. Check your bottle of rennet for what the rate of use is per gallon and go with that if it is different than this.
    • ⅓ cup salt

    Instructions
     

    • Heat milk on medium heat to 55F.
    • Add citric acid stirring in up and down motions.
    • Heat milk to 88F. Add rennet stirring in same way.
    • Heat to 100F. Turn off heat and move pot off heat.
    • Allow it to sit for 5 minutes, then scoop the curds out into a strainer overtop of a bowl or pot to catch the whey. Divide into baseball sized chunks.
    • Meanwhile, heat up 4 litres of whey with ⅓ cup salt until its stinking hot but not boiling then take off heat.
    • Drop 2 balls of mozzarella into the hot whey and let them sit 30 seconds. This next part is going to be more about feel vs time. Scoop a ball out with a spoon and to do a bit of a reverse bread knead holding the cheese in your gloved hands. The outside will be shiny and the inside will still be curds.
    • When it won't stretch, put it back into the hot whey for 30-60 seconds. Bounce back and forth between the two balls.
    • When all of the ball is no longer curds, you're going to stretch it! Pull the cheese as far as you can until it starts to break, then fold it in half and stretch again until it starts to break. Then roll it back up into a ball, pop back into the whey. You want a few good stretches like this from each ball, the cheese should be glossy and smooth.
    • Drop the finished ball into a bowl of ice water or put in the fridge. Ice water will make it keep its shape.

    Video

    Notes

    • Homemade Mozzarella Cheese keeps in the fridge for a few days, or throw it into the freezer. You can freeze it as a ball or you can shred it and freeze that way.

    Nutrition

    Serving: 1ozCalories: 287kcalCarbohydrates: 22gProtein: 16gFat: 15gSaturated Fat: 9gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 57mgSodium: 4895mgPotassium: 711mgSugar: 23gVitamin A: 767IUCalcium: 585mgIron: 0.04mg
    Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

    Delicious Dairy

    Swimming in milk? Try some of these other dairy recipes. 

    • Homemade Yogurt
    • Yogurt Cheese
    • Soft Serve Ice Cream
    • No Churn Ice Cream

    More Dairy Uses and Recipes

    • A bowl of finished homemade clabber culture cream cheese.
      Naturally Cultured Clabber Cream Cheese Recipe
    • A hand holding a spoon of homemade sour cream over a full jar.
      Thick and Mild Raw Milk Sour Cream Recipe
    • Hand shaped quarter-pound butter sticks on a plate.
      How to Make Butter in a Mixer
    • Calf in a snowy farmyard.
      Clabber, Skim Milk and Healthy Fats

    Share this with your friends!

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Milkmaid Mandi

      August 02, 2019 at 1:43 pm

      Hi there. I have a family milk cow, too, that I write a blog about. This post caught my eye, because I just posted a similar one yesterday about mozzarella. Our methods are about the same. I hadn't thought of doubling the recipe though. Good idea! In case you want to check my site out: http://www.memoirsofamilkmaid.com

      Reply
      • katehosie

        November 07, 2019 at 7:18 pm

        Oh yes we always double, if not much more, the mozzarellas recipe!

        Reply
        • Christine

          October 09, 2022 at 8:55 am

          When you store your mozzarella in the fridge, do you wrap it or just leave it open to the air? I've tried it both ways and not 100% sure I like either way.

        • [email protected]

          October 15, 2022 at 10:52 am

          It's always stored in a plastic bag.

    2. HealthyLivingwithChristene

      November 26, 2020 at 2:44 pm

      This is a very easy recipe however, my rennet is vegetable base and I still struggle to get it stretchy. If I can just get animal rennet I think it would work better for me.

      Reply
    3. Melinda

      December 04, 2020 at 12:33 pm

      Kate makes mozzarella cheese so easy! I've made mozzarella multiple times following her instructions. It's so good!

      Reply
    4. Sarah

      March 03, 2021 at 6:34 am

      Thank you for this recipe and making it easy to scale up for multiple gallons! Also the relaxed guidelines make it so easy to follow. I made this last weekend with 3 gallons after skimming the cream for butter and it worked beautifully! The cheese didn’t want to grate but shredded easily by hand 🙂

      Reply
    5. Andrea

      February 23, 2022 at 6:39 pm

      Hi,
      Do you sell rennet and citric acid like your mozzarella recipe calls for? The recipe says "buy here" but I don't see those products in your online shop. Or was there supposed to be a link to where to buy them perhaps? Thanks in advance for your help.

      Reply
      • [email protected]

        March 02, 2022 at 2:35 pm

        This is where I get the rennet from: https://glengarrycheesemaking.on.ca/

        This is the amazon link where I buy the citric acid: https://amzn.to/3C9cZab

        Reply
    6. Kim

      June 30, 2022 at 9:53 am

      5 stars
      Thanks for sharing the recipe. I tried to make it, (and followed the directions exactly) but I was not able to get the curds to stretch. Any suggestions?

      Reply
      • [email protected]

        July 17, 2022 at 10:39 am

        Sounds like your ph is off. Trying lowering or raising using citric acid. There are other factors like how long the milk sat before making the cheese. The ph changes the longer it sits.

        Reply
    7. Elizabeth

      June 30, 2022 at 2:08 pm

      I finally worked up the courage to make cheese especially because raw milk is expensive. Well the only thing Kate forgot to add was to double check your thermometer to make sure it's set to Fahrenheit not Celsius. ????? Just kidding . That was allllll user error....and to make it worse, im from America. We never use Celsius. Anyway....im excited to try this again....whenever I work up the courage. ?

      Reply
    8. Elizabeth

      June 30, 2022 at 2:10 pm

      I finally worked up the courage to make cheese especially because raw milk is expensive. Well the only thing Kate forgot to add was to double check your thermometer to make sure it's set to Fahrenheit not Celsius. ????? Just kidding . That was allllll user error....and to make it worse, im from America. We never use Celsius. Anyway....im excited to try this again....whenever I work up the courage. ?

      Reply
      • [email protected]

        July 04, 2022 at 2:24 pm

        I think you can do it, that first batch was just a run-through!

        Reply
    9. Kim

      November 15, 2022 at 11:32 am

      Curious- has anyone tried making this recipe but then making string cheese vs a ball?

      Reply
      • [email protected]

        January 15, 2023 at 2:13 pm

        Yes, we've made string cheese. Not often though.

        Reply

    Trackbacks

    1. Homemade Mozzarella — Venison for Dinner | My Meals are on Wheels says:
      July 30, 2019 at 3:53 am

      […] via Homemade Mozzarella — Venison for Dinner […]

      Reply
    2. DIY Homemade Yogurt – Venison for Dinner says:
      January 20, 2020 at 10:45 am

      […] Homemade Mozzarella Cheese […]

      Reply
    3. Streamlined, Skim the Cream for Butter, Big Batch, No Gloves Needed, Mozzarella - Venison for Dinner says:
      August 11, 2020 at 1:19 pm

      […] years I have followed the method in my mozzarella post, to make many pizzas worth of mozzarella. This past year, faced with my highest producing cow yet, […]

      Reply
    4. Papa Gino’s Pizza Sauce Recipe Finally Revealed! says:
      February 2, 2022 at 3:11 am

      […] Source: Venison for Dinner […]

      Reply

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    Primary Sidebar

    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube

    Hi, I'm Kate! Thank you for joining us on this crazy journey! Our family lives on a 34 acre homestead in northern BC, Canda and get a kick out of things like raising our own meat, dairy and vegetables.

    We’re a homeschooling family who believes life is the best teacher but we do hit the books in winter. I’m so glad you’re here, I hope you stick around!

    More about me

    Popular

    • A loaf of sourdough bread with slices on a wooden cutting board.
      Kate's Soft Sourdough Master Recipe
    • Seedy Whole-Wheaty Sourdough Sandwich Bread
      Seedy Whole-Wheaty Sourdough Sandwich Bread
    • Sourdough Tortillas
      Sourdough Tortillas
    • Grilled venison steaks in a glass baking dish.
      How to Grill a Venison Steak

    Summer Favs

    • Best Iced Coffee Recipe
    • raw milk ice cream raw cream no eggs wooden table waffle cone

    Footer

    back to top

    About

    • Privacy Policy
    • Disclaimer
    • Terms & Conditions

    Newsletter Signup

    Venison for Dinner email newsletter sign up

    Please wait...

    Thank you for signing up for the Venison for Dinner newsletter!

    Contact

    [email protected]


    As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

    COPYRIGHT © 2023 VENISON FOR DINNER ON THE FOODIE PRO THEME