Reddit reviews Mozzarella and Ricotta Cheese Making Kit

Now, I'm no pizza expert, but I have made dozens at home. So, your pizza has far too much sauce on it, which I think is a common beginner's mistake because I still make it from time to time. Also, you rolled the edges of the pizza a bit too much and too sharply. The technique to shoot for is taking your dough (which you should knead by hand for ~10 minutes, which builds the gluten connections and makes it really stretchy which translates to more flavor and chewy crust) and laying it on top of your fists and stretching it into the shape you want from the ever growing center area of the pizza. This will give you a natural bit of excess dough around the outside of the pizza, and you can then pat the dough down in front of it and you have your natural crust without rolling. It will look like this:

I then put the dough alone into the oven @ 450F for 9-12 minutes depending on how thick it is, then I pull out the primed "blank" and put sauce and cheese on it and put it back in for another 10-12. My pizza is always cooked through this way. I've found it to be the best way to make pizza without using a pre-heated pizza stone and screaming hot oven.

Don't be afraid to go pretty light with the sauce, you would be surprised how little you actually need. IMO this looks like just the right amount of sauce.

Now, when it comes to the mozzarella, I personally shred my whole-milk block mozarella because it browns better that way and I can get it a light golden color. I think the mozz has more flavor that way. However, many people would look at your mozz and say it's perfect. The mozz and basil placement are the best parts of your pizza IMO.

On the whole this is a really good first attempt. You should have seen mine HAHA it was, er, twice as thick, raw in the center and the dough tasted awful. I actually use Emeril's dough recipe with honey instead of white sugar. I also use 1/2 cup less flour than he recommends but the same amount of everything else (except water). My friends have told me my dough is some of the best they've ever had.

That's a really good first attempt. The key is to keep practicing, and find out what you like and after like 15-20 iterations you'll have it down pat. The whole point to me is to make it how I like it. Exactly how I like it.

edit: For the 10 minute knead, do it immediately after your pizza dough has risen, as soon as you pull it out of your bowl that has a damp paper towel or kitchen towel over it. Before grabbing it, sprinkle a little flour on your hands and rub them like you're washing your hands, then sprinkle a little all over your ball of dough, then pull it out rotate it in your hands and sprinkle flour all over it (rotate your dough), then place your hands over the ball of dough like a sorcerer holding a ball of energy, and push inward from your shoulders, then rotate the dough and push inward again. If you're watching TV the time passes quickly. I like kneading the dough by hand because it puts me in touch with something kind of primitive and old school, like how Italian mom's did it back in 1900 or something. There is no substitute for lots of kneading. On the whole, the more kneading the better. Most pizza places have professional-quality dough mixers and they'll have that knead their dough for anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour. Their dough must be so freaking stretchy, I'm jealous. If you have a Kitchen-aid you can use a dough-hook attachment to do something similar.

Also, use bread-flour only. All-purpose flour tastes like shit IMO. Bread flour has more protein in it which results in chewier crust and better flavor, IMO.

Also, one of my secrets is actually to put a little bit of marjoram in the dough. Not too much, but it adds noticeable flavor. I also use a little more olive oil than is called for. Use extra-virgin, and if you can afford it, buy some good olive oil, like this. The difference between it and glass-bottle stored supermarket EVOO is immense (olive oil should always be stored in a light-proof medium because light breaks down the quality of it). Buy a big jug like that (which is actually the same price as the supermarket stuff) and fill up a bottle like this with it, and store that bottle in your cabinet away from light.

edit again: It seems like mozzarella might be a passion of yours. You can make your own using this kit. It's actually really easy to make mozzarella. That kit worked great for me. You can seriously make your own mozzarella in under an hour. All you'll need that you don't have in that kit are a set of thick rubber gloves like this for kneading the hot mozz to your desired thickness (more kneading = less water in the mozz).

Good luck on your pizza journey! Oh, I also sprinkle a small amount of cornmeal on the pan I use to keep the pizza from sticking, and I believe the cornmeal adds a small amount of flavor to the finished dough. Not too much corn-meal though.

Getting started will cost a bit of money.

1. I got this cheese making kit. Honestly you don't need that though. The kit contains cheese salt, rennet tablets, citric acid, cheese cloth, and a thermometer. For mozzarella you do not need cheese cloth and you should already have a digital thermometer in your kitchen (the one they give you isnt even digital). Cheese salt is just flaky non-iodized salt. The flakiness does help the salt incorporate into the cheese a bit better, but you really can use any non iodized fine grain salt for this. You can buy citric acid from the food store and you might be able to get rennet tablets there too (if not it'd cost you $10 on amazon). Whole foods sells citric acid in the bulk spices section and it'd cost you a nickel for enough acid for a pound of cheese.
   
2. Next you need some lactase enzyme drops. I get the bigger bottle since it lasts a long time and I use it for making ice cream as well. smaller one is here
   
3. Now for a recipe... I think I've been using this one here. It calls for twice the rennet as others... Not sure why. The cheese comes out fine so I haven't thought much of it. You should be able to get away with only using 1/4th of a tablet (instead of 1/2 a tablet) though.
   
   So to make it lactose free, you need to buy a normal gallon of whole milk that is pasteurized. NOT ULTRA-PASTEURIZED. It will say on the carton if its ultra pasteurized or just plain pasteurized. I've never seen any lactose free milk that is not ultra pasteurized. If you use ultra pasteurized milk, the cheese will not form correctly. So now you have a gallon of pasteurized milk and your lactase drops. I put twice what they say on the bottle into the milk (it says 5 drops per liter (about 4 liters per gallon), so I use 40 drops for a gallon of milk). I don't use it until two days after I put the drops in (instead of the 12-24 hours they say on the package). I also shake up the milk every time I'm at the fridge just to make sure it distributes evenly. Two days after treating the milk you can follow the normal recipe.
   
   I also take 4-5 of these pills when eating the cheese even though it probably is not necessary. I'd rather swallow a dollars worth of pills than risk ruining my day.
   
   Only problem is that the cheese doesn't seem to melt very well.

Yeah. Mozzarella. Bought a kit online and used a gallon of milk. Pretty easy. Takes 30 min.

http://www.amazon.com/Mozzarella-Ricotta-Cheese-Making-Kit/dp/B00014CEXG?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage

It's easy to lean as long as you follow the steps. I already have that kit and made mozzarella. The only thing missing from the kit is store bought milk. I just received their other kit for hard cheeses (and waxes!) and can't wait to try them. (I'm not really a mozzarella fan so my new kit looks more fun for me). They are cheaper on there website for you since I believe you are in the US right?

There is an amazing instructable article on it.


http://www.instructables.com/id/Great-Mozzarella-Cheese/

And you can get all the basic ingredients with this kit. Minus the milk.

Tip, use the online instructions, not the ones with the kit.


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00014CEXG


EDIT: The kit has enough ingredients for 30 servings (~1 lb) of cheese.

No problem! This is the kit that I originally bought. It makes ~30 lbs of cheese (each gallon of milk makes about a pound) and was the best value I could find at the time for the ingredients.

I got this one, which worked pretty well.

http://www.amazon.com/Mozzarella-Ricotta-Cheese-Making-Kit/dp/B00014CEXG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1291491911&sr=8-1

Never cured bacon personally, but my dad raises a couple pigs every year and sends them to a butcher shop for what has to be the best bacon I've ever tasted.

https://www.amazon.com/Mozzarella-Ricotta-Cheese-Making-Kit/dp/B00014CEXG


It works.

You can do ricotta and fresh mozzarella in about 30 minutes! This is a really good starter kit. Comes with everything but the milk :)

Ever try making your own? Mozzarella and Ricotta Cheese Making Kit https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00014CEXG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_zTA7ybP8C8F8K

This cheese making kit is food but it can also be organic so it fulfills 2 categories. ;)

Congrats on your sale, I might have missed it in a previous thread but what's the link to your etsy shop?

I really really want it!