I just purchased my first dairy cow last week. She is a jersey/holstein cross and is giving 4 gallons a day. I have been attempting to make cheese and butter etc. Boy is it hard!! What I need to know is there a way to make cultered buttermilk without first starting with a store bought cultured buttermilk? Also can anyone give me any pointers for making mozzarella that works? I have tried and failed three times so far. The curds just never melt together to stretch(I don't have a microwave, so that way won't work) Thanks in advance cara lewis cnllewis@email.com

-- cara lewis (cnllewis@email.com), September 25, 2000

Answers

Hi Cara, It has been by experience with mozz, that if the curd doesn't 'pull together', it's over cultured or over ripe. How much culture are you adding- to how much milk, and how long are you letting it 'rest'? You can add culture directly to the cream, for cultured butter/buttermilk.

-- Kathy (catfish@bestweb.net), September 25, 2000.

Kathy, thanks for the reply. The recipe for mozzarella was given to me by a neighbor and it uses citric acid powder. He said that it was the same as "fruit fresh" and that was what I used. The only other thing wasit was a microwave recipe and I followed a recipe for stovetop after the curds were seperated to heat the curds to the point where my hands couldn't stand it and that they should melt together but they did not. Other than that I don't know what went wrong. Thanks again cara lewis cnllewis@email.com

-- cara lewis (cnllewis@email.com), September 25, 2000.