Preface: whoever told you a tablet could replace your laptop lied to you. every time i go back to the hubski tab it re-loads and i lose all my text. fuck you, ipads.

MOZZARELLA

So, here's the cheese. It's a good cheese.

I'd been on a tear to make cheese ever since NPR told me that I could. ( kleinbl00 - NPR has also told me how to make yogurt - haven't taken the plunge yet) Did some research, found this recipe for mozz and this recipe which is the same thing but ripped off, figured I'd give it a try. Conveniently, thenewgreen had made Dairy the hubski challenge, so I had an excuse.

I ran into a minor mishap or two, mainly the rennet I used claimed to be double-strength but after 10 minutes of sitting, my curds still hadn't set. So I poured in more rennet, and mixed it into the blend - but as a result had to destroy all my beautiful curds. This turned out not to matter in the end.

Curds and whey:

I made my mozz with most success. See reply to klein to witness me stretching it, with cheese belly and all.

Final photo - the mozz did not like retaining a shape. That's okay. See that high gloss? That's how I know I did okay. That's what you need.

In my reading I found that whey, much like potato water (water in which one boils potatoes), can be used in bread recipes to make a better bread than plain water would. So I made...

SURPRISE DAIRY PIZZA

Now, normally, pizza wouldn't have any dairy in it. Pizza uses olive oil instead of butter and water instead of milk (not that most breads use milk). But when you take your whey, which otherwise you'd throw out, from your cheesemaking adventures earlier, and use it in lieu of water for your pizza, you get SURPRISE DAIRY PIZZA.

In addition, i decided to use some of my mozz and make a marguerite pizza, because frankly, I had made a lot of mozz and had no idea what to do with it.

I took a lot of photos of bread dough and told myself what a beast I was for making two batches in twenty minutes or so (I like making bread, I used to do it a lot) but in the interest of brevity decided to leave you with just a before/after of the marguerite, even though I made a Hawaiian as well.

It was delicious, I experimented, I am pleased (but mozz is NOT as easy as they tell you) and I am sated.

Way sated. I am phat. Phizza phat.

FINAL REPORT

- Would I make it (mozz) again?

Well, tbh, probably not. I'm actually not that big a fan of cheese, and while the recipe says it can be done in 30 minutes, it was definitely much more like 60. It also wasn't "fun" cooking - lots of standing around, stirring, waiting 5 minutes, doing one thing, waiting five more minutes. Also, like I said (sacrilegious I know) I don't really like cheese. However, I would make it again to make it with someone and give them the experience of making cheese, because that part of it was pretty cool. I would also make it again if I wanted to impress people at a fancy dinner party. Or I guess if I ate a lot of mozz.

PIZZA? Yeah, I'd made pizza again, but that's not the point!