Cheese Batch #3

Last year I made my first batch of cheese. I'd been fascinated by the whole idea of home cheese-making for months before that, so it was a bit of a letdown when that first batch refused to hold any shape whatsoever. Turns out that there's a whole world of milk politics and practices I knew nothing about. Importantly for cheese-makers, lots of milk out there gets heated to crazy high temperatures, which makes it almost useless for the purposes of cheese.

I undertook my next batch with a different brand of milk and less exuberance, but more success. This time around, I got to make happy cooing sounds over my adorable little cheeses. I did more reading and studying in the world of cheese but largely let the actual making of cheeses go for a bit as I found myself distracted by other endeavors.

Today, I decided it was time to get back to it. After all, with Josh making all those lovely sourdough pizza crusts, we really need some homemade mozzarella to go with. Here's what came into being within the hour:

Presentation-wise, there's plenty of room to grow. Taste-wise, I'm pretty happy with this little "braid" of cheese. However, I then lost 30 minutes of my day scrolling through images from Lair of the White Worm since that's what I kept thinking as I shaped the cheese braid/worm.