30 Minute Mozzarella

I did it! After several failed attempts and several gallons of milk, I finally made the 30 Minute Mozzarella that I've been dying to make. I read the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. In the book, Kingsolver describes how she and her family spent a year eating only the food that they had grown/killed themselves or that they could buy locally with the exception of coffee, chocolate, and nuts (because they're not totally crazy!). In order to have cheese around, they had to make their own. The cheese-making process sounded so pleasing and so simple that it was there and then that my obsession to make my own cheese started. I ordered the kit and bought the milk only to discover that the organic milk that I had purchased was ultra-pasteurized, which is not good for making cheese. That batch had to be trashed as it never solidified properly. Then I bought this milk, a local milk that has not been ultra-pasteurized and has the cream on the top, and it all worked out much better. I'd recommend following the recipe on the website instead of the recipe that comes with kit as there are slight variations and after emailing the help-line found that those slight variations are actually huge variations when making cheese.
The process was very easy and very satisfying. It came together so easy and it really did only take 30 minutes. We kept some plain and to some we added olive oil, garlic and herbs. It was delicious. We ate a pound of cheese in about 30 minutes! I'll be making it again soon, as the kit makes 30 batches of cheese.
By the way, I just heard Barbara Kingsolver on Speaking of Faith, the American Public Media radio show, discussing the ethics of eating. You can download the podcast or listen to it here.