Itty Bitty Hooves

Taking The Cheese Plunge Once Again

May 26, 2007 on 9:11 am | In dairy, life, cheese recipes |

I’m about to go in the kitchen and try my hand at mozzerella again. I think one of my problems doing this is that I have the confidence that comes with experience, but it’s ancient experience.

Here’s what I mean. Last time I tried it fell miserably flat. The first time I made it a week or so ago it was good, but not really quite right. I couldn’t grate it. I had rushed it.

You see, a beginner would be oh so cautious. Making sure everything was done exactly the way directions state, and reading the directions very carefully due to their nervous fear because making cheese seems like it should be so hard.

Someone with experience making cheese knows 1) It’s not really that hard to do. And 2) most cheese receipes are the same with a few small variations, but the process is incredibly similar with each kind. and finally 3) even if you botch it up, it’s usually good for something.

I learned my lesson last time that 3 isn’t always true.

MY problem is I have past experience that tells me 1 and 2 are, and gives me the confidence to boldly go about what I’m doing even if I’m in a hurry and don’t have time to carefully measure each and every ingredient, and so on and so forth. Relying on memory for the amounts and steps rather than pouring over the recipe cards that I may as well look at since I have them, but am doing things to fast to bother.

My past experience gives me plenty of confidence… but it’s so far in the past that my ‘memory’ isn’t always as accurate as I’d like to think it is.

Now I’m not so old that my memory has totally failed me. Many of the recipes, those I’ve printed here over the last couple weeks, worked out just fine…

My favorite of all though–Mozzerella eludes me.

Maybe today.