I think I finally figured out the tricks to making mozzarella. First, I used the instructions found on chow.com (http://www.chow.com/food-news/54705/make-your-own-mozzarella/?tag=search_results;results_list). There are some slight differences between this method and the method I had tried before.
The second change I made was to use a whole milk that is pasteurized but not homogenized. Raw milk seems to be the preference for making cheese, but that is something that I would have to get directly from a farm. And then there are always the safety concerns involved with nonpasteurized milk. I bought milk from a farmers' market that came from Johnston Family farms. The market was a bit far away, but I happened to be going for another reason. It is also a bit expensive, at $6 per gallon. I bought two gallons for this attempt at cheese making. The dairy website says it is sold at a market about 10 minutes from where I work, but I haven't called to make sure it is there. I also saw somewhere that it can be found at whole foods, which is less than 5 minutes from work.
I am not sure if the different milk or the change of recipes or a combination of both is what did the trick. But whatever it is, I found my first success in making homemade mozzarella. One gallon of milk produced about 6-7 balls of cheese a bit smaller than a baseball.
I debated about making homemade ricotta with the second gallon of milk, but I have been working late a bunch this week, so I opted to make a second batch of mozzarella so I wouldn't have to think about another recipe. I have used the mozzarella in a variety of ways this week, all of which will be discussed soon!
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