Cheese - For me, it's one of the final frontiers in food processing, or just a good excuse to make my own. Last year on a whim, I bought a bottle of rennet at Murray's Cheese. A liquid that is extracted from the stomach lining of cows, sheeps or goats. The complex enzymes(protease) are what coagulates the milk in cheese production, seperating the curds and whey. In this case, mozzarella, which can be made with  cows milk, but also with goats milk. A version described  by Canadian Chef Derek Damman calls "goatzarella." It didn't turn out so well as my first cheese project.

More recently I decided to finally make some mozzarella. I started with milk from a huge bulk grocery supplier. It's good to use local, and while pasteurized is okay, avoid ultra-pasteurized. I failed somewhere in my first attempt. And so instead of my curds coagulating perfectly, the first batch turned into a bad version of ricotta. But I would not be deterred and went out for new basics; using New Jersey milk, local enough, not overly pasteurized, and well..success!

Footnote: My fathers family were dairy men, I still have the dairy boxes with the name Shapiro and son's, this feels like full circle, cheese, milk……