Dallas, TX

I made cheese!

Evidently, you CAN teach an old dog a new trick! I recently learned how to make fresh ricotta, mozzarella, a mozzarella & olive roll and string cheese. The Mozzarella Company, located in Dallas’s Deep Ellum district, has Saturday afternoon classes where you can learn to make these same cheeses. It was a very fun and informative class!

My husband and I took this class along with friends a couple of weeks ago to help celebrate my husband’s birthday. We donned our “closed toe shoes,” arrived at our assigned time and were given aprons and lovely hairnets. After snapping a few selfies of our “lunch lady” look, phones were put away, hands were washed, and instructions were given.

The class started with us being told the history of The Mozzarella Company (begun in 1982 by Paula Lambert). We were also given a behind-the-scenes tour of the working kitchen and facility. Afterwards, we broke into couples, manned a workstation, and began our cheesemaking endeavor. The cheesemaking process starts with raw milk (cow or goat) being pasteurized and cultures being added. This mixture turns into curds and whey. The curds are used to make the mozzarella and the whey becomes the ricotta.

We began the hands-on part of the class with each person stepping up to the industrial-sized cooker and scooping out a ladle full of watery ricotta. We placed each scoopful into a plastic basket where this cottage cheese-looking mass cooled and dried. This became the freshly-made ricotta that we got to take home. Yum!

Next up, we were shown how to make mozzarella balls by stirring curds in hot water, draining, and stretching until it became a “satiny mass.” We were instructed to then push the cheese up through your fists (think lightbulb shape), pinch it off, and toss into cold water to firm it up. Viola! Now we had a bucket full of fresh mozzarella balls to take home as well.

We were successful so far and were ready for the next task – making string cheese. Each couple made string cheese by using the same technique. This time instead of forming a ball shape, we continued pulling and stretching the mozzarella until lumps were out and the cheese was like taffy – in a long, narrow, ribbon-like strip. We then salted the “ribbon” and squeezed fresh lime juice over its length before rolling it up like a ball of yarn. Now we had a string cheese ball, or Queso Oaxaca, to add to our water bucket.

Lastly, we made a mozzarella roll stuffed with olives. We began with the same technique but patted this cheese out flat, like a pizza dough. We then spread a layer of chopped olives evenly over the cheese before rolling the cheese into a tight “log” form. This was wrapped tight in plastic wrap and chilled for us to take home later. I must confess, it was delicious!

After each couple in the class had made the assigned cheeses, we were treated to a Wine and Cheese Tasting! In a small room off the kitchen, there were pre-made plates of The Mozzarella Company’s specialty award-winning, fresh and aged cheeses along with some breads and wines. This cheese plate was delicious! We tried Queso Menonina, Queso Blanco, Hoja Santa (wrapped in a leaf that gives it a mint & sassafras taste), Herb Goat Cheese Log, Deep Ellum Blue (a favorite, for sure!), Dolce Habanero (apricot & habanero…hot!) and Caciotta la Cocina (with all types of colorful herbs from “the kitchen”) and several other types that I have forgotten. At this point of the evening, I was busy stuffing my mouth with delicious cheese samples and not paying attention to our instructor. What a fun and enjoyable experience this had been!

Before we collected our cheeses, gathered up our belongings and said our goodbyes – we were asked to pose for a class photo while wearing our aprons and hairnets. We gladly obliged. And what did we all emphatically shout out prior to getting our photo taken?

CHEESE!! 🙂