TRIUMPHANT!!!

It's a success! I have made my first ever successful mozzarella cheese!! You have no idea the amount of relief I feel; and exhilaration! The cheese tastes so delicious and I made it all myself. I'd have to say the difference was the milk. This time I used a local dairy's milk sold at the grocery store (the dairy is in a city about 80 miles away) and I think that because it is so close the milk hasn't had that drastic of a past in heating and cooling as longer range milk has.

Another thing that led to my success was patience and heating the milk curds longer than the recipe said - like 4 times longer. I had to do it because the curds weren't separating from the whey, but eventually it turned out beautifully! I found great help from this website. The pictures are very enlightening. Also, that website doesn't say how much salt to add, but I found 1/2 tsp. added the right amount of saltiness.

I think I'm making pizza tonight...