Homemade String Cheese Recipe

Makes: about ¾ pound|337 grams
Prep time: 5 minutes
Total time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

for the brine:
¼ cup kosher salt

for the string cheese:
1 pound|454 grams mozzarella curd

Directions

1. Make the brine: In a large bowl, dissolve the salt into 8 cups|1 liter 893 ml of cold water.
2. Soften the curd: Heat ½ gallon|1 liter 893 ml of water until very hot but not boiling. Submerge mozzarella curd for 10 minutes, or until softened. Remove the curd, briefly stretching and kneading, and resubmerge until it is soft and very stretchable. Use rubber gloves so that your hands don’t burn!
3. Make the string cheese: Lightly knead the soft curd into a sphere, and poke a hole in the middle to make a little cheese bagel. Stretch the cheese bagel into a large loop (about arms length), rotating it in your hands to make sure it maintains an even thickness. Twist and then fold the large loop in half to make a double loop, and repeat this process about 4-5 times: stretching the loop to arms length, twisting and folding to develop many thin “strings” within the loop. Once you have many thin strands, roll the loop softly into a cylinder, and cut it into 5-inch sticks.
4. Brine and finish the string cheese: Briefly wash the sticks to remove any butter on the surface, then place them in the brine to seal the cheese and add some salt to the picture. Brine for 1 hour before snarfing, and store any remaining string cheese in a dry container in the refrigerator.

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