When you think of Dallas, Texas, what comes to your mind? Cowboys? Beef? Country Music? Well did you ever think Cheese? I bet not. But Texas has been producing some great cheese for 27 years...well at least Paula Lambert has been. She originally started Mozzarella Co in 1982 in order to bring her fabulous memories of fresh Italian buffalo mozzarella to Americans. Even though she is not producing buffalo mozzarella she is producing some excellent cows milk and even a cow/goat blend mozzarella that has stood the test of time.
We made our way through crazy, futuristic Dallas highways to a once industrial looking area where Mozzarella Co has made its home for the life of its existence. We entered their sales room with an immediate view of the cheese making process. Ladies behind the thick slats of partitioning plastic going about the handmade process of making cheese as if it were second nature. And for some of these ladies it is. There are 10 cheesemakers at Mozz Co, 3 whom of which have been there for 20-23 years!
Our tour guide for the day was Mitchell Whitley, a cheesemaker and plant manager! And what an awesome tour guide she was. We tasted a few cheeses to begin with. Of course we tasted their regular fresh Mozzarella, Capriella (their cow/goat blend mozzarella) and Smoked Mozzarella but we were also interested in their Hoja Santa, a fresh goats milk cheese wrapped in an hoja santa leaf. The tasting we had really didn't do their cheeses justice (they were ice cold) but when we got home we so enjoyed every nuance of the cheese! The Capriella had a tasty tang, but not overwhelming. The goat/cow mixture gave a little "umpf" the mozzarella that regular mozzarella sometimes lacks. The texture was nice as well, yet different from the almost overworked fresh mozzarella from your local salumaria. Usually when you bite into those balls of milk you get a squeeky clean texture (reminds me of moving my finger across a newly clean, wet piece of tupperware after using Polmolive) and uber mild flavor (some say no flavor at all). But, the texture of Mozzarella Co. Mozzarealla was between that of squeeky curd and a lower moisture mozzarella. It had a more substantial mouth feel. And remember that mozza-disliker I mentioned in another post? Well they also enjoyed the the flavor of Mozzarella Co Mozzarella.
But back to the tour of the facility-- Mitchell donned us with our customary white fluffy hair net and on we went into the aging caves. I always feel cool when we get to put on hair nets and boots and stuff to keep our stuff away from the cheese but man, it sure isn't a look that I can rock! Mitchell showed us immediately to their aging facilities knowing Darren's fervent interest in caves. They utilize every nook and cranny of their factory from cave to vat. It is hard to believe how much cheese they produce in that little amount of space. I guess that is why the first shift starts at 2:45 am, so they can fit all that cheesemakin' time in.
Mitchell introduced us to the smoker where headless white
snowmen are strung up to be smoked over pecan shells to become Smoked Scamoraza. There are even mini headless snowmen for tastings. One cool part about this cheese is that all that cheese it is dipped in wax, by hand, using only one small crockpot wax melter thingy. Crazy tedious job! There must be someone dedicated only to waxing with "Daniel-son" wax-on wax-off focus.
Standing in our little spot we got to watch at least 3 different cheeses being made at once, and I am sure there were more being made but watching the 3 was taking most of our attention and focus. Watching these ladies was inspiring. They moved so smoothly, seamlessly. Each played a specific role in this labor intensive, muscle strengthening, seriously handmade process.
One women was hand pressing curd, using her body weight and
arm strength to extract as much whey as she could in order to get it to the optimum moisture level so that she could mix in epazote and chiles. This cheese would become their Queso Blanco with Chiles and Epazote. This cheese would also become a nightly guest on our dinner plate. For 5 nights, Darren and I made tostadas with chicken (2 nights), shrimp (1 night), or pulled pork (last 2 nights).
(I made them once out of five times---Darren made them best.)
He began by warming fresh corn tortillas in the countertop oven, pulling them out just before they got too crispy. He spread a layer of refied black beans and a little sour cream on the tortilla, topping that with the protein of the evening, freshly chopped cilantro, diced tomato, sliced black olives and corn. Then for for the big TA DA he crumbled the Queso Blanco on the top and finished it with a squeeze of lime. No pictures exist of these beautiful and scrumptious creations because our minds were clouded by hunger...every night! And when we remembered 3 bites in, it was too late. There was no putting this tostada down. It was finger (hand) food at this point.
We watched the "mutzarell" (as ya might say in NY) being made as well. And I can rightfully say that we have tasted the freshest motz around. Mitchell asked the ladies to squeeze us of a small bit right after stretching and it was so milky and warm and wonderful. More more more please! Yum!
We have eaten copious amounts of cheese on this trip, doing little to counter act the effects of cheese additction. But then I thought, instead of the latest exercise craze to work off those delicious dairy products, try making mozzarella. We could all have rockin' arms if we hand stretched mozzarella all day. But don't try stealing my idea, I already have the copy-write for the workout video entitled "Yogarella!" It's a hard job but somebody's got to do it and I'm mighty glad it is these ladies. Thanks to Paula, Mitchell, and the cheesemaking ladies of Mozzarella Co, when you think of Texas, think Cheese.
P.S. Mitchell, we meant to get a good photo with you before we left and I am sorry we didn't! Thanks for the GREAT tour! To see Mitchell and learn about her gourmet cottage cheese follow this link to to an article in the Dallas News.
