twenty ham and cheese calzones

Except the last five are turkey calzones. This is one of the last five.

The cheese is two tubs of ricotta plus a whole triangle of asiago with Mexican oregano. 

The mushrooms are sautéed half way with butter and salt and pepper. The entire bowl was used nearly perfectly with just a few mushroom slices remaining so I ate them. There was also considerable liquid that would have been perfect for soup, but there is no plan for that and no room to store it, so I drank it, and man, was it ever delicious. 

The capocollo slices are torn in two with half a slice going into each calzone for additional variation in flavor. The ham is the best I've ever tasted. The turkey is rather dry. All the ham was used and all the capocollo was used except for one slice. The turkey was almost entirely used. Altogether, this is 4LBS of deli meat.

This dough began with 2 cups water. It wasn't enough. Halfway through I started another batch using 1 cup of water. That turned out to be perfect.

The Tony's mozzarella is much more expensive than the Galbani brand, but there is no noticeable difference.

Here's the thing. Both ricotta and mozzarella are nothing cheeses. There is nothing to recommend them except meltability and stretchability. They're both flavorless. So that profound shortcoming must be compensated with cheese that has actual character, Romano, Parmesan, Asiago, what have you. Or else it's just filler. Just moisturizer. Just goo. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

So now, four cheeses. Two that add moisture and goo, but no flavor, and two that add extreme flavor.

And that just goes to show what can be done with milk. Ricotta and mozzarella are milk and rennet and/or an acid to cause the milk to curdle, plus salt and that's it.

The other cheeses use time.

Some other cheeses use a mold. 

Whatever the cheesemakers do, it is time that is most expensive. There's a lot of care in holding the wheels in the right condition, salt baths, turning, testing and such. 

While that little ball of mozzarella is worth slightly more than a gallon of milk. The quality of milk is a consideration that affects cost. Looking back at its origin, fresh cheese is just a way of managing surplus milk. 

Way back in history something happened to milk during storage and transportation. Milk transported in a bota bag, an animal stomach, carried by horse or by camel bouncing along over a distance in warm temperature would have resulted in cheese. Imagine going for a drink of milk that you brought along with you on your trip and having cheese instead. When resources are tight you'll eat anything. That's how cheese was invented. By accident. What cheesemakers have done over ages by accumulated experience and knowledge with this originally unhappy accident is quite amazing and well worth the cost. 

These eighteen are frozen. 

Two more on a fourth tray are baked.

The last five calzones are turkey with capocollo and extra cheese, because the turkey is dry. 

All twenty calzones have half a slice of capocollo. 

One tin of prepared tomato sauce was used with just a tablespoonful remaining.

The only thing left extra was the ricotta / asiago mixture. Two tubs of ricotta were purchased and one large triangle of asiago. 3/4 tub combination remained and was returned to one of the tubs. Pretty good guesswork, eh?