Babbling about cheese...

I have been considering cheese making for the last while. The process that is. Really there are a few things that you need to understand before you begin. (all comments are focused on hard cheese making, as that is predominately what I have made).

1. Master your cooktop. Be it gas or electric or a waterbath, understand how to control the temperature and where to stop it so it gets to where you need it. Also understand the effects of a light breeze and a sunny window will have! That lovely breeze will steal your temps and that sunny patch will make it go crazy.

2. Steralise everything! Your basically growing bacteria here, and you do not want that to go wrong. And with that in mind, don't make cheese if your sick. Lets not accidentally spread that nasty around.

3. Know your recipe BEFORE you even buy your milk. Work out your timings so you know when the best time to start something is. Not something that you'll have enough experience with necessarily in the beginning, but you'll learn. No making cheese at 2am because you started something that should be a during the day recipe at 7pm!


As for the actual making of cheese and the recipes themselves you have a few variables, and all making cheese really is is altering those variables to suit the type of cheese.

a) Temperatures. This effects your bacteria, how much they grow, how much gas they produce, how they effect the proteins and the acidity.

b) Bacterias. Different starter bacteria have different effects on cheese. Gases produced, acidity and activation temperatures effect your flavors. Some cheese call for a mixture of bacteria's (with temperature activation being the key for some flavors here) others for one. Some for a primary and a secondary (for external mold growth). Be very very careful with contamination. I can not stress enough that the 'blood temperature' you are working with your milk in can make for some bad bad juju when playing with bacteria.

c) Processing the curd. From how it is cooked (or not), what size the curd is cut to and how much or long the rennet is left to set. All these things effect the texture of the cheese (amongst other things).

d) Pressing. Different weights, different lengths of time, breaking up the curd at the end of each press. And also not pressing (my asiago isn't pressed it is molded).

e) Aging. Whether a cheese is brined, waxed, bandaged, wrapped in paper or has external mold all effect your end product. As does the length of time that it is aged. Generally the longer you leave a cheese the richer and more complex the flavors, but that is not always the case.


I find cheese making easy. Not sure totally why, but I get it. It just clicks. I am not an expert. I have a lot to learn still. But I enjoy it. If my babbling helps others, awesome. :)

Leicester cheese and some accidental ricotta

With life being what it is, I haven't had too much opportunity to make much cheese of late. But given the few days of leave that I have had (though not how they were originally supposed to go) I decided to get my cheese back on. So today was two cheeses, a Leicester and some whey ricotta.

Leicester - from a 1475 redacted recipe (Platina) [http://www.godecookery.com/friends/frec21.htm] which I've trimmed down to do in my 6Lt pot.

6Lt unhomogenised milk
1.5 tablet of rennet
1/3 mesophillic starter
3ml of calcium chloride
1/4 cup of spring water

Muslin
Large pot
Colander
Cheese mold and press
Thermometer
Slotted spoon
cheese mat

Slowly heat the milk to 35oC
Add calcium chloride & stir
Add starter & stir
Cover and keep at 35oC for 1.5 hours
Dilute the rennet in the springwater
Add rennet and slowly stir top to bottom for 1 minute
Cover and keep at 35oC for 2.5 hours
Once curd is set, cut into 1 inch cubes
Gently stir and slowly (over 1/2 an hour) heat to 42oC
Cover and keep at 42oC for 1 hour
Strain into muslin lined colander
Gather corners of the muslin and place into mold
Press at 8kg for1.5 hours
Remove, undress, redress and return to press
Press at 16kg for 2.5 hours
Remove, undress, redress and return to press
Press at 23kg for 18 hours
Remove from press and place on a cheese mat
Flip daily for 3 days
Wax and age for 2-3 months at 12-16oC turning weekly

The recipe worked quite nicely. Nothing turned into an issue for me. Proof will be in 2-3 months :)

Update:

 Here is it all waxed (10/10/2014). My own 'recipe' for the wax. Mostly beeswax with a crayon tossed in to give it the colour and some additional stability. And the waiting begins...




Whey Ricotta

Now, I was clever for a change when doing my straining of the Leicester and I managed to (finally) reserve all the whey. So I also made some ricotta. Not an awful lot partly as I didn't add any other milk to increase the yield, will do that another time to see the difference. But a little bit that will be ready to try in the morning.

Worlds simplest recipe (from Ricki Carroll).

Take whey (about 4Lt) from a hard cheese process.
1/3 cup of apple cider vinegar.

Large pot
Muslin
Colander

Heat whey to 90oC
Turn off heat and add vinegar whilst stirring.
Skim the white 'fluff' into a muslin lined colander
Once its finished, hang muslin for a few hours to drain
Put into a container for consumption!

Re-purposed whey and the apple cider vinegar I used.

 After adding the vinegar, fluff!

 Hanging to drain.

 

Final product.

Not a huge yield. Around a cup worth in the end. Will try this shortly (after its cooled), hoping for yummy things!

The ricotta eaters - 1580 Vincenzo Campi