Cheesemaking Book Review: The Joy of Cheesemaking

Before I get to the review, take a look at this beautiful caprese salad that my wife arranged from some of my fresh mozzarella.  It was a really good salad and I was very happy with the mozzarella.  I made it to take to a party at a friends house and I made it very quickly will little guidance from a recipe.  I guess I have made mozzarella enough times now to know how to make it.  One nice thing is that it turned out almost as good as when I used the Snowville dairy milk.  Not sure what made it turn out good.  I did have to open a new bottle of rennett since I used up all of my first bottle. The salad is made up of tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, olive oil, salt, pepper, and some homemade balsamic syrup my wife made.

 

This is the 2nd book on cheesemaking I have read.  I will do a review on the first at a later date. First I will tell you what I liked about the book, then what I thought could be better.  Keep in mind I am writing this from the perspective as a relatively new cheesemaker. 

I really like the color pictures in the book.  It showed some nice pictures and had some nice stories of small operation cheesemakers.   Also at the end of the book it had some very good information regarding how to cut different shapes of cheese and how to have a balanced cheese board.  By making sure to put different types of textures, flavors, and milk on the board.  All in all I would recommend this book to people who want to learn more about cheese and how to eat it.  A good book for those who plan on buying the cheese at the store and then bringing it home and having a cheese tasting.

Now some of the things I did not like.  The recipes were really lacking for a "home" cheesemaker.  A lot of the recipes called for 5 gallons of milk.  This can be hard unless you have a big enough pot.  Even if you have a big enough pot (I do) I would not want to commit 5 gallons of milk to a cheese I had never made before.  The book goes into a lot of detail on calculations on how much culture to use and how long after you get the right PH number before you should get a clean break.  They also required some more advance equipment like a PH tester.  While this book might be good for a commercial cheesemaker I would not recommend it for someone who is new or even intermediate in the cheesemaking field. 

So if you are looking for a book to help you appreciate cheese then this might be your book but if you are looking for some guidance in your new found hobby I would not recommend this book.

Different Milk, Different Results

I have made homemade Mozzarella several times now, each time I have had to adapt a little from the recipe I was following because I could never get the cheese to set enough.  Some things I have had to do were letting the mozzarella set after putting in the rennett longer than the 5 minutes the recipe called for (I was letting it set for as much as 20 minutes).  I have also had to let the mozzarella drain in a hung cheesecloth.  I had to do this to get the mozzarella dry enough to handle.  After talking to the Specialty Cheese Category Manager at work he said I should try Snowville Dairy milk since it has not been homogenized.  So I decided to try it.  I had to go to a grocery store a little ways away to get it and it was $7.00 for a gallon of this milk, so a little expensive for my blood.  I thought I would try it and see if it was worth the extra money.

Ingredients used, you can see the Snowville Dairy milk

Ingredients:

• 1 Gallon Whole Milk
• 1 1/2 tsp citric acid diluted in 1 cup cool water
• 1/4 tsp Rennett diluted in 1/4 cup water
• 1 tsp salt

-First mix well the milk and citric acid in pot, heat milk mixture to 90 degrees
    -take off heat and add Rennet carefully, stirring very gently in a up and down motion.
-Let milk set 7 minutes

You can see a much better clean break from this Snowville Dairy milk

-Cut curds into 1/2 inch cubes
-Heat to 105 degrees stirring gently
    -you are suppose to do this so the cheese does not knit back together, in the past my curds were not strong enough to knit back together so I did not do it, this time however with the better milk they did knit back together, so make sure to stir gently.

-After you reach 105 degrees turn off heat and let it set for 5 minutes
-Next ladle curds with a slotted spoon into a microwave safe bowl
   -Pour off as much whey as possible, form mozzarella into a ball
-Knead curds (wear globes the cheese is hot)

Me kneading the curds, you can see all the whey leaving the curds

-Microwave for 1 minute, take out and knead cheese
-Microwave for 30 seconds (two times) each time taking out and kneading cheese
-Add salt and start the fun part of stretching the cheese like taffy.  Do this until it starts to cool and has a nice sheen, then form into a ball.

Me having fun with pulling the cheese like taffy

My Snowville Dairy homemade mozzarella ball

 My wife grabbed some tomatoes from our fridge (store bought) and we ate cheese and tomatoes, but then I went to the garden and got a fresh tomato.  You can see the difference, the garden tomato is the darker red one and it tasted so much better.

Yummy tomatoes and mozzarella, plus my wife had some pesto she had bought to go with it.

All in all it was a more successful cheese making then I have had in the past.  Using the Snowville Dairy milk that had not been homogenized really helped with getting a really good clean break, however the taste of this mozzarella was not much different then my past ones, so I do not think I will make it a habit to use this much more expensive milk.  I guess if I ever make a video on how to make home made mozzarella or was asked to teach a few people I might buy it so I can show them how it is suppose to work, but most likely I will just continue to use the cheaper milk I have found locally.

Also this weekend I made a Spanish cheese called Manchego.  I lived in Spain for 2 years so I was excited to make this cheese, also it only takes a few days to age for Manchego Fresco, but you can let it age longer for a stronger flavor, look again soon to see how that went.

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Patience is a Virtue

Cheese Glorious Cheese, What Else Could I Ask For

So since that last time I wrote I have tried making mozzarella several times.  Each time it seemed to fail.  The curds never got firm and when I put it in the microwave it would come out way to runny.  The first time I thought it was because I had used to little rennet, since my wife had said the last mozzarella was too firm, the next time I thought it was because I used the wrong brand of milk, the third time it was a different brand of milk.  Finally I decided it was because my wife was not in the room with me.  When I made the mozzarella from the previous post she was there telling me to be patient, let the curds set a little longer, let the whey drain a little more.  Well she told me the same things again.  After scooping out the curds I again felt that the cheese was to runny and I was about to give up, but she kept telling me to be patient, to endure to the end, and so I did.  And I got some good cheese out of it.  Here are some pictures from the successful cheese making.

 

After cutting the curds into 1/2 inch cubes

Draining the whey out of the cheese, this is the part

that my wife had to tell me to be patient, I thought it was all wrong

This is me kneading the cheese, I wear the rubber gloves to

protect my hands from the cheese, its about 130 degrees

The fun part, pulling the cheese like taffy

Pulling the mozzarella into a ball

the ball of mozzarella

So as you can see it pays to have your wife tell you what to do.  Had it just been me in the kitchen I would have given up, I still think that the first time I got it to work, the curds were a little firmer.  But don't tell my wife I think that I am right. 

We ended up snacking on most of the cheese but last night I made manicotti.  The recipe I used called for three cheeses and guess what? Two of the cheeses I used were homemade cheeses.  The Ricotta and the Mozzarella.  I only had to use store bought Parmesan.  Next year I hope to be able to make manicotti and use ONLY homemade cheese.

Also this past week in the mail I got this little package.  YIPPEE.  It is from the Queen of Cheese (you can access her website from a link on the right).  The kit came with some cultures so I can make some different cheeses, some molds, some cheese wax, and a few other things I will need.  I was really excited.

Check out my post that is comming in the next few days to see my first attempt at making a hard cheese, a Farmhouse Cheddar in fact.

3rd Time is The Charm-Mozarrella

Last Sunday, after running to the store Saturday night to get more whole milk from a local dairy and not Kroger, I made some more mozzarella. 

The ingredients I used are as follows:

• 1 Gallon Trauth Farms Dairy Whole Milk
• 1 1/2 tsp Citric Acid diluted in 1 Cup cool water
• 1/4 tsp Rennet diluted in 1/4 cup cool water
• 1 tsp canning salt

I first heated the citric acid and 1 gallon milk to 90 degrees  (this took about 15 minutes), I then took the milk off the burner and I gently stirred in the diluted rennet. 

After this I covered the warm milk and let it sit for about 10 minutes.  The curds and the whey separated much more than the last time I did this.  At this point I was able to make a clean break.  I then cut the curds into about 1 inch cubes with a long knife.

Next I heated the curds to 105 degrees while gently stirring every once in awhile.  Once it reached 105 I took it off the burner and began scooping the thick curds out with a slotted spoon into a colander.  Using my rubber gloves I drained as much whey out as possible before putting it into a microwave safe glass bowl.  Jenelle was amazed of how the curds kept leaking whey.

I then put it into the microwave for 1 minute taking it out and kneading the cheese.  I then nuked it for 35 seconds and kneaded again (I did this step a total of three times).  Draining the whey each time.

The next part was fun, I started stretching the cheese like taffy, it was really stretchy as you can see.  At this time I also added the salt.  After stretching it till it got a little shiny I made the mozzarella into a little ball.

It tasted really good, though Jenelle thought it was too firm for Fresh Mozzarella..  Here is a picture of the final product.

I tried to make some ricotta from the whey but I got some much curds for the mozzarella that there really was not much left for ricotta.

We ate the cheese with some tomatoes and also used it on some pizza later in the week (see below)

I will hopefully be ordering some cultures soon so I can start making different cheeses, the only problem is that I will not know if I was successful until months later after I have let the cheese age.

Finally Mozzarella, well..... almost.

Last night I tried my hand at making homemade mozzarella again.  This time I used a full gallon and had a good thermometer that worked.

Here is my ingredient list this time:

1 Gallon Milk
2 tsp Citric Acid
1/4 tsp Rennet, diluted in 1/4 cup cold water
2 tsp salt

As you can see from the picture above I am also using rubber gloves, last time I learned that when you microwave the cheese it gets very hot.  This recipe is suppose to take only 30 minutes, but for me it probably took closer to an hour, it may be because I am heating up the milk slower then I am suppose to or something.

First step was to mix the milk with the citric acid and warm it up to 88 degrees, at that point you put in the rennet and then warm it up to 105 degrees.  I thought I was doing good at this stage until when I got needed to put in the rennet.  The thermometer read 88 but when I moved it to put in the rennet it registered closer to 100, I guess my post is not doing a good job at warming the milk evenly.  So I only had to leave it is a little longer and it was up to 105 but in some areas only up to 100.   So I need to figure out the best way to get the milk to read close to the same temp no matter where in the pot it resides.

After it got to 105 I took it off the heat and let it sit for about 5 minutes.  It look much more promising this time because I was able to get a clean break, this is where you can put your finger into it the curds and pull it out with out having a lot milk residue on your finger.  Though it did not look quite like yogurt like it is suppose too.

I then scooped the curds out with a slotted spoon into a microwave safe bowl.  I was able to get much more curds this time then last time.  I then formed the curds into a lose ball and drained as much whey as I could.  I then microwaved it for 1 minute removed it and formed the cheese into a ball again (this is where I needed the rubber gloves) and then draining off they whey.  I did this two more times for only 30 seconds.

By this time the cheese had started to get more stretchy.  I then started kneading it and pulling it.  At this point I put in the salt.  I was able to get a somewhat smooth ball of cheese that tasted very close to mozzarella.  We ended eating it with some tomatoes with a basil and balsamic topping.  I thought I had done okay but was a little disappointed that it only produced a rather small ball of cheese.

 After I was done I searched the Internet for videos of people making mozzarella to see how much cheese they yielded from 1 gallon of milk.  They seemed to get much more than I did and when they took the curds out it was in much bigger pieces then what I got.  After some searching I think I might know what my problem was (at least I hope).  I have been using Kroger milk and I think it has been ultra pasteurized.  Which kills the living enzymes in the milk and allows milk to keep fresh longer.  So at 10:45 last night I ran out to the store to buy some milk that comes from a local dairy in hopes that it will work better.  I will hopefully try that tonight

But back to what I did with all the whey left over from the mozzarella.  I of course made some Whey Ricotta.  I don't want to waste the milk.  So I made it again much similar to the way I have before.  I was able to get quite a bit of curds out of the whey and make a nice chunk of Ricotta.  It tastes good and I ate some last nigh with some slices of tomatoes.  This morning I also used some of the ricotta for breakfast.  Look to a future post to see what I made for breakfast with the Ricotta.

1st attempt at Mozzarella

This past week we went to a very unique store called Jungle Jim's.  People call it a foodies paradise because they have almost any type of food you can imagine.  The purpose of the trip was to get some cheese making supplies.  We bought citric acid, rennet, and some muslin cloth to use as a cheese cloth.  I wish they would have had some cultures but oh well, I guess I will have to order those online.

To make Mozzarella I used the following:

• 1/2 gallon of whole milk
• 1 teaspoon citric acid
• 1/8 teaspoon rennet dissolved into 1/8 cup water

I put the milk and the citric acid in my enamel pot, (I decided to try doing it without using a double boiler).  I started to slowly heat the milk to 88 degrees.  The only problem was that when I went to grab the digital food thermometer I found out it did not work and that the other two food thermometers (a meat thermometer and a candy thermometer) do not go down to 88  degrees.  So I thought I would just go by  feel.  So when I thought it was 88 I put in the rennet and started heating the milk up to 105 degrees.

Here you can see the curds and whey separating.  After it got to what I thought was 105 degrees I took it off the heat and let it sit for a few minutes.  In this recipe after you let it cool down you spoon all the curds out with a slotted spoon into a microwave safe bowl.  I did this but could never get very much curds.  After you do get enough curds you are suppose to put it in the microwave and a few other things.  Since I did not get enough curds I decided to make ricotta.  In most cheese recipes you can use the whey to get some whey ricotta.  So I heated the whey up to 200 degrees using the meat thermometer.  I took it out and put it into the muslin cloth.  And set it up to hang.  This allows the whey to completely drain from the curds.

After letting it sit for about 10 minutes I took it out of the muslin and actually had my first succes in cheese making.

After putting a little salt on it it tasted really good.  The next day we had a salad using the ricotta and fresh tomatoes from our garden. It tasted really good and I even took some to work the next day.  I was very excited to finally have some success even though it came from a failure.  A good lesson in never giving up.

I plan to try Mozzarella again this weekend after buying a new thermometer.  I look forward to hopefully getting it right this time.

To answer a question asked on my last post.  Parm will take about 10 months to age.  I will just put it downstairs in my basement in a small fridge we have down there.  Out of sight, out of mind.  What I think will be harder is when I do a cheese like a cheddar that you only have to age for 1 month but the longer you wait the better it gets.  I think I would be very tempted early to taste it. I guess I will just have to make enough to split the batch into different "aging" blocks.  One to use soon, one to use in 6 months, and maybe one to use in 1 year.  But for both of these I will have to wait till I get a cheese press.