Soft Cheese Fun

I have used Ricki's book before but I had just borrowed from the library and not been able to dig into it.  This past month my wife got it for me and I was very happy.  I have decided to try and make as many recipes from it as possible over the next year.   The best thing is that you all get to accompany on on these fun cheeses.
Last week I made two cheeses with recipes basically found in "Home Cheese Making" by Ricki Carroll.  I have not ordered my new supplies yet so I found two I could do with the ingredients I had.  I choose to make a cheese called Lactic Cheese and some Cottage Cheese.

The first recipe in Ricki's book is Lactic Cheese.  It tasted very close to a cream cheese to me and tasted good on some bagels.  It made a lot of cheese.  1 gallon of milk made a little over 2 lbs of cheese.  I have to come up a with a few recipes this week to use all the cream cheese in.

I used:
    1 gallon of whole milk
    1 packet of mesophillic culture
    4 drops from rennet dissolved in 1/3 cups water

I first started by heating my 1 gallon of milk and the mesophillic starter to 86ºF
Then I added 1 tsp of the diluted rennet mixture and gently stirred.

   
I then let it sit in the pot with the burner turned off overnight, approximately 12 hours.

Overnight the milk had turned into a very loose yogurt like substance.  I then poured the mixture into a muslin lined colander.  As you can see I barely had enough room, this recipe made so much more then I expected since most of the cheeses I make follow a 2 gallon = 1 lb instead of the 1 gallon = 2 lbs this had.

I then left the bag to drain for about 12 more hours (while I was at work).  I drained a lot of whey during this time.

After draining I flipped the muslin inside out into a bowl.  At this point I just added some salt.  You can ad a lot more types of ingredients but being my first time I did just salt and have used it mainly on bagels in the morning.  It has a great taste with just the right amount of tanginess.  I believe I will make this again when I have family visiting since it is a cheese you can see the fruits of your labor quite quickly.

Since this cheese was so easy in the process I made a 2nd cheese at the same time. So I made homemade small-curd cottage cheese.

This cheese does not even use rennet.  I guess that is why it takes so long for the curds to form.  The ingredients I used for this cheese was"
    - 1 gallon 2% milk
    - 1 packet mesophillic starter
    - 3 tbl cream

I first heated the milk to 72ºF and then added the mesophillic starter, mixing thoroughly.

I then let it sit overnight and most of the next day, about 24 hours at room temperature. I then cut the curds into 1/4 inch cubes and raised the temperature to 100ºF over about 15 minutes and then let it remain there for about 10 minutes while stirring occasionally.  I then raised temp to 112ºF over another 15 minutes and leave it at that temp for 30 minutes.  The process is cooking the curds I had which were very weak and soft and making them more firm.  After the curds were firm enough I let them sit for 5 minutes.  

I then poured off the whey into a cheesecloth lined colander.  Picture below is not very good of the curds hanging to dry.

Here is a another picture of the curds hanging to drain more whey out.  I let it drain for about 10 minutes. 

I then dipped the curds into cold water for 5 minutes.  Next untie the bag and break up the curds into small pieces and add salt.  This tasted okay but not as good as the lactic cheese.  It was a little more sour then I liked and I did not get the creamy mixture you usually get when eating cottage cheese. I may just need to add some plain milk next time after it is all done to get that mixture.  This made a little over 1 lb of cheese.

On too my next part of this blog which will be shorter since I had no pictures.  About a month ago we had some family friends over to make cheese.  The friend was actually in the cheese making class with me that started this whole thing.  But since then they had moved and been to busy to get too much into the cheese making.  This friend is also hopefully getting a goat here in the spring which will be lots of fun once I can get some milk from it.

We made mozzarella together but also for him to see some of the process of a hard cheese is made.  So before they came over I started the process of making a Colby.  Which was a brand new cheese for me.  The part was fun, we made two mozzarella, one for me and one for his family.  They both turned out really good.  However the Colby did not turn out too great.  It is really salty and has a bland flavor.  I thing the reason is because I was trying to use a different mold to get the classic shape of a Colby but it was to small so I had to make another one with my other mold.  This equated into 2 -1 lb bricks of cheese that I put into a salt bath that was meant for a 2 lb brick of cheese.  With more surface area I think the salt was able to penetrate the cheese too much.  Here is a picture of the finished cheese after it was waxed and aged.

I hope to try doing Colby again in about two weeks.  Wish me luck. I also hope to try Brie again as well as make two more recipes from the first part of Ricki's book.  Maybe Fromage Blanc, Mascarpone, Gervais, English cheddar, or other.  Leave a comment and tell me which ones you think I should make.

A Cheesemaking Christmas

I had a week off from work between Christmas and New Years, and when I wasn't out doing things with the family and mother-in-law (who was visiting from California), I was making cheese.  I made 4 types of cheeses during the week.  All the cheese's I made were ones I had made before but I have been trying to make at least each cheeses twice to make sure I am getting the hang of it.  The cheeses I made was Mozzarella, Farmhouse Cheddar, Jarlseberg, and a Saffron infused Manchego.  Also in the past month I made some Brie and some Cheese Curds but I will blog on those later.


The first cheese that I made was a farmhouse cheddar.  For Christmas I sent my dad a fake order form where he could order a cheese from me.  The cheese he picked was the Farmhouse cheddar, he likes cheddar and he picked this one since it has a short agin period so he could try it sooner.  For this recipe I followed a great book  " Artisan Cheese Making at Home" by Mary Karlin and you can see my previous attempt at this cheese here.

So the ingredients you I used:

• 2 Gallons Milk
• 1/2 tsp Mesophillic Culture
• 1/2 calcium chloride diluted in 1/4 cool water
• 1/2 tsp rennett in 1/4 cup cool water
• Kosher Salt

for this recipe you can also see I did not have liquid annatto so I tried to used some achiote powder which comes from annatto but as you can see it did not work.

Following are some typical pictures of heating the milk, then cutting the curds in order to drain more whey out of them

The book said the curds should be done when you can take a group of them in your hands and put soem pressure on tehm and form a solid mass that can easily be pushed back apart.  As you can see it was able to do that.

After draining the whey from the curds I started pressing them.  I like the press I have but as you can see it is a little hard to know how much weight I am using since the only way you can judge the weight is by seeing how much you have compressed the spring.  So I decided to try using some household items the gave me the proper weight.

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This is the cheese after I pressed it, next I waxed my cheese.

Here is a picture of the final cheese, I will give an update when I cut into the cheese.  I will cut it in half and send it to my dad (he only gets 1lb) I will keep the rest.  It was age down in my cheese fridge for 1 month then it will get sent out, I am excited to try this cheese and hopefully my dad will like it.

Next I made a Jarlsberg, the same recipe I used here, the difference is I made my first cheese with 3 gallons of milk.  It doesn't take any more time to make a 5 lb cheese then it does a 2 lb cheese, but I can only fit 3 gallons of milk in my pots.  I for some reason did not take many pictures of this cheese but when I take it out of the fridge to move to a 65 degree enviorment I will take a picture of it.

Here are the pictures I did take, one thing that I followed different then last recipe was I ran out of calcium chloride and did not have time to get any more, plus I did not wax this Jarlsberg in hope I will have a little more eyelet movement.

I am also excited to try this cheese in 2 months.  Hopefully it will have a little better shape and eyelet formation.  I will post an update when I am done tell you how it tastes.  I am really looking foward to having some Grilled Cheese Sandwhich with this cheese.



So the last cheese I made was Saffron infused Manchego and I found the recipe from the same "Artisan Cheese Making at Home".  I lived in Spain for two years and had always enjoyed cooking with saffron.  I would make Paella with it but I think was a lot cheaper and easier to find in Spain.  So to find it I went to a store in Northern Cincinnati called Jungle Jims which is a really great store and has almost any food you could imagine, from a lot a different countries.

Here is a picture of the saffron, this little container cost $10

I followed basically the same recipe I did before except for adding the saffron, you can go here to find my other Manchego.  One reminder is this isn't technically Manchego because it is made with cows milk and not Sheep milk.  The paprika I will use with some olive oil when it's aged a little while.

Here you can see the saffron start to color the milk a little bit.

This is the cheese before I put it in a water bath.  After aging a few days it has turned even more orangish.

So there you have it, my cheese adventure over Christmas.  I was quite happy that I made three different cheese in one week.  And that not even including the Mozzarella and Ricotta I made while my mother-in-law was visiting.  I was really excited because she has been the first person I have shown to make Mozzarella.  Here is a picture of their first mozzarella.

So now I have 4 cheeses in my fridge that are being aged.  These three I just talked about and the Parm I started several months agon (only 4 months left before I get to try it).  I will take a picture of my little fridge sometime to show all the cheeses.  I will be able to try the Manchego first in one more week.  Hopefully some of you who read this blog will get to try some of the cheese I send to Utah for my dad. 

Jarlsberg, Parmesan, and Brie Oh MY!!!

My Jarlsberg after 2 months

So I have been busy with making several cheeses and can now start blogging about them.  The following three cheeses were made from recipes (with some small changes)  from a great book called "Artisan Cheese Making at Home" and also from recipes on New England Cheesemaking website.

Parmesan

First lets start with the Parmesan. It is going to take 9 months to age before we can eat it.
The ingredients I used are as follows:

• 2 gallons milk (Whole, 2%)
• A packet of Thermophilic starter
• 1/2 tsp calcium chloride in 1/4 cup cool water
• 1/2 tsp liquid rennet in 1/4 cool water

Instructions:

• Heat milk over low heat (double boiler) to 94ºF
• Sprinkle thermo B over milk and mix well with whisk
• add calcium chloride and rennet, gently whisk for 1 minute
• let set for 45 minutes at 94ºF (until a clean break)

• Now whisk curds gently to cut curds into pea size pieces
• let set for 10 minutes
• slowly raise temp to 124ºF over 1 hour
• Let set at 124ºF for 10 minutes

looks like cottage cheese after the curds are drained

• Drain curds in muslin cloth for 5 minutes
• Put into mold and let drain another 5 minutes
• Apply 10 lbs for 30 minutes then flip
• Apply 10 lbs for 1 hour then flip
• Apply 20 lbs for 12 hours  

Using my press for the very first time

• I then prepared a salt brine and soaked the cheese at 52ºF for 12 hours (the cheese weighed 1 lb and 12 ounces before brinning)

• After brinning I dried the cheese with a cheesecloth and let air dry for 3 days

Now it is aging in my cheese cave at 50º, where I first flipped it every day for about two weeks and am now just flipping it every week or so.  I have also rubbed olive oil on it now to help keep the cheese from drying out.  This cheese has been hard trying to keep the mold off, I think one reason is because I do not have very much air flow, so I should get a fan.  Also I was aging the brie (which will be discussed lower down).

My cheese after brinning

my cheese right now after being aged and rubbed with olive oil

Jarlsberg

Jarlsberg cheese is a Norwegian cheese that is part of the Emmental Swiss family, so you can expect the cheese to have the trademark eyelets that make it "wholly cheese".

The ingredients are as follows:

• 2 Gallons Milk
• 1.2 tsp Thermophilic C
• 1/8 tsp propionic bacteria
• 1/2 tsp calcium chloride in 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 tsp rennet diluted in 1/4 cup water

The process I followed was:

• Heat milk to 92ºF in a warm water bath
• Mix in the propionic then let set for 45 minutes
• Add calcium chloride and rennet using a whisk gently
• let set at 92ºF for 45 minutes (until a clean break) 

• Cut curds into 1/4 inch cubes and stir for 20 minutes
• Heat 3 cups of water to 140ºF
• Ladle out enough whey to expose the tops of the curds
• Add the heated water to bring the temperature of the curds to 100ºF
• Over low heat raise the temperature to 108ºF over 30 minutes while gently stirring
• after reaching 108ºF let curds settle and sit for 20 minutes 

•  Drain curds in a cheesecloth

•  Press curds in a mold
• 10 lbs for 30 minutes and flip
• 15 lbs for 8 hours
• Brine in a salt water bath for 12 hours at 50ºF to 55ºF
• Air dry for two days
• Coat in cheese wax
• Age at 50ºF for 2 weeks flipping daily
• Then age at 65ºF for 4-6 more weeks

I have enjoyed eating this cheese, though it does not quite taste like the Jarlsberg I have bought in the store.  It is almost gone, but before it is I need to make sure and make a Jarlsberg Grilled Cheese Sandwich.  When I do, I will have to tell you how it tastes.

American Style Brie

Now Brie is the most advanced cheese I have made to date.  It made me really nervous to make a cheese where you actually want to encourage mold growth.  Usually when you see mold you just wipe it off, but with Brie you want the white mold to grow, in face if you have ever had Brie and have eaten the somewhat hard bitter brine, that is the mold.  So I guess we will have to wait till around Christmas to see if I was successful on my first Brie.

Ingredients:

• 2 gallon whole milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• pinch of mesophillic direct set starter
• 1/4 tsp thermophilic starter
• 1/8 tsp Penicillium candidum
• 1/8 tsp Geotrichum candidum
• 1/4 tsp calcium chloride in 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 tsp rennet in 1/4 cup water

the powder is the mold

What I did:

• Heat milk to 90ºF
• Mix in both starters (meso and thermo) and both of the white molds (penicillium and geotrichum)
• raise temperature to 96ºF
• turn off heat and let set for 90 minutes
• mix in the calcium chloride and rennet then whisk gently
• let set for 30 minutes or until a clean break
• Cut curds into 3/4 inch cubes
• stir curds gently for 10-150 minutes
• let set for 5 minutes then ladle out whey to expose curds

•  Gently ladle the curds into a mold (I have my wooden cutting board underneath to assist in flipping the cheese because you have to be careful not to break the cheese as you flip it.
• Let curds drain for 1 hour
• flip and drain for 1 more hour
• leave brie at room temperature for 8 hours

I had so much curds I used both my molds, so I have one big brie and one mini brie aging right now

after 1 flip

before aging in cheese cave

•  Salt each side of the cheese lightly
• Age at 54ºF at 80% humidity for 12 days, flipping once halfway
• I have the cheese in some Tupperware containers that I can close. I have put some damp paper towels in the boxes to keep the humidity high
• They are now sitting in my refrigerator at 38ºF
• Let age for 5-6 weeks

cheese before aging

you can start seeing the mold growth on the side

I am excited to see how the Brie turns out.  We will try to eat around Christmas.  Hopefully it does not kill us because I plan to take the small brie into work for my coworkers to try.  I will keep you posted in the progress of the brie. 

Also I plan to make cheese curds soon, hopefully this coming weekend.