Intermediate Cheesemaking: Beyond chevre

[freemotion]

Thought I'd start a thread on cheesemaking, since more of us are expanding our talents in this area. So please post things you've learned, recipes you've tried, what worked and what didn't.

I will start! Today I made a two-gallon batch of Camembert with goat's milk, from the recipe on p. 100 of 200 Easy Homemade Cheese Recipes. It is now in the molds, which are set in a medium storage tote. The four cheeses are draining on two layers of mats....a bottom layer that I cut from that "ice cube tray" stuff that goes over commercial flourescent light fixtures, and a finer layer that is cut from needlepoint mesh from a craft store. I have a baster and measuring cup in the box for removing the whey as it drains out. I have to flip the cheeses in about two hours.

It is a mold-ripened cheese, and needs to be aged at 55F, so it will go into the cellar in the box with the lid on. This should keep mice and bugs out during it's weeks of ripening. I can hardly wait!

I need to make two more molds so that I can make a two gallon batch of brie next, six little baby brie's.....

With my milk "allergy" that I've had since I was a young adult (too many decades!) I have not had the opportunity to try too many soft cheeses, as they would make me very sick. For many years I stuck with the cheeses that I knew I could tolerate: Parmesan, Romano, cheddars, mozzarella (but not fresh.) I used to be able to get a product called Lactaid drops, a teensy bottle of L. acidophillus that I could use to treat cream cheese for making cheesecake and heavy cream for making ice cream. That product has not been available for years, since Lactaid and other low-lactose dairy products became available....but never have I seen Lactaid cream cheese or cream of any type.

I am so excited to start on my soft cheese adventures!

Join me?

 

[Wildsky]

I have that book in my cart on Amazon.
Finances are tight and I'm a little nervous to buy it. Its $16.47 on Amazon. (Free shipping for me as I have Prime)

I'm not sure how hard the cheese making will hit the wallet, with all the extra stuff I'd have to buy. I'd have to buy even a pot big enough to warm all that milk, I don't think my largest current pot would be big enough! :/

 

[Crusty McPottydoodle]

I have that book in my cart on Amazon.
Finances are tight and I'm a little nervous to buy it. Its $16.47 on Amazon. (Free shipping for me as I have Prime)

I'm not sure how hard the cheese making will hit the wallet, with all the extra stuff I'd have to buy. I'd have to buy even a pot big enough to warm all that milk, I don't think my largest current pot would be big enough! :/

Do they have it at your local library? At least that way, you could have a look and even make a copy of a couple of recipes until you could purchase your own copy

 

[Ldychef2k]

Wildsky, I agree completely about the expense. I can't even afford the cultures! But, I am going to keep making Paneer and practicing with pressing times and the like to see if I can perfect it. I am teaching a class in it today, and I feel confident that I have enough different uses, etc., to make it interesting. Combining it with two kinds of no-knead bread, yogurt and yogurt cheese making. But my heart lies in cutting curds and pressing, aging and waxing the real thing. Someday...

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

my copy here a couple days ago! been futzing around with the molds and havent found a good solution with any of the containers i have here so i might just buy a couple.

but the fun thing is that i made a couple small cheddars.. and i waxed them a couple days ago! easy peasy. the hardest thing about the waxing process was keeping all these over-interested cats out of the mess.

Free - when you put your cheese in the cellar, did you put them IN something.. for instance i was going to try this but couldnt figure out if an air tight container would/not work??? for now they are in the fridge but thats not a good solution - only temporary.

re the book: the thing i like the best is that she seems to be pretty laid back about the whole thing.

 

[big brown horse]

Did anyone else catch "The Fabulous Beekman Boys"? It was so cute! Anyway, they make a goat cheese covered in ash. I wondered if any of you cheese heads ever heard of that?

Info on the show:
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tv...lous-beekman-boys-episode-beekmanpalooza.html
Info on the cheese ("Blaack"):
http://shop.beekman1802.com/BEEKMAN-1802-BLAAK-8888.htm

 

[freemotion]

Free - when you put your cheese in the cellar, did you put them IN something.. for instance i was going to try this but couldnt figure out if an air tight container would/not work??? for now they are in the fridge but thats not a good solution - only temporary.

re the book: the thing i like the best is that she seems to be pretty laid back about the whole thing.

I love her style, too. And that the tips repeat so that you don't have to read and memorize the entire book to use one recipe. "The other book" is like that. Something is mentioned once as an aside, and you can never find it again when you need the info. That led me to lots of trouble converting the recipes to goat's milk.

OFG, you need to get a thermometer into your cellar and find a spot that is a steady temp below 55 F. Then what I did was line a milk crate with hardware cloth and put a couple of cheap cake cooling racks in it. I made "legs" with scraps of pvc pipe....but little boards would work, too...to raise the second cake rack up so I could put two layers of cheeses in one crate. On crate holds up to 8 cheeses, four pounds each, this way.

You need to keep the mice out of your cheese, while allowing some air flow for best results. Dark and cool and humid is what you are looking for.

I did this until I got a second fridge. For cheese aging, lower the thermostat and no longer keep milk and such in it. Fermented things are good in there, though. I've heard that a wine fridge is perfect for this. I see them on CL a lot, but for the same price I got a full size fridge in perfect condition. Plastic protectors still on the shelves!

 

[freemotion]

I have that book in my cart on Amazon.
Finances are tight and I'm a little nervous to buy it. Its $16.47 on Amazon. (Free shipping for me as I have Prime)

I'm not sure how hard the cheese making will hit the wallet, with all the extra stuff I'd have to buy. I'd have to buy even a pot big enough to warm all that milk, I don't think my largest current pot would be big enough! :/

Don't get it yet. It is only worth buying all the stuff when you are getting a few gallons a week. You can still make lots of other stuff with your milk once her production goes back up. Later, get the book.

If you store your culture powders correctly, they will keep a long, long time. Even after the use-by date, you can still use them, just maybe use a bit more.

I could make a LOT of nice cheeses with a packet of direct set mesophillic culture, one mold powder (PC), veal rennet, and a dairy thermometer. Or skip the mold powder. But there are a lot of nice cheeses that are mold ripened.

BBH, I have been eyeing the ash-ripened recipe in the book using goat's milk. I plan on burning some xmas tree trunks from last winter's foraged goat food and sifting some ash to make these cheeses. They traditionally use ash from the white maritime pine, so I hope balsam is ok. The maritime pine is where pycnogenol comes from, so the superantioxidants in that tree may be what helps preserve the cheese. I'll find out....maybe....I can't afford to buy a ready-made cheese to compare!

 

[freemotion]

Ldy, it is really not cost effective if you don't have a lactating animal. But I bet you could find someone who does and who would happily hand you gallons of milk and all the supplies if you did the work and handed half the cheeses back to them.....bet you could.....

 

[Blackbird]

Oh, never-mind, I found it!