Move Along Folks... Nothing to See Here

You can't really see three of the four cheeses from Penny's fall freshening, but you can imagine the deliciousness underneath that red cheese wax. The hard cheeses are being born about a week apart it seems. There are two Farmhouse Cheddars, a Parmesan, and a Romano. I ended up feeding a Manchego to the pigs because I had messed up so much of its timing while it was being made that the curds just wouldn't stick together. That fiasco was a direct result of muscle relaxers. Normally cheese mess-ups work out fine, sometimes even to my advantage.

As you can see, each cheese gets a cat scan before its wax coating.

I use raw milk, so to be perfectly safe from bad microbes, we wait at least two months to eat any of the hard cheeses.

There's a particularly lopsided Parmesan this time. That happened because I put the cheese mold in a five-gallon bucket, a dinner plate on top, with weights to press it. The plate tipped overnight and this cheese will have a variety of tastes within the different edges when it's ripe.

Lopsided cheese will be a thing of the past, however, after I ordered my handy-dandy professional cheese press from New England Cheesemaking!
I also ordered black wax and pure beeswax so Penny's cheeses will have a little variety in their looks.

I wax all my hard cheeses whether the recipe calls for it or not. So far the Romano in this batch is the only one that isn't supposed to have a waxed rind, so I will be interested to taste the final result this winter.

Yes, I've hatched a plan that involves a few of those exceptionally hot peppers in the background being pressed into service to create some Habanero Jack and some Habanero Cheddar.

Fun Food Preservation

Big Dan has had some extra time off of work lately, so he and I have gotten into the habit of going to a local farm to visit with the farmers (and their myriad cats and kittens!) and buying produce to put up.
Last time it was 8 quarts of green beans. Today it was cucumbers, more beans, and corn to eat fresh.
Next week, the girls and I will get 100 ears of corn to blanch and freeze. I'll try canning some too.

Here's the fruit of tonight's labors: 14 quarts of pickles, some dill spears and some secret recipe sweet dill chips, a 2 pound queso fresco cheese, and a pound of freshly washed butter!

This kind of counter cornucopia makes farm chores rewarding.

First Parmesan Cheese

Because of our busy soccer schedule I usually make adjustments in the time my cheeses ripen and press.
But this Parmesan was made by following directions exactly.
I have high hopes for its future. I'm enjoying the cheese making process so much that I plan to get a refrigerator just for ripening my little two pound darlings.

My Cheese Press

Lately I've been making an occasional hard cheese because Penny gives so much milk.
This is my press, which is functional, but not very good. Often my cheeses are crooked and sometimes the weights shift and fall off overnight, awakening the whole household.
I put a plate with the two pound cheese mold in the bottom of my pressure cooker, add a 20ish pound bucket of grain, and as many weights as needed.
I think I may invest in a real cheese press.

And I Shall Call Him "Cheddar"

Here's my first hard cheese from Penny's milk.

It's a farmhouse cheddar that's supposed to be a rather simple cheese to make, but it was hard for me to focus and get all the steps right because:
1. I'm not good at following directions, and have a short attention span.
2. It's been a long time since I made a hard cheese and practice makes perfect.

I made it three days ago and waxed it today. It will be ready to eat in one month.

Today I'm making a stirred curd cheddar which takes one more month to ripen, but I like the recipe better.
I didn't lose as much milk into the whey with the more complex recipe.

I need to make a Parmesan next because we use a lot of it, but I fear the aging process of an unwaxed cheese, which has to be aged at high humidity for a long time.
My plan is to use a cooler with some water in the bottom and a rack to keep the cheese on.

If my brining and aging is satisfactory, I will boastfully post for you to see the process.

Eating Her Curds and Whey

Becky is a diligent milk maid who takes prodigious care of her good friend Penny.
Penny, in turn, gives Becky five gallons of unbelievably sweet and creamy milk every day.

Today I had two and a half gallons to work with so I made two quarts of yogurt, a quart of cultured buttermilk, and a gallon's worth of ricotta. I always skim the top of the bucket into a quart jar to get the most cream possible in one jar. That makes it easier to pour off cream for butter.

Ricotta is made by adding a teaspoon of citric acid, dissolved in a quarter cup of water, to the milk and bring it to 185 degrees until the curds separate from the whey. Do not allow to boil.
I absolutely knew it was safe to look away for a second to scrub some pots and pans because I'd have to be a complete idiot to allow the cheese to boil, right?
I allowed to boil.
But it tastes fantastic in spite of my forgetfulness.

I've lost my bottle of rennet so I have to wait for the New England Cheesemaking order to come before I can start making hard cheeses.

Got Milk?

Penny's a generous cow, giving us five gallons of creamy milk each day.
Five gallons a day was working out all right when we were feeding her calf two of them, but now that he's gone to his new home we're scrambling to use up the milk.
If any is left over a day after its milking, we feed it to the pigs.
Besides puddings and hot cocoa galore, we're making soft cheeses now, and hard cheeses by next week, I hope.

The bottom photo is the first cheese from last night. It's Fromage Blanc, which is just like cream cheese.
Since the milk happened to be exactly 86 degrees when Becky brought it from the barn, all I had to do was stir a packet of direct set starter into a gallon of milk, and stick it into the oven to incubate overnight. In the morning, I strained it through one of Danny's T-shirts.
Note to self: buy butter muslin from the cheese store.

The photo on top is called "Ricotta from Heaven" in my cheese making book. It's made by almost boiling the whey from the first batch of cheese, then straining the curds through the cloth (or shirt. whatever.) again.
This one is almost unbelievably yummy, with a luxurious texture.

Tonight, Becky and I plan to pressure can two gallons of milk in pint jars, to have in case of emergencies. If that works well, we'll try to put up many gallons for the few months that Penny's not fresh.

I hope to get a good store preserved into hard cheese to cut down on our grocery bill next year.
Thankfully, the pigs are always standing by in case of a spectacular cheese fail, so there's not much pressure for me as I learn Cheddar making.

Cheese Trier



This is a time tested tool. It's called a cheese trier, and has been used from time before mind to gently extract a tiny sampling of the center of the cheese, without harming the overall product.
I figured it was time to try a new, more modern approach to testing the ripeness of a treasured, even beloved, first born cheddar cheese.


Scott



This is a Scott.
A Scott will also test the very center of a carefully hand crafted, savory, delicious, well aged cheese.
However, my recommendation is to stick with the tried and true method, as your results may be unpredictable when using a Scott...





My Own, My Precious




This was the cheese whom I loved. It was a goat's milk cheddar. Till I left Scott inside the house.
I hope that my cautionary tale will teach all cheese makers to carefully guard the work of their hands and not to risk leaving it on the counter top.

My First Hard Cheese

This is possibly a goats' milk cheddar.
We'll find out for sure in 4 to 12 weeks.
And this is my cheese press, which Big Dan kindly invented for me on the spot. Planning ahead isn't my forte. When I got to the line in the directions that said, "Press at 50 lbs. for 12 hours." I wondered where I was going to find something that weighs 50 lbs.
The containers of wheat were ok in a pinch, but I'll need to do better than that if I'm going to make lots of cheeses.
It was easy to make a cheddar. I think it will be like soap making. Seems hard at first, but once you get the idea, it's fun.