A brand new little one, still covered in caul. Mommy is giving him many kisses!
Born March 6th, 2018.
With the spring babies born, but the ground still covered in snow, it was time to try my hand once again at the elusive challenge of hard cheese making. The first time I tried, about four years ago, I made three cheeses using the traditional cheddar process - a laborious and not all enjoyable experience. One tasted like feta, one like crumbly chevre, and the third tried to run away when cut... hubbie thought it the best cheese ever, a perfect stinky cheese! Then I met two Viking ladies making cheese the old fashioned Farmstead way and I thought: that actually looks do-able...
After a couple days of googling other farmstead cheese makers and chatting with my viking ladies I "put on my naughty shoes" (another Dutch saying, sadly lost in translation) and went to the store to buy some fresh local goats milk, and a quart of goat's yogurt. As I am cow dairy intolerant, my process did not include any cow dairy products which otherwise could be used to raise the yield of curds, like cream or powdered milk.
I heated my 2 gallons of milk to 185 degrees Fahrenheit in a well cleaned stainless pot.
The recipe then mentioned to add a mesophilic cheese culture. I used a gouda starter as I happened to have one in the freezer. I added half a teaspoon but I think that was overkill, a quarter probably is more than enough. I also added a teaspoon of calcium chloride to help the curds to form, and half a cup of yogurt to increase yield. If I would use same-day backyard milk neither the calcium chloride nor the yogurt would be necessary but as this was store bought milk I wanted to make sure I got a good yield.
I then covered the milk and let it ripen for 45 minutes.
I added a teaspoon of rennet, diluted in a quarter cup of water to the milk, and gently mixed it in with an up-and-down motion. When using cows milk the cream would have separated and floated to the top, in that case the recipe I followed said to top-stir for 1 minute no more than an inch deep to blend the butterfat back into the milk.
The pot was covered again and stood for another 45 minutes, making sure it stays at around 85F. Of course, I immediately forgot I had briefly turned on the stove to warm the pot back up a bit as the temperature had dropped to 82F. By the time I realized it was at 90F and I started to panic! Lucky for my my Viking buddy was on-line and assured me that in history people made cheese without thermometers perfectly fine, and not to worry the small stuff. And in retrospect the cheese turned out fine.
Yellowish liquid called whey collected at the top. When the solid curd broke cleanly it was time to cut the curds. Cut the curds with a long knife into one inch cubes. First cut front to back straight down, then side to side straight down, then diagonally up-and-down one way and diagonally up-and-down the other. This way most of the curds are cut into relatively small pieces.
Then I placed the pot in a sink filled with hot water. Slowly heat the pot to 100F, taking about 30 minutes to do so; or about 2 degrees every 5 minutes. Stir gently so the curds do not stick to each other and clump too much. As I started at around 90F my curds did not have as much temperature difference to cure and I did not think this step would amount to much. But it did, and after about half an hour at 100F the curds had noticeably shrunk down. Maybe not as much as they could have, but enough for what I needed.
The curds will slowly shrink in size and become more sturdy. The whey or liquid will be come more yellow from the curds shedding liquid.
I gently poured the whey and curds in a cheesecloth covered colander. I always collect my whey, it can be used for many things.
Gather the ends of the cheesecloth and hang above the colander (collect the whey) for about an hour in a draft free warm area.
With my hands I broke up the curds in small marble sized pieces. I added one tablespoon of iodine free sea salt to the dry curds and mixed it in well.
I use a large metal coffee can cylinder, without a top and a bottom, as a mold. A piece of pvc pipe could work as well, as long as it is clean and not rusty or scratched. Line the mold with cheesecloth and add the curds.
I pressed the curds down well, and gently folded the cheesecloth down flat over the top of the curds.
Then I placed the mold in my cheese press with 10# of weight for 10 minutes. I made a cheese press out of 2x8's, galvanized pipes and dumbbell weights from the salvation army (at 25 cent per pound of weight!) - it is cheap and works surprisingly efficient. I am less enamored about the coffee tin, although while it might not work optimal, it does work well enough. I do not have drain holes in the tin can as I can not drill or poke from outside in - that would leave burrs on the inside - and I have not explored the challenge of poking or drilling from the inside out. I often make soft cheese molds out of empty butter containers and melt holes with a nail from the inside out - this makes for easy and very effective, and free!, molds.
I took the cheese out of the coffee mold, took off the cheese cloth, turned it upside down, wrapped it in cheesecloth again and placed it back in the mold. The second time the cheese is pressed at 20# for 10 minutes.
The third time I removed, flipped, redress and pressed the cheese at 50# for 12 hours.
I placed the mold on an upside down plate so the extra whey would drip onto the cookie sheet below. When designing your metal bar cheese press make sure the bars are tall enough to securely hold the 3 dumbbells in place when pressing at 50 pounds. This is also why I used a slightly oversized 2x8" as the wider the bottom the less likely it is going to tip over. If I would redo this press I would make the space in between the two bars about the same width as a small cookie sheet so it can sit on top of the wood base for an even sturdier structure, or add two feet to either end so the press shelf has enough space underneath to slide a cookie 'drip' sheet underneath.
Late that evening: the freshly pressed cheese straight from the cheesecloth... it smelled wonderful.
The cheese will need to sit and dry for about 3-5 days (depending on humidity). I happened to have some plastic grating so used that, bamboo placemats also works real well.
The cheese drying to the air. When it has formed a nice skin it will be slathered in lard to protect it from infection during curing. Olive oil or butter can also be used, as can cheese wax. Store the cheese in an air tight container - it will generate its own moisture - and store in a cool place like a cold storage, a root cellar, or a well house. This will keep foreign molds and other invaders from colonizing your brand new cheese while at the same time enjoying a nice cool and dark environment. Age the cheese for at least a month, and re-apply your oil/fat as needed. If small spots of mold appear remove the spots and redress. And make another one as once you eat your first you won't want to wait another month or more to try your next!
Based in part on information from:
