cheese - encore.
So I've upped the ante and tried again...
Warm the milk to 90F.
Add the starter culture enzyme:
Let it set for an hour, then its time to cut the curd:
A note on this... Somehow, I feel certain deep down inside that the term "cut the cheese" came from this process... The moment my knife cut through the curd and released the whey, I had to turn on the stove hood's vent. yikes!
Raise the temp of the cut curd back to 110 degrees, never by more than 2 degrees in a 5 minute period (holy crap, that is hard).
Drain it for 90 minutes: (the wooden device it is hanging on is actually my homemade pasta drying rack.)
Drained and removed from cheesecloth. The next step (not pictured) is Cheddaring. breaking the curd into walnut sized pieces and rubbing them with salt).
Press the cheese. 8-10 pounds of pressure for an hour: (yes i made a mess getting it into the mold)
Now 20 pounds of pressure for 12 hours (then flip it over and do it another 12). My homemade press: tuperwear bowl(inverted) on cheese, vegetable steamer rack on bowl, glass bowl 1/2 full of water in steamer rack, milk carton with water in bowl, bricks on side handles).
Cheese needs to sit on wooden plank to cure for 48-72 hours:
Now coat the cheese in wax.
Not pictured: the epic mess I made when the cheesewheel slipped, and fell into the wax from about 1' up when I was turning it over. Imagine a 7' diameter splash of wax on my kitchen counter/cabinets/fridge/floor.
6+ hours of scraping with a razorblade and cleaning with a scrubber and hot water.
Anyway, in 6-8 weeks I'll be able to try it out!
Warm the milk to 90F.
Add the starter culture enzyme:
Let it set for an hour, then its time to cut the curd:
A note on this... Somehow, I feel certain deep down inside that the term "cut the cheese" came from this process... The moment my knife cut through the curd and released the whey, I had to turn on the stove hood's vent. yikes!
Raise the temp of the cut curd back to 110 degrees, never by more than 2 degrees in a 5 minute period (holy crap, that is hard).
Drain it for 90 minutes: (the wooden device it is hanging on is actually my homemade pasta drying rack.)
Drained and removed from cheesecloth. The next step (not pictured) is Cheddaring. breaking the curd into walnut sized pieces and rubbing them with salt).
Press the cheese. 8-10 pounds of pressure for an hour: (yes i made a mess getting it into the mold)
Now 20 pounds of pressure for 12 hours (then flip it over and do it another 12). My homemade press: tuperwear bowl(inverted) on cheese, vegetable steamer rack on bowl, glass bowl 1/2 full of water in steamer rack, milk carton with water in bowl, bricks on side handles).
Cheese needs to sit on wooden plank to cure for 48-72 hours:
Now coat the cheese in wax.
Not pictured: the epic mess I made when the cheesewheel slipped, and fell into the wax from about 1' up when I was turning it over. Imagine a 7' diameter splash of wax on my kitchen counter/cabinets/fridge/floor.
6+ hours of scraping with a razorblade and cleaning with a scrubber and hot water.
Anyway, in 6-8 weeks I'll be able to try it out!