mo better mo cheese
I made cheese again tonight. Much better.
I used lemon juice instead of yogurt, I don't know if that made the difference or not. But I used 'Real Lemon' lemon juice, which has some additives, and I don't like the taste it gave the cheese, next time I'll use vinegar or real lemon juice.
The cheese is greater volume, and fluffier this time. I think this is because the milk was boiling this time, I think last time I was not quite as hot. I also let the curds sit longer, which may have increased the volume, but even stirring it I felt a difference. It felt the same way that it feels when home made pudding starts to come together. Suddenly there is a thickening along the edges of the pot which you can feel with the spoon along the base of the pot, and you skim it off. That didn't happen yesterday. Yesterday's cheese is dense and more like cream cheese - I almost wonder if the yogurt just recongealed, but I don't think that's possible.
Here is the mass of cheese after drying:
Compare that to the first try:
And here's the plate of cheese compared to the first one:
And finally, the cheese on your left is the new cheese, and the cheese on the right is the denser cheese of yesterday:
I found out this apparently freezes well too, so I can make a bunch and save it for tossing into meals later, yum!
I used lemon juice instead of yogurt, I don't know if that made the difference or not. But I used 'Real Lemon' lemon juice, which has some additives, and I don't like the taste it gave the cheese, next time I'll use vinegar or real lemon juice.
The cheese is greater volume, and fluffier this time. I think this is because the milk was boiling this time, I think last time I was not quite as hot. I also let the curds sit longer, which may have increased the volume, but even stirring it I felt a difference. It felt the same way that it feels when home made pudding starts to come together. Suddenly there is a thickening along the edges of the pot which you can feel with the spoon along the base of the pot, and you skim it off. That didn't happen yesterday. Yesterday's cheese is dense and more like cream cheese - I almost wonder if the yogurt just recongealed, but I don't think that's possible.
Here is the mass of cheese after drying:
Compare that to the first try:
And here's the plate of cheese compared to the first one:
And finally, the cheese on your left is the new cheese, and the cheese on the right is the denser cheese of yesterday:
I found out this apparently freezes well too, so I can make a bunch and save it for tossing into meals later, yum!