Making Cheese



The advent of Molly, the calf, means our short milking respite is over and we're up to our eyeballs in milk.

Well, maybe not our eyeballs, but our extra fridge is often crammed full.  Molly drinks her fair share, the new calf drinks six quarts a day, the cats and the dog enjoy the milk and, of course, we use as much as we can while it's fresh.  We even pour a good amount to the chickens.  They love it.  (The hens need extra protein while they're molting and milk is, for us, a good, cheap source.)  Even so, we still have a lot leftover at the end of the day.   

So, I've been trying to be more deliberate about making more dairy products.  DH makes yogurt on a regular basis and DD makes butter a pound at a time.  I've made a couple of batches of sour cream.  (It tasted fine but the texture was very thin.  I think I may have to add milk powder or something to make it thicker.)  DD regularly makes us ice cream.  (Peanut butter is very good, especially if we have milk chocolate pieces to sprinkle on top!)  But the most challenging, by far, is making cheese.

The first cheese-making attempt was a total failure.  The kids and I wouldn't even try it.  DH bravely took a bite.  It must have tasted like rubber - it certainly squeaked like it.  The second batch was marginally better.  I think I shredded it, mixed it with store-bought cheese and put it on a pizza.  Hey, at least it was edible!  The third actually looked good.  It was tasty enough that we could cut very small slices and eat it with fresh basil and cherry tomatoes on crackers.

It really helped when I changed my thinking about cheese-making.  I finally realized it was far less like cooking or baking and a lot more like a chemistry experiment.  I had been frustrated by the fact that I'd done everything right; had followed the recipe exactly and the cheese still didn't turn out right.  I counted it a victory when, while I was making a batch of mozzarella, I was able to recognize that I needed to depart from the instructions and finish the cheese my own way.  Victory at last!  It was not only edible, it was good!    

Now that we have so much milk, I'm determined to do more experimenting with different types of cheeses.  I use Ricki Carroll's book.  

 

A couple times now I've made lactic cheese.  



 



 

This is a very easy-to-make soft cheese.  It's almost like cream cheese or cottage cheese when you're done.  I followed the suggestion in the book and added herbs and spices to half the batch.  This spread was so good on crackers that I also spread it on a whole-wheat, pre-baked pizza crust; added some shredded chicken I'd canned this summer; then topped the whole thing with shredded cheese. 

The resulting pizza was a big hit.  We served it with hot sauce and it was almost like a buffalo chicken-type taste. 

DH made me a cheese press so I could try my hand at hard cheeses.  I made up a farmhouse cheddar.

 

DH helped me to wax it with red cheese wax.  It's in the attic right now because it needs four weeks to age.  We can't wait to pull  it out around the new year and give it a try.  Even if it's not fit to eat, hey, at least we used up one more gallon of milk!