In the dairy

Can I dignify my attempts at this ancient art with the name of cheesemaking? Not sure yet but I am having loads of fun!

So far I have made feta (success!) and mozzerella (blergh, ended up binning the lot).

From now on I will use this page as a ‘diary’ of what I make, temps, measurements and will come back and post results when cheese is edible

21st January 2009

Gervais: recipe from Rickie Carroll’s Home Cheesemaking. Was chatting to Nature Witch and heated the milk to 100 degrees instead of 80. Had to wait until it cooled down. Used full cream milk and pure cream. It’s sitting in the bowl for the 24 hour ’sit’, so we shall see. If it’s a screw up we’ll just blame that chatty old bag NW shall we

Result: Gervais is creamy, thick and has the loveliest texture/taste. This recipe is a keeper that’s for sure.

29th January 2009

Fetta. This time I watched the thermometer carefully and have made it following the directions to the letter. Shall see how this one turns out and which I prefer

Ricotta: I added some more milk to the whey to get a higher yield and it looks so far like it will be about 200grams. Tempted to add some of the culture to it to give a more intense flavour.

Whey: I am boiling this down as directed in Rikki Carrolls book to see what it ends up like. It should be a thick and creamy cream cheese. We shall see.

30th January 2009

I MADE MOZZERELLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Used milk from the Avon milk company. Success!!!!!!

25th February 2009

Clotted cream - Cream into double boiler for an hour, cool and leave in the fridge overnight. Try it, seriously!

Farm cheese - Ricki Carrol’s book - home cheesemaker recipe. This one is super simple, warm the milk, add the rennet, wait, ladle into the strainer and weight. It’s in the fridge atm so will comment tomorrow.

28th February - Haloumi. Made this one with dried milk powder reconstituted. I like it and think it’s yummy. Too easy to make

Wow, it’s been a looong time since I updated here.

25 December 2009

1kg yoghourt

500grams mascapone

1kg feta

26th December 2009

1kg yoghourt

I’m making 1kg of yoghourt every two days now