cheese success
This was a week of cheese successes for me and J. I don't think I really realized how complicated cheese-making is until I was several months into my apprenticeship. It's not like you just follow a recipe and if you do everything right, you'll end up with delicious cheese. There are so many variables, such as how old (and thus, how acidic) the milk is, what type of rennet you use, the pH of the curds at different stages in the process, what molds are present in the aging environment, how fast you heat and cool the milk… Given all of these factors, I feel proud but also lucky that J and I managed to successfully make a blue cheese, a soft washed-rind cheese, and a provolone. We learned how to make all of these cheeses at a three day workshop that C sent us to in Vermont last month. There was only one other student in the class, so we got to ask lots of questions, and had a lot of aha moments. All of the cheese photos in this post are from the class, not the creamery, except the one of the hanging provolone.
The cheesemaker teaching the class uses pH test strips a lot, to check on the progress of the curd and determine when it has reached the perfect stage for scooping or cutting or stretching. We don't have pH test strips at the creamery, so when we got back, we did the best we could to recreate some of the cheeses anyway. Blue mold thrives in an acidic environment, so we stirred the curd in its whey for quite a while before scooping it into molds, allowing more acidity to develop.
Stirring the curd for the blue cheese
Adding the Penicillium roqueforti. In class we used a freeze-dried mold from a cheesemaking supply company, but you could also harvest blue mold from bread, or from other blue cheeses (we got mold from other blue cheeses when we made it at the creamery).
The curd has been scooped into molds. This cheese does not get pressed, because you want some nooks and crannies for the mold to develop in.
The washed rind cheese is supposed to be low acid to allow the development of B. linens (an orange bacteria) and Penicillium candidum (a white mold found on camembert and brie). So we quickly removed the whey from the curds, and salted the cheese soon after, to halt the development of acidity.
Scooping the washed rind curd into square molds
We made these two cheeses more than three weeks ago. The blue is still developing, but it looks good, with plenty of mold activity. Soon we will pierce the cheeses to allow air into the interior of the cheese (the blue mold needs oxygen to develop). I've been washing the washed rind cheeses with brine every week. It turns out I probably should have been doing it twice a week, so there are some other molds on the rind as well, but plenty of B. linens and PC. These cheeses looked ready this week, so we tried one, and it was delicious! Soft and stinky and totally unlike any other cheese we make.
The other cheese that we made, provolone, gave us some instant gratification. Stretching mozzarella (or provolone, or scamorza) has always been sort of a challenge for us. We learned in the class that you really have to stretch the curd at the perfect acidity in order to get a smooth sheen and no tearing. Working without pH test strips again, we tried stretching little bits of curd, waiting for the acidity to develop. We never did get a perfect stretch, but this was definitely the best mozzarella we've made at the creamery since I've been here (provolone is basically a low-moisture mozzarella and the differences are in how aggressively you stir the curd, how large you make the balls, and how long you age it). It smells wondefully inviting, partially due to the lipase, an enzyme that we don't use in any other cheese. I'm terrible at describing how cheese tastes and smells. This cheese smells perfect, and is soft and golden and melts beautifully.
Here's the curd draining in class. We're waiting for the acidity to develop.
In class we stretched the curd and just made two large gourd shapes with it.
When we made it at the creamery, we made smaller balls, and are experimenting with hanging them to dry so that they can age for a few weeks.
My mom visited last week and took some pictures while I was milking. Here I'm letting a group of goats in the door (sometimes they come in backwards). Already dark at 4:30pm.
The cheesemaker teaching the class uses pH test strips a lot, to check on the progress of the curd and determine when it has reached the perfect stage for scooping or cutting or stretching. We don't have pH test strips at the creamery, so when we got back, we did the best we could to recreate some of the cheeses anyway. Blue mold thrives in an acidic environment, so we stirred the curd in its whey for quite a while before scooping it into molds, allowing more acidity to develop.
Stirring the curd for the blue cheese
Adding the Penicillium roqueforti. In class we used a freeze-dried mold from a cheesemaking supply company, but you could also harvest blue mold from bread, or from other blue cheeses (we got mold from other blue cheeses when we made it at the creamery).
The curd has been scooped into molds. This cheese does not get pressed, because you want some nooks and crannies for the mold to develop in.
The washed rind cheese is supposed to be low acid to allow the development of B. linens (an orange bacteria) and Penicillium candidum (a white mold found on camembert and brie). So we quickly removed the whey from the curds, and salted the cheese soon after, to halt the development of acidity.
Scooping the washed rind curd into square molds
We made these two cheeses more than three weeks ago. The blue is still developing, but it looks good, with plenty of mold activity. Soon we will pierce the cheeses to allow air into the interior of the cheese (the blue mold needs oxygen to develop). I've been washing the washed rind cheeses with brine every week. It turns out I probably should have been doing it twice a week, so there are some other molds on the rind as well, but plenty of B. linens and PC. These cheeses looked ready this week, so we tried one, and it was delicious! Soft and stinky and totally unlike any other cheese we make.
The other cheese that we made, provolone, gave us some instant gratification. Stretching mozzarella (or provolone, or scamorza) has always been sort of a challenge for us. We learned in the class that you really have to stretch the curd at the perfect acidity in order to get a smooth sheen and no tearing. Working without pH test strips again, we tried stretching little bits of curd, waiting for the acidity to develop. We never did get a perfect stretch, but this was definitely the best mozzarella we've made at the creamery since I've been here (provolone is basically a low-moisture mozzarella and the differences are in how aggressively you stir the curd, how large you make the balls, and how long you age it). It smells wondefully inviting, partially due to the lipase, an enzyme that we don't use in any other cheese. I'm terrible at describing how cheese tastes and smells. This cheese smells perfect, and is soft and golden and melts beautifully.
Here's the curd draining in class. We're waiting for the acidity to develop.
In class we stretched the curd and just made two large gourd shapes with it.
When we made it at the creamery, we made smaller balls, and are experimenting with hanging them to dry so that they can age for a few weeks.
My mom visited last week and took some pictures while I was milking. Here I'm letting a group of goats in the door (sometimes they come in backwards). Already dark at 4:30pm.
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