A Lemon Cheese Challenge

 

My friend Annette Cottrell, author of The Urban Farm Handbook, is organizing  a year-long "urban homesteading" challenge on her blog, Sustainable Eats. She's asked me to be a host for this month's challenge: Home Dairy!

I've introduced the challenge -- and shared a recipe for a super-easy and delicious lemon cheese -- on my other blog, Eating Rules. Head on over and check it out!

Well, this sure brightened my morning

Culinary Arts College has named I Make Cheese as one of the 50 Best Cheese Blogs on the Web!  Woohoo!

26. I Make Cheese This home cheesemaker writes this fantastic blog that will get your taste buds moving. The wine picks are just as good and will have you hankering for a treat every time you stop by to read.

And while I'm posting:  If you like whole grains, be sure to click over to my other blog, Eating Rules, and enter the Bob's Red Mill Whole Grain Giveaway, for a chance to win an awesome sampler pack!

My new pH tester!

Gosh, it's been an embarrassingly long time since I've posted here.  I've been quite busy over at Eating Rules, and I'm thrilled to be back in the kitchen making cheese once again.

A few months ago, my favorite pickler bought me a Hanna Waterproof pH Tester for my birthday, and today we're finally giving it a whirl.

This thing is awesome.  Dip it in the milk or whey, and about 10 seconds later, Blammo! you've got a pH reading!  (okay, there isn't actually any explosion, unless you yell "Blammo!" yourself, which I highly recommend).

It's as easy as using a thermometer (and actually includes a thermometer, since pH readings done in this manner must be temperature-calibrated).

Of course, without knowing exactly what pH we're supposed to hit and when, this cool little device won't actually be much help.  None of my recipe books reference pH numbers -- just times and temperatures.

I've been sifting through my copy of Paul Kindstedt's American Farmstead Cheese, which is by far the most technical book in my library.  He discusses pH in depth -- but since the book doesn't include any specific recipes, that only helps so much.

I did find a table on page 155 where he indicates "optimum" pH -- with some timing -- for making Cheddar.  Already it's been a bit of a help:  Heating the curds (bringing them up from 86°F to 100°F) went slower than I would have liked, but keeping an eye on the pH still let me know we were making progress.

As the pH slowly worked its way down, I decided to drain the curds at 6.15 -- based on Kindstedt's table.  This took more than an hour longer than Ricki's recipe, but less time than indicated in the table.

As I write this, the curds are cheddaring comfortably in the pot.  After only 15 minutes, on the first flip, the pH was down to 5.80.  If all goes according to plan, at the end of the requisite two hours we'll be at exactly 5.35, and then we'll mill the curds (translation: break them into small cubes), and proceed with the next steps.

If we hit 5.35 a little early, I might actually decide to stop cooking and mill them sooner than Ricki calls for.

I'm excited to start using the pH tester every time -- building my own reference library -- and hopefully with a bit of diligence I'll be able to solve my texture problems once and for all.

Do you have any experience pH readings?  Please post in the comments with any questions and/or advice!

Eating Rules

It's been awhile since I've posted here, since I've been focusing on my new healthy eating blog!

The new blog is centered around three simple rules for healthy eating, and is all about making smart choices when you eat. Knowledge is power, as they say.

I'd love it if you would check it out and let me know what you think!

Eating Rules

(Don't worry, I'll still be posting here... as soon as I have time to make some more cheese!  I'm also excited to try out my brand new digital pH meter that I got for my birthday from this great pickle maker!  I'm hoping it will help solve my texture problems once and for all.  Will definitely be reporting on that soon!)

Mistakenly Melty Mozarella

So here's a question for my cheesemaking friends:

At my urging, a family member recently made a mozzarella using Ricki Carroll's starter kit.  She and her husband used whole milk, but used a different process for heating than the microwave shortcut (not exactly sure what they did...but they were trying to be "more traditional" about it). 

She served the cheese last night at a dinner party, and after it came to room temperature, it was almost melted.  It had the consistency of the inside of a brie or camembert... It was a gooey blob!

She made the cheese about ten days earlier, and had kept it in the fridge, sealed in plastic wrap.

Upon tasting, it was obvious to me that they didn't add enough salt.  I'm thinking that since salt helps expel moisture from the curds, without enough salt it had too much moisture remaining.  But would that be enough to cause it to melt at room temperature?  What else might cause this cheesy conundrum?

Please don't try this at home

See, the irony here is that it's probably the only place you could try it.  Are you (and your baby's momma!) hardcore cheesemakers enough to do it?

Then again, I'm not sure why many of us are first repulsed, then intrigued.  Shouldn't it be the perfect food?  Nevertheless, I feel compelled to say it:  Ugh!  (Counterpoint: the pics on his blog look terrific!).

Chef Daniel Angerer makes cheese from two gallons of his wife's breast milk.

"Skier's curd cure stumps cheese whizzes"

Every so often I head over to Google News and type in "cheese" to see what comes up.  Often it's a bit distressing, but other times it can be quite amusing and, well... topical:

Does ski sweetheart Lindsey Vonn owe her downhill gold to an obscure cheese curd she slathered on her badly bruised shin? We may never know, but good luck finding her topfen outside Austria.

Full story here and here.

Goat's Milk Ricotta

It's been quite awhile since making any cheese, and last night I decided it's time to get back on the horse (or goat, as it were). We had a gallon of Whole Goat's Milk in the fridge, ready to go--the plan was to make another Chèvre, but I wanted to branch out a bit more and try something different. But, we also wanted to eat it right away!  A few pages further into Ricki's book, we found her Whole Goat's Milk Ricotta recipe. Perfect!

A cheese purist will tell you that's it's not Ricotta if it's not made from Whey, but this recipe calls for just a gallon of whole goat's milk -- no whey. Ricki acknowledges this discrepancy, but then moves past it, with the implication that's it's darn tasty, so who really cares? I'm inclined to agree.

This recipe actually reminds me a lot of the Lemon Cheese recipe:  Heat some milk, add a bit of acid, and drain the curdled cheese.  Couldn't be much simpler.

1 Gallon Trader Joe's Whole Goat's Milk
1/4 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
3 Tbs. melted New-Age-Whole-Foodsy-Trans-Fat-Free-Fake-Margarine (the recipe calls for butter, but this is all I had on hand)
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Flake Salt

Heat the milk to 195F, stirring constantly to avoid scalding. Turn off the heat, and slowly add the vinegar, stirring slowly and thoroughly. (Ricki's recipe suggests that if it's not curdling properly, instead of adding more vinegar, increase the temp to 205F--but be careful not to boil.)  Allow the curds to set for a minute or two.

Once the milk has curdled, and there's a clear separation between the curds and whey, ladle the curds into a colander lined with butter muslin. Tie up and allow to drain for about a minute. Place in a bowl, and mix in the butter and baking soda. That's it!

The recipe didn't call for salt -- an odd omission, I think. After mixing in the "butter" and baking soda, the salt took it from bland to grand!

Goat's Milk Ricotta on whole wheat penne.  Sauteed organic spinach with olive oil, garlic, crushed red pepper, a few spices, and dollop of the ricotta melted in.  Drizzled with Cavedoni Botte Piccola Italian Balsamic.

I'm honored...

...to have one of my posts re-published on the New England Cheesemaking Supply Co.'s official blog.  Sweet!  :)

Cheese-Making Workshop in Your Home

In support of IKAR's annual fundraiser, I'm offering an...

Organic Cheese-Making Workshop and
Artisanal Wine & Cheese Tasting!

Indulge in an evening of decadence and deliciousness! Andrew Wilder and Matty Sterenchock will come to your home - along with organic milk, cheesemaking supplies, three bottles of wine and a mitxure of hard and soft cheeses - to show you step-by-step how to make a mozzarella and a lemon cheese, while we enjoy together some fine homemade and California wines and delectable locally and domestically-made artisanal cheeses.

If you're in the LA area and want to play, bid on the auction!
(Bidding closes Jan 24, 2010 at 11:00 PM PST)

Update:  The auction has ended with a whopping $175.00 bid!  Woohoo!