here we go again

yes its true. i was given a cheese making kit from Lehmans. the 30 minutes mozzarella and ricotta kit was actually what i had received (not the hard cheese making kit as pictured above).

here is what the website says;

Mozzarella Cheese Kit - For authentic-tasting Italian recipes like pizza and lasagna. Includes ingredients to make Ricotta cheese. Takes 30 minutes using any kind of milk (use skim for low fat). Includes recipes booklet, cheesecloth, vegetable rennet, thermometer, citric acid, flake salt. Makes up to 15 lb.

seeing that when we tried to make cheese this summer it took days and certainly did not produce 15 lbs of cheese, this should be quite interesting. reading through the directions to appears to be similar to what we had followed except only 30 minutes.

needless to say, updates to follow.

cheesemaking, part three...day three

today i arrived home from work at 7:14 pm to deal with the huge pot of whey. we opted to mix the whey from both the 2% and whole milk to make just a massive mountain of ricotta. upon examination, i found the whey, which i had left to acidify on my stovetop, to have a vaguely greenish pallor and a not-so-fresh smell (dracula cheese?). i started the heating process. fankhauser says to heat it to near boiling, or 220 degrees. when it reached 197, there were large bubbles beginning to burst in the center, so i stopped, covered, and removed from heat. i thought it would be better not to push it to the higher temperature. my thermometer is also not the most reliable.

this proved to be the wrong decision, i guess. after 3 hours of resting, undisturbed, on the counter, the mixture had achieved a 'comfortable' temperature. (cheesemaking, at least in this experience, requires A LOT of waiting. we will have to investigate the 30 minute kit jknepfle suggested in the future) i tried to gently remove the curds that had formed, only to discover there were hardly any. what i saw on the surface was all there was. i drained it over cheesecloth anyway, but, alas, lasagna with homemade ricotta was not in the cards. maybe next time.

i sent a text to beth at quarter after eleven - 'ricotta: abysmal failure'.

cheesemaking, part two

despite the fact that our endeavors in no way resemble the photos on the website after 24 hours, we decide to forge ahead...

we cut apart the curds and heated and stirred as dr. fankhauser suggested, bringing the temperature to 108 degrees and holding for 35 minutes, during which time we drank wine and discussed other fun future projects. the mixture resembled cottage cheese. we poured and drained. i was only moderately scalded by hot whey (scalding not pictured. obviously, it happened when i was not holding my camera).

a quick taste proved a bad idea. it tasted like squeaky milk. that's the only way i can describe it. we drank some wine to wash away the taste. after adding the salt and microwaving, it actually mirrored cheese and we were able to mold balls. unexpectedly, the 2% milk had a smooth texture and easily formed balls. the whole milk was more texturally analogous to cottage cheese, but had a better taste. kind of buttery and rich. the balls were placed in gladware salt baths and i headed home with two balls of mozzarella and a very large pot of whey to further process into ricotta.

a disturbing note about cheesemaking: many people, including myself, will not drink milk or eat yogurt that has been out of the fridge for more than roughly 7 minutes. and yet here we are, planning on consuming a milk product that has been sitting at room temperature, in various pots and forms, for what will be a total of approximately 72 hours. i also try not to think about the chilled monkey brains in temple of doom...this picture to the right might be a little too similar for comfort...

cheesemaking, part one

the reason why we were heading to beth and eric's armed with streusel and pugs is because beth and i decided to try our hands at making cheese. really, beth is more research and development and i'm supply procurement, since i work in a pharmacy and can obtain 500 grams of citric acid at a moment's notice. we decided to attempt american mozzarella, which also yields ricotta. as my friend crystal pointed out, we're going the long way around to make lasagna. true, but who could resist the lure of fankhauser's cheese page?

so we gathered our supplies and began heating milk. we tried both 2% and the diesel whole milk (kroger brand). in a scene out of muppet laboratories, three different thermometers were used to determine the temperature of said milk. 88 degrees is apparently the magic temperature at which the flux capacitor renders time travel and cheesemaking possible. beth added some dissolved junket (rennet), some citric acid, and we left the warm milk undisturbed for an hour while we played with the dogs and drank some wine. after the hour, it looked like watery cottage cheese. so we left it undisturbed for another 1/2 hour. still not producing the fabled 'clean break' necessary to proceed to step 10. we waited another 1/2 hour. the husbands were getting restless. rambo was over, they had little patience for cheese-watching. so we decided to put the lids back on and let it sit, undisturbed, over night.

to be continued....