Home made cheese

[amateur]

Early on in the lockdown, my wife over-ordered some Channel Island milk (I make excellent porridge with it).

Anyway, one morning, the porridge tasted a little odd, I sniffed the milk, it had turned. Then I checked its date, a week over the use by!  There were 4 more similarly dated bottles, all slightly off. 

I made cream cheese with it - stir in a teaspoon of lemon juice to really curdle it, then bagged it in a clean, redundant pillow case and hung it over the sink to  drain out the whey.

It made loads of soft cheese,  some of which we had on a baked potato for lunch, but there was so much more.

I had never made hard cheese before, but I stirred in a tablespoon of salt, lined a loose bottomed cake tin with another clean piece of cotton, packed the curds into it, wrapping the cotton over the top and putting another cake tin bottom on the top of it. I sat a heavy weight on it and left it draining for another 2 days until it felt firm, then took it out of the mould and hung it up in the garage to fester.

Three weeks later, this is what it looks like.  Some mould has formed on the outside, but the cheese inside is really tasty. I should have let it mature a little longer

I've just had the segment with my evening meal.

I will let you know how I feel in the morning.

It's the first time that I have made a hard cheese

[ditchman]

christ .....that looks fine to me.........let us know if there are any side effects..........im quite impressed with that ..

[mel b3]

looks good enough to eat 

[Centrepin]

Isn't the mold of cheese a form of penicillin, it drives my Mrs crazy when I don't cut it off and still eat it.

Yours looks good, I've always been wanting to try making some but thought it might be beyond me. Now I might give it a go.

[amateur]

11 hours ago, ditchman said:

christ .....that looks fine to me.........let us know if there are any side effects..........im quite impressed with that ..

Thanks for that. 

No after effects this morning.

Once we've eaten this, I might have another go and leave it to develop further.

I wonder whether I should retain the whey and invest in a pig. Palma ham can't be that difficult. You gotta think big, Rodney.

[amateur]

1 hour ago, Centrepin said:

Isn't the mold of cheese a form of penicillin, it drives my Mrs crazy when I don't cut it off and still eat it.

Yours looks good, I've always been wanting to try making some but thought it might be beyond me. Now I might give it a go.

It wasn't difficult. Just have a go.

PM me if you need more details or have any questions.

 

[Lampwick]

If you want a to have a go at making some soft cheese really easily have a go at Yoghurt cheese.

Simply buy some natural yoghurt (full fat) Lidl's large pots are great and cheap. Mix in salt, (trial and error, this is to draw out the moisture in the yoghurt) don't over do it. You then need to let it drain overnight (I hang it in some muslin) then eat it. 

I add flavourings, just pop into the yoghurt whatever you fancy when you add the salt, garlic, herbs, pepper, chilli etc.

[John_R]

I like the sound of this, thanks for posting. 

[amateur]

I started making the goats' cheese tonight, starting with the starter culture.

I made up 500ml of goats' milk from full cream powder, heated it up to 90 degrees for 10 minutes, then cooled quickly in a sink of cold water until it reached 20 degrees.

Then I whisked in the starter powder, poured it into a sterilized Kilner jar, sealed it with cling film and put it in the airing cupboard.

A further update tomorrow

[amateur]

I got so involved with this, I forgot to do the update!

After 24 hours in the airing cupboard the culture was gloppy and slightly sharp, like a yoghurt.

Last evening, I dissolved 250g of dried goats' milk powder in 2 litres of water in our biggest stainless pan, heated it to 90 degrees, then cooled it to 20 in a sink of cold water. Stirred in a tablespoon of culture (and froze the rest in an ice tray for next time) with 3 drops of rennet, put the lid on and stuck it in the airing cupboard overnight.

There is a good curd already, but I will leave it until this evening to bag and drain.

Edited May 26, 2020 by amateur

[Smokersmith]

Cheese is in the same category as puff pastry, and engraving for me …

Life's too short to faff about with it, and I'm unlikely to do better than the experts. We made some at Uni and it was edible, but unremarkable.

Not at all knocking your efforts, and I'm sure you'll get a lot from pleasure from it.

[amateur]

2 hours ago, Smokersmith said:

Cheese is in the same category as puff pastry, and engraving for me …

Life's too short to faff about with it, and I'm unlikely to do better than the experts. We made some at Uni and it was edible, but unremarkable.

Not at all knocking your efforts, and I'm sure you'll get a lot from pleasure from it.

You may well be right.

Who was it who said "I'll try anything once, except incest and bestiality"?

Just looked it up. It was Sir Thomas Beecham and it was ".......incest and Morris dancing" 😁

So the Welsh can continue with their practices

Edited May 26, 2020 by amateur
Accuracy

[amateur]

Here is the curd, before and after the overnight drain, and in the press. After a couple of days squeeze, I will hang it in the garage for a month to let it develop for a bit, meanwhile making some more of the really creamy Channel Island cheese 

We will be eating the rest as a soft fresh goats' cheese this evening

[amateur]

Well, the hard goats' cheese was a bit of a disappointment. As a fresh soft cheese, it was lovely, but it dried out quickly after a week in the garage, so we had it as an "OK" chevre chaud this evening. Better to buy in, I think.

The Channel Island creamy is looking good, though. I am keeping an eye on it as it matures and will try to leave it as long as possible

[ditchman]

cheese making is a dark art...........did you compress it too tight in the G clamp............Scully will shed some light on this as he was into the dark arts..

[amateur]

3 hours ago, ditchman said:

cheese making is a dark art...........did you compress it too tight in the G clamp............

Yes, I think that I did. 

Anyway, too much faff for goats' cheese when shop bought is ok

[amateur]

I didn't have the patience to leave the golden Channel Island cheese any longer, so here it is. It dried, hung in the garage and, unlike before, did not develop a mould.

It is delicious, firm like a cheddar, but tastes buttery.

I'm going to make another batch, but this time lock it away from temptation until Christmas

[ditchman]

is that from your cheese compressor ?

[amateur]

Yes. The dent in the top is where I folded up the cheese cloth.

I only squeezed the cheese for about 8 hours overnight, so this wasn't as crumbly as the first CI cheese, nor as dry as the goats'.

[Jonty]

Superb - brilliant post, thank you.  I bought a cheese mould ages ago and have never used it, this post has prompted me to pull my finger out and give it a go.  Well done 👍

[enfieldspares]

On 16/05/2020 at 08:24, amateur said:

I wonder whether I should retain the whey and invest in a pig. Palma ham can't be that difficult. You gotta think big, Rodney.

Investment if OK. But don't be like the man, the pig, and the chicken, all three, that decided to set up a roadside cafe selling "traditional English breakfasts". For it was only when he woke up one early morning to the smell of frying bacon and eggs, and saw that he was missing a leg, that the pig realised he'd committed more to the project than he'd initially been told.

Edited June 14, 2020 by enfieldspares

[hafod]

On 14/06/2020 at 12:21, enfieldspares said:

Investment if OK. But don't be like the man, the pig, and the chicken, all three, that decided to set up a roadside cafe selling "traditional English breakfasts". For it was only when he woke up one early morning to the smell of frying bacon and eggs, and saw that he was missing a leg, that the pig realised he'd committed more to the project than he'd initially been told.

Go on YouTube Gavin Webber is the man to watch cheese maker extraordinaire

have a go at making Caerphilly one of the quickest to mature and tastes fantastic

but maybe I could be a bit bias my home county where i live after all lol