Got Salt?

So, you want to make sure of your ingredients - and quantity of said ingredients. For instance, if you think you sort of remember - you really don't. This is the time to go back to your recipe and look again.

I very nearly ruined the best cheese I ever made (so far it's the only cheese, so I can say that). It's a good thing I wrecked the second batch of yogurt I attempted...I was able to scoop the cheesed up cream from the top of the milk that was intended to be yogurt and I mixed it in with neufchatel, and voila -- still salty, but delicious all the same...poor yogurt though.

This is why you make sure when you go ahead and 'jump right in!' that you don't have appointments to get to. Even though there's plenty of downtime in cheesemaking, you still have be availble to interact with the process at the appropriate times. Also -- you don't really want to cut corners when you're just learning how to do things. And you really do have to cook the yogurt.... not the neufchatel, but the yogurt apparently needs some cooking and keeping warm or it just doesn't take.

And the best advice of all, if at first you don't succeed, try try again. (but I still think its a good thing my first batch of yogurt came out so well - it was very encouraging). And the sour cream finally got sour, so I put it in the fridge. I hear tell, in the summer it doesn't take so long.

Jump In, The Water is Fine.

The possibilities are vast. I bought 2 gallons of skim milk, 2 qts of heavy cream, 1 qt of cultured buttermilk, 1 qt of greek style yogurt -- at Target...it matters not where you get it...well maybe it does, you want to make sure the milk is fresh and storage coolers are appropriately cold.

Separately, I bought rennet from an online source, The Cheesemaker.com. There are other sources and I will try them out and post them. Steve Shapson, responded very quickly. I ordered on Friday and by Monday morning my order was in my post box. How's that for service?

On Saturday morning I started a batch of sour cream, and a batch of yogurt.

This is a picture of my first ever batch of yogurt.

YUM!!

So today I started a second batch of yogurt, and a batch of Neufchatel cheese. I didn't use any bacteria in the Neufchatel, because I made a classic mistake of leaping before I looked...I realized I couldn't make Mozzarella like I planned because I didn't have citric acid...I'm sure that's in the mail as I write...but I didn't have it this morning and I had already brought my milk up to room temp...I didn't want to get too complicated without first deciding on a cheese and reading up. So I quickly looked online and found the most simple cheese in the world to start with...Neufchatel.

It takes: milk, buttermilk, and rennet. (I make an alternative to raw milk using skim milk and heavy cream...this works better than using whole milk from the grocery store). You don't even have to cook it. Just bring the milk to about 70 F. degrees and mix in the buttermilk. According to the recipe 4 drops of rennet per gal, and I had a gallon of milk plus a pint or so of cream plus a couple splashes of buttermilk, so I dropped in 5 drops. Then just cover it up and wait for the curd to set...we'll see how long it takes.

So you might think me a little contradictory, my title advocates jumping in and making everything your feverish little mind can dream up, but I had to back-peddle a little to keep from wasting a gallon of milk and a pint of cream. Well heck...there are worse things in life than a little waste. One of them is not allowing your creative self to have a bit of fun.

Cheese is fun. I think I want to make butter now.

Cheese! Cheese! Cheese!

Make your own cheese. Just for the fun of it. It's pretty easy. In this blog, I am going to talk about cheesemaking and provide recipes, tips, and resources for learning to make cheese at home. I encourage you to try some workshops, watch some videos, and make your own cheese.

How to get started...check out your local Organic Farmers Association they may or may not have workshops available. I mention the organic farmers associations first because I believe these organizations make a genuine effort to provide workshops with well qualified experts in whatever field they are teaching.

My first workshop was at Upinngil Farm in Gill, MA. Great workshop. Great farm. Great cheese making teacher/expert, Cliff Hatch.

http://www.nofamass.org/programs/extensionevents/cheesemaking.php

Not all organic farmers associations will have cheese workshops. Don't give up...Google something else. Use keywords like: cheese making workshop [your locale] You'll find something.

- Also take a look at Youtube.com. I recommend Vito's Mozzarella making. Make your curd and pour hot water over it. How much easier could it get? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u89HWogCynQ check it out...but just remember, he's making a big batch. You're home batches will be somewhat smaller.