Who knew Cheese would be this fun? Cheese folly's Part 2

 

    I'm slowly but surely moving ahead with my cheese hobby. Recently I found some Facebook groups and other resources that are helpful in how to make cheese and what equipment I need,  including how to build a cheese press and make a cheese "cave."   Although I swear they are all hiring professional photographers to take pictures of their cheese!

    I'm still trying to keep it simple, however after the success of the Insta Pot Paneer cheese, I could not help but wonder what other cheeses I could make in an Insta Pot.   I found three different types of cheeses actually.   Cottage Cheese, which frankly I never really liked the taste of and wasn't interested in making.  Mozzarella and Ricotta were the other two.  I picked the recipes that I did simply because they didn't require any rennet or starters like many of the other recipes I found.

    I was unsure if I was ready for Mozzarella yet.  

    Out of all the cheese's this is probably the one that would make or break me as a "cheese maker."  Because not only is it the most popular of cheese - meaning that my family would actually eat it - but the most diverse of cheese - meaning that it ends up on pizza, or a sandwich at my house pretty quickly.

    Ricotta on the other hand is something that we eat and use, but honestly I could not tell you where and when.  It shows up in our stuffed shells and other food a bit.  Wanting to get a bit more experience under my belt before I attacked Mozzarella, I decided to make the Ricotta first.  That post is coming up soon.

    This post is about experimentation and the wide variety of cheeses out there and just how versatile they are.  I came across Amish Melting Cheese and Amish Buttermilk Cheese.  Darn. With the Super Bowl coming up, the melting cheese sounded really, really good.  I figured that it could be the basis of a nice dip with minced veggies and spices in it.  

Amish Cup cheese

    Which reading about this idea, I stumbled into the discovery of Amish Cup Cheese, which is basically the same as the Amish melting cheese, only completely different.  I had everything but the rennet (and more on that in a bit).

    I was beginning to realize that cheese making could be a perfect hobby for me.  Easy for the most part to do, not that expensive and with enough variety for me to indulge my love of experimentation.  

    First however, a word on milk.

    Generally speaking I was not getting a whole lot of cheese back from my efforts.  Part of me wondered if this was normal and part of me wondered if it was the milk that I was using.   Ultra High Pasteurized milk is just not going to cut it for making cheese due to the fact that the higher temperatures often completely brake down the proteins in the milk. 

    Finding cheaper milk however was proving to be a challenge.  It's not that uncommon that a gallon or more of milk would be needed to make cheese.  While I found a few nearby sources for unpasteurized raw milk (fresh from the cow as the saying goes) but that tended to be pricier than the store bought milk I was using now.   Plus, I may not get to the cheese making part ASAP and raw milk will not last long

    Although I did understand it helped the taste tremendously. 

    Frankly the yield I was getting per gallon of milk seemed rather small.  While this may have not been an issue several thousand, or even hundreds of years ago.  If you couldn't save it, you dumped it or fed to the livestock.  Letting some of it go to waste was an acceptable compromise for the stability of cheese.

    The cheapskate in me hates to only get a couple of ounces of good cheese out of a gallon or half gallon of milk.  In my research it's been suggested that if the milk has been pasteurized and homogenized you need the calcium chloride, CaCl, to help the milk stick its solids back together  This might increase the yield as well.  The use of non-ionized salt may also help.  It was only going to get worse as I got into cheese calling for heavy cream, buttermilk or goat's milk.

   

    Now a word on rennet and cultures.   While the taste of the cheese can be influenced by the type of milk, how long you heat it for etc.  Rennet is a chemical byproduct of some plants and animals that can cause the milk to curdle - the curds are what you use to make the cheese.  While vinegar and citric acid are fine and dandy for some things, the taste and type of cheese I'm planning on eventually making can be influenced by the rennet as well.   Now since I don't have an immature calf or goat to sacrifice to the cheese making Gods; and I was slowly but surly going to have to use rennet sometime.  Luckily I found a way to use common nettles or thistle as rennet.

     Plus the idea of making my own stuff appealed to me in this "new life" I find myself in.  While the price of commercially bought rennet wasn't to bad over time, in that it lasts 7 - 8 months in the liquid form and up to 2 years in tablet form, I was still bulking at the upfront price.  I hated to buy something and then simply not use it as other things in my life took over my interest in making cheese.  Although to be honest my new cheese making friends are telling me that rennet lasts longer than that.

    Sadly, it's winter and I've no idea where nettles or thistle would grow around here.  Which brings up the idea of foraging, but that's another issue for latter on.  Cultures were something that I would have to buy, and although I was able to find them online, I am holding out hope that I will find a "local" group or company that has cultures I can use.  Again though, I'm not at that stage.

    My success with the cheeses I've made so far however had lit a fire under me.  I want to make more.  I want to try different things.  I want to make cheese.