Skip to main content

Adventures with Juustokiapa

    So what do you do when you find yourself alone on Mother's day?   It was a truly miserable day of low temperatures, howling wind and at one point, about an inch of snow on my front yard.   

    Well if your me...you make cheese.   Not one, but two different types of cheese.  Both of which you have never made before and wanted to experiment with. I'm actually happy to call both a success, although the quick mozzarella I made missed the mark in my opinion.   

    That's the fun thing however, and so far I've been pretty successful in my cheese making endeavors.  I was not going to do a post about cheese making however, generally speaking they are only popular with 3 - 5 people and I don't really have a lot of great photo's to share this time.  However I decided to because one of them is a bit unusual, a lot of fun and simple to make.   Although it is time consuming.

Juusoliapa - final product
 
    When I was out gathering some things for some vegan cheese experiments (see recipe links), I came across some "Bread cheese."   Now I had heard of this before but the details were sketchy to say the least.  Juustoliapa...or better known as that unpronounceable Finnish/Swedish squeaky cheese, was originally made from reindeer milk.  Modern versions use cow's milk, this cheese was designed to be dried out to keep for years.  It's a survival food of sorts as well.

     In fact, it's actually baked as part of the cheese making process and produces copious amount of whey.   I don't believe this whey was meant to be saved and used in other things, like breads, as it is in other cheeses.

       It was often served warm as a slice or in a round cake, and the final product is only about 1 inch (3 cm) thick, often with jams or jellies as a desert.   I actually had some this morning with some strawberry jam and was surprised at how well the jam and cheese complemented each other.  

    It is also served in coffee, where the heat of the coffee is supposed to warm up the cheese.  When added to the coffee, it loses its "squeakiness" somewhat and takes on the flavor of the coffee, it's actually not a bad combination.  

    A squeaky cheese is actually referring to the rubbery or springy curd of cheese itself, when bitten, the air trapped in the curd escapes, making the cheese "squeak."  The cheese itself has a very mild taste.

    That being said, the recipe I used was not very clear on the directions.   Long story short this will produce a lot of very wet curd, which then needs to be drained off.   The directions do not call for it to be strained over a cheesecloth, and frankly you will probably not need one.   You can let the cheese drain in a regular strainer with small holes, the curds are that large.   

    I drained the whey off at least twice in this process.  I even cut the recipe in half!  I should note that I used tapioca flour instead of corn starch (2 T of tapioca flour = 1 T of corn starch).   Then after baking at 500 degrees F (260 C) for 20 minutes you will still have some whey.   Some of this was lost as I "flipped" the cheese into another container of the same size to brown the other side.  

    So in the end you end up with a drier cheese, very mild in flavor that "squeaks" when you eat it, but goes very well with jams and jellies.   I even had it with breakfast the last two days in a row.  

    I was so happy with my Just...Juusto...that cheese, that I thought I would try a quick Mozzarella.  This is NOT a beginners cheese despite what various books or websites may tell you, and I've been putting off making it for several reasons.   

    What I ended up is a bit rubbery, it does cook up well - as I had it on burgers last night (and as my wife pointed out, breaking our Meatless Monday rule), and has the color of a nice Mozz.   It is just off in taste a bit.

    Although when cooked, it tasted exactly like a Mozz should.   It acted exactly like a Mozz should.  That's the problem with making Mozzarella.  Even veteran cheese makers have issues with it.   However I'll take a win where and when I can find it.

I'll take a win here even though it's a ugly win.    



Labels:
Location: Stoneboro, PA 16153, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

What all the cool kids are reading.

The Home Improvement Blues

      When I sit down to write something, I do so for two reasons; the first is that yes, I want to remember my thoughts and feeling about a particular moment in time, so in some ways this blog serves as my journal.  The second reason is that I hope to impart some knowledge or information on.  In the hope that you, gentle reader, might learn something new or, more likely, avoid the mistakes I make.        I leave that decision up to you.       Thus, in some ways you can blame our youngest cat, Bobble, for our upcoming spending a lot of money on window's and other home improvements.       Our first winter in Western Pennsylvania was not really that bad.  This year it seemed we had weeks of sub zero temperatures and several feet of snow.  Our house was physically colder.   Now if your wondering why I'm blaming the cat then please read on dear reader.   ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The American Climate Corps and other good news

 Generally speaking I don't trust the government when it comes to climate.  Here in America we basically have an Oligarchy - where a few rich asssholes are more concerned with maintaining their own power than doing what is best for the country overall.   This has not given me much hope for the future.  In fact, I've reached the conclusion that we simply will not be able to relay on the government going forward.  I'm not a doomsayer but the government at the highest levels simply isn't functioning the way it should and because of that it's simply not going to be able to handle the environmental and other climate related challenges in the future - such as massive immigration caused by failing crops.  Due to their age, most of our leaders are living in a world that no longer exists. So, why does President Biden's American Climate Corps pigued my interest? Two reasons really, it is an understanding that we have to do something sooner than later.  Wel...
2 comments
Read more

A taste of the secret Amish Kitchens

     I don't know what attracts me to "Amish Cheese's."  I came across a few recipes while putting about on the interwebs and was taken by them.  They do seem rather simple to make and they require little in actual work but they do require time.  While not exactly a "set it and forget it" cheese, these cheeses often used milk that has spoiled naturally over time or "Clabbered."       Which, considering the Amish lifestyle, makes perfect sense.  The Amish are not a wasteful people.        One cheese that caught my eye is called Amish Cup Cheese.   It is a soft spread where you heated the milk to room temperature first (about 72 F) then let it cool, letting the curds seperate from the whey.    Then you add a bit ingredients and again...you "rested" the cheese for 12 hours before moving on to the next step.  Then, again add some more ingredients then rest for 5 hours before moving on.  It's...
Post a Comment
Read more