BS: Making Cheese

Subject: RE: BS: Making Cheese
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Sep 15 - 01:30 PM

Nice article.

Remember the story of the stinky cheese man?

www.nytimes.com/2015/09/29/science/that-stinky-cheese-is-a-result-of-evolutionary-overdrive.html

Subject: RE: BS: Making Cheese
From: Mr Red
Date: 26 Sep 15 - 12:16 PM

Where does one get un-homogenised milk these days to make cheese?

Good question, it would have to be pasturised, there is a stall on Stroud Farmers' Market (the best in the land IMNSHO) called Jess's Ladies . They sell milk & yoghurt "pasturised but not homogenised. So find a farmers' market near you and ask.
My GF is a farmer's daughter/sister she has to buy milk for guests ie pasturised. For herself she gets the top of the milk but it is not that creamy. I rarely have milk and in theory I don't qualify as family (ie living there) - which is how the law works. Certainly, they can't sell it, except to the organic cooperative.

Subject: RE: BS: Making Cheese
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Sep 15 - 12:51 PM

From the Department Of Probably Useless Information: Duchy Originals organic milk from Waitrose is pasteurised but not homogenised.

Before our next-door neighbour farmer gave up his dairy herd at the time of the foot and mouth disaster, we helped ourselves to a gallon of his raw milk from the bulk container three times a week (we paid him). We allowed the cream to rise, skimmed it off and put it in our slow cooker overnight. Result? Skimmed milk (more or less), as fresh as can be, and more clotted cream than we could ever eat. All lovely stuff, and in over ten years we never picked up a single tummy bug.

Subject: RE: BS: Making Cheese
From: Megan L
Date: 26 Sep 15 - 01:41 PM

On the islands we never used pastuerised milk it was left to cool in a bowl set on a stone slab if we wanted to gather the cream it only got pasteurised when it got to Kirkwall.

Subject: RE: BS: Making Cheese
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Sep 15 - 06:26 PM

My guess is...ANYWHERE in the globe, 95% are living within five kilometers of a living, breathing, milk producing creature....cow, goat, camel, sheep, lama, mama etc.

Subject: RE: BS: Making Cheese
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 10 Oct 15 - 12:08 PM

Well Ragedy - give us a report on your cheese.

Sincerly,
Gargoyle

Listeria recall for Whole Foods cheese.

www.washingtonexaminer.com/whole-foods-recalls-contaminated-roquefort-cheese/article/2573675

Subject: RE: BS: Making Cheese
From: GUEST,open mike
Date: 10 Oct 15 - 02:22 PM

i just crafted a long involved message about cheese including rennet sources, cheese factory web sites, and info on goats milk, whey cheese and more and POOF it went away instead of getting posted...too bad.

Subject: RE: BS: Making Cheese
From: GUEST,open mike
Date: 10 Oct 15 - 02:37 PM

i will try to re-do that post....
here are links to some cheese factories...
i like the curds they often sell....they call them "squeakers"
https://www.hilmarcheese.com/Home/
https://www.tillamook.com/cheese-factory/index.html
http://www.oakdalecheese.com/
http://www.rumianocheese.com/

also do not throw a-whey the whey....you can make a sweet cheese
from whey...just boil it down til the liquid is gone and you have
a product with lots of the milk sugar (lactose) in it...
which is like fudge or brown sugar....like Ski Queen

when hanging cheese to cure or age..make sure no flies can get to it.
i do not want to remember the maggoty cheese that i made once...yuck!

Rennet is from the lining of a calve's stomach (which requires the calf to die ) there are other forms of coagulant from sources such as herbal, vegetable, and cultures. Lady's Bedstraw or Gallium, mallow, nettles, thistle and even lemon juice or vinegar.

goat's milk is naturally homogenized...the cream is in suspension with the milk and does not rise to the top unless put into some sort of separator (centrifuge type deal)

Subject: RE: BS: Making Cheese
From: GUEST,open mike
Date: 10 Oct 15 - 02:55 PM

is there a starter to make bleu or blue cheese?
do you just crumble a bit of cheese it to get it started?
http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/09/beginners-guide-introduction-to-blue-cheese.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penicillium_roqueforti
http://curd-nerd.com/make-your-own-cultures/

how do the bubbles in swiss cheese get formed?
Emmenthaller or Swiss requires a culture that forms the bubbles
Propionibacterium (Propionibacterium freudenreichii subspecies shermani).
Emmentaler or Emmenthal is a Swiss cheese. It first came from Switzerland. It is named after the Emmental, the valley ... there is a similar "hole-y" cheese from Jarlsberg, Norway.

Subject: RE: BS: Making Cheese
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 10 Oct 15 - 08:28 PM

Gruyere, grated on top of my smoked haddock dauphinoise last night and allowed to brown in the oven for ten minutes, was fantastic.

Subject: RE: BS: Making Cheese
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 11 Oct 15 - 03:46 AM

Hi Gargoyle,

Even if I have to say it myself the first attempts at making cheese were a resounding success. The first cheese I made using the info that came with the kit after 3 months turned into a very passable "Lancashire" cheese. The first Stilton style was simply stunning. Two friends stayed with us during Whitby Folk Week and in two nights demolished a pound of stilton and a pound of Lancashire for supper.

Sadly the next batch of blue cheese hasn't fared as well. It was OK ... ish The next batch of basic cheese is pretty OK but not quite up to the standard of the first. I have followed a recipe to make a Lancashire cheese which involves buttermilk and yoghurt that should be ready soon but preliminary samples were tasting good.

Cheers

Nick

Subject: RE: BS: Making Cheese
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 12 Oct 15 - 04:55 AM

Refresh, I could do with the fresh air.

Subject: RE: BS: Making Cheese
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 12 Oct 15 - 06:10 AM

Raggytash,

Which cheese making kit have you been using? A quick Google shows quite a variety out there.

Subject: RE: BS: Making Cheese
From: Raggytash
Date: 12 Oct 15 - 06:21 AM

Cheese Kit

Ed,

This is the kit my wife bought for me. Yes the kit works, would I recommend it, No.

Firstly the recipe for a basic cheese makes more than will fill the mould. There is no press, you can buy the bits separately cheaper and it's a lot of cash for 2 plastic moulds, a cheese cloth, thermometer, rennet tablets which failed to work and a bit of culture.

Having said that it has got me started which is a BIG positive.

Subject: RE: BS: Making Cheese
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 14 Oct 15 - 06:01 AM

I find references to cheese far more entertaining than many posts on other threads.

Subject: RE: BS: Making Cheese
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 14 Oct 15 - 05:19 PM

Raggity - thank you for posting.

At one point in this thread....I feared you were, puking, sh**ting, and so dehydrated you might never return.

A dear friend introduced me to simple "Greek Yogurt" strained, in refrigeration for three days through cheese cloth.

I was raised on "curds and whey."
Yes, the milk was "sour" or "cuddled" or "spoiled" but the long slow heat seemed to make it OK.

I have witnessed the effects of listeria infused goat cheese in France. It is nothing anyone wants to mess with. Nasty endings.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

There is a peculiar marketing push to A-2 milk. In France....all the milk is A-2