SC - Re: Trying Cheese (no, really trying)

[ChannonM at aol.com]

Well, I just tasted my first attempt at making cheese. Let's say that I think 
there must be something I missed :) I think I know where I went wrong, so 
bear with me and point out anything else in your comments (you are going to 
comment, right?).

My basic recipe followed instructions from Mistress Aoife, Master A, and 
notes in the Florilegium (thanks Stefan) and a small booklet entitled "Making 
Cheese, butter and Yogurt" by Phyllis Hobson,

First of all, unhomogenized milk was unavailable, so I got some Calcium 
Chloride and liquid rennet to help turn the milk. Part of the problem was the 
quantity for 3ltrs milk was so small I had to use a child''s medicine dropper 
and I might have misjudged.

The basic recipe was this;
3 ltrs pasteurized, homo milk
1pint cream (35% MF)
1 cup balkan style yogurt

All of the above were combined in a stainless steel pot which was then set 
inside a larger pot with water in it. The heat was put on as low as possible 
and the temperature brought up to 90 degrees F. 

To this I added .125 tsp Calcium Chloride and under .125 tsp liquid rennet 
(original called for .75 tsp to 13-15 ltrs of milk) in .125 cups cool water. 
All was mixed. 

This concoction was allowed to sit for about an hour. When I checked on it at 
1 hour the temp had gone up to 100 degrees. This was my second foible. There 
seemed to be a curd and whey, but the curd was not a large roundish type, but 
stringy. A suggestion was to see if it separated when dragging a spatula 
through it. It did, but was not as solid as I envisioned it would be.

I drained it anyway, thinking I had cooked it and set it too fast. I let the 
curds drain a few hours. The curds drained well enough so I added 1.5 tsp 
salt, mixed it and I then lined a large empty soup can with holes punched in 
it with cheese cloth and poured in about 2 cups of curd. I placed the can's 
top as a follower and placed a large can of beans on top. I made two such 
contraptions of cheese.

This was left to press overnight sitting on top of a baking rack over a tray. 
Some soft cheese pressed out of the can in little blobs. I then took the 
cheese from 1 of the presses out and tasted it, looked at it and generally 
thought about it. Well, it was a taste between cottage and cream cheese, but 
without the dryness of cottage curds. It was fairly smooth in texture, with a 
hint of a rind. Seemed too wet to me, and the only flavour was from the salt. 
Kinda insipid. :)

I added a second can on the other cheese contraption, and will let it press 
longer.

I will post the results of this later. I may begin seeing if I can get at 
least non homo milk again. I can get it at a health food store for 3 times 
the price of grocery store milk! Won't be  going down that road. 

But I still have 6 ltrs of homo milk to work with till then ! 

Hauviette