[Sca-cooks] Cheese (was:Today in History.....

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Mairi Ceilidh:
>But...but...but.....do you mean I can't trust what I find on the internet
>and use it as primary documentation???  Even if it comes through my email???
>AAARRRGGG!  There goes my whole Art/Sci career!!
>
>Seriously, I'm thinking that cheese is going to be one of my next big
>passions (making it, that is--eating it already is).  Since I am somewhat of
>an authenticity freak, I would enjoy having more information on sources of
>cheese facts.  I do not want someone else to do my research for me, but a
>nudge in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

Do recipes count?

See Digby, Gervase Markham, and Hugh Plat, for reasonably 
straightforward recipes for various cheeses in more or less modern 
English.

Check the agricultural works of Columella and Cato (one is De 
Agricultura, and one is, I think, De Re Agri Cultura, and I can't 
remember which is which...)

Then get a modern book on cheesemaking, and you should be able to 
extrapolate what about the period instructions are considered 
essential by modern cheesemakers. For example, things like cultures, 
which might be added in a modern cheese to get a specific effect, are 
included in period recipes by using things like wooden paddles and 
vats that are more or less impregnated with the beasties in question, 
and/or the milk is unpasteurized and already contains some fauna. 
Rennet, when used in period, comes from real live calves and kids, 
but it's still used. Calcium carbonate solution as a curdling aid for 
use with homogenized (please note I said homogenized and not 
pasteurized) milk is used modernly, but not in period, because 
homogenized milk is not an issue in period, except for goat's milk, 
which, while not homogenized in period, does behave like it in some 
ways.

See http://www.cheesemaking.com for a typical example of places to 
get books and supplies.

>While on the subject, anybody out there have any experience with using beer
>or rose water as a clotting agent in cheese making?

Rose water shows up in some period cheeses as a way to remove, or at 
least counteract, the funky smell of stored natural rennet sources 
like wealcruds and marrowguts (margut is also an indispensable 
ingredient in the cowboy classic S.O.B. Stew). See, I think it is, 
Markham's rather long and complicated recipe for rennet from calves' 
guts. I don't think it has any enzymatic properties as  far as 
curdling is concerned (I assume distillation or boiling would destroy 
enzymes), nor does it have an aggressive pH factor, as far as I know.

For beer, I have no idea, but would be concerned about bacterial 
incompatibilities. I've never heard of this being done.

Adamantius