[Sca-cooks] Cheese Recipe from Kiri's Day in the Middle East Feast

[Kathleen Madsen]

Sorry for the delay, I get the digest version and
emails have been flying fast and loose the past two
days.  :)  Lots to wade through.

I must first post my disclaimer.  I did not make
Paneer.  Last year I did and found that with the kind
of apricot paste sheets  being used the paneer was
just too crumbly to hold the whole thing together very
well.

I decided on an aged cheese similar to a Manchego but
using cow's milk instead.  My thought being that with
the additional aging and the cultures used the paste
would knit together better and become a more stable
base.

Recipe:

2 gallons of milk (I used pasteurized as the cure time
was too short for the raw milk version to pass the
FDA's laws**)
1 ounce thermophilic starter culture
Vegetarian rennet
salt

Heat milk gently to 120 degrees F, stir in culture,
cover pot and allow to sit undisturbed for 45 minutes.
 You want to maintain the temperature of the milk at
120 so I usually wrap my pot with towels.  Take 1/4
cup of water that has been allowed to sit out at room
temperature for at least 30 minutes (this allows the
chlorine to outgas allowing your culture and rennet to
live and do their jobs).  Add three drops of liquid
rennet to the water and mix the whole mixture into the
milk, stirring for one minute.  Cover pot, re-wrap
with towels, and allow to sit undisturbed for 45 more
minutes, checking from 30 minutes on until you get a
clean break in the curd.  Cut curd into corn kernel
size pieces, this process should take about 10-15
minutes of patient work.  Let the curd settle down to
the bottom of the pot for 10 minutes.  Ladle off as
much whey as you can, reserving whey for use in baking
or making ricotta if desired.  Ladle curds into
prepared mold (mold should already be lined with
cleaned and sterilized cheesecloth), get as many of
the curds in the mold as you can, pressing them in. 
Top with follower and place in press.  Press at 5 lb.
pressure for 15 minutes, flip and press at 10 lb.
pressure for 30 minutes, flip and press at 20 lb.
pressure for one hour.  Remove from mold, remove
cheesecloth and allow to air dry for 12 hours. 
Inspect rind of cheese and rub salt into the exterior.
 Dry rub salt into rind once a day for 7 days flipping
daily.  After 7 days put into storage with no drafts
and an ambient temperature between 65 and 72 degrees
F.  Flip every 3-4 days while inspecting rind.  If
rind becomes too dry and begins to crack rub in a thin
film of olive oil.  If any mold appears remove with a
mixture of white vinegar and olive oil, about one part
vinegar to two parts olive oil.  If mold continues to
appear then remove the cheese and sterilize the area
to get rid of unwanted spores.  Cheese is ready at any
point but will be best at 4-5 weeks of age.


** The FDA's regulations state that no raw milk cheese
can be sold if it is aged less than 60 days.  You can
sell raw milk cheese if it is a minimum of 60 days or
older.

Best sources for cultures and rennet are
http://www.cheesemaking.com/ and
http://www.glengarrycheesemaking.on.ca/ 
Cheesemaking.com for the novice cheesemaker, Glengarry
caters to the small scale professional cheesemakers.

I was very pleased with how the cheese turned out,
particularly as the house has been under construction
the entire time.  My kitchen was ripped out about 2
weeks ago so we're talking primitive living with
drywall dust on everything.  I ended up storing these
in my closet to age in a large box with a brown paper
bag loosely covering the opening and the wheels seemed
to be perfectly content in there.

Eibhlin, Mistress of cheese