[Sca-cooks] Possible Cheese Classes in An Tir (NW WA state)
Rikke D. Giles
rgiles at centurytel.net
Tue Jun 18 02:28:07 PDT 2013
Greetings all,
Last weekend I was honored to spend a whole day talking about cheese!
This was at Sergeantry Trials for my Barony, where I was trying for
Courtier of Arts and Sciences (our equivalent of a Sergeant). I passed
and am now on my quest!
As luck would have it, I was able to present about 10 varieties of
homemade cheese: Parmesan, Tomme, Romano, Asiago, Manchego, Cheddar,
Gruyere, Chevre, Ricotta, 'Scalded-curds' (from Kenelm Digby's book) at
two ages, and I think that's it. All the cheeses but the Chevre and
Ricotta were at least 6 months old. Some were a year old. It just
happened that many of the cheeses I'd made in the Fall/Winter came ripe
right at the same time.
Those who tasted the cheese told me I'd acheived my main goal - to
make cheeses in the same place, same kitchen, ripen them in the same
'cave', and still have them taste different, with different rinds,
textures and even colors (all from the same milk with no additives
other than cultures, salt and rennet). Of course each cheese had a
signature 'FoxDog Farm' flavor background, and that's because the milk
is the milk is the milk. Can't get away from that.
Anyway, after 10 years of learning, making and studying, I finally
feel like I'm 'there' with cheese-making. Therefore, I am going to set
up a weekend of cheesemaking at my farm, hopefully for some time this
fall. I'm trying to gauge interest at this point. The farm is more
than big enough to set up tents if necessary, although the cheesemaking
will be in the farm kitchen or, if we have the outdoor kitchen done,
there. The classes will cover how to make cheeses 'different' in a
home setting and how to go about aging them when one doesn't have a
cave or anything fancy to do so. We'll probably cover making one
particular kind of cheese, but branch off in to talking about various
others as well. This is not really a beginner class, and it's not one,
unfortunately, than can be taught at a camping event (unless the
camping is on or near the farm!).
Let me know if you are interested!
Aelianora de Wyntringham
Barony of Dragon's Laire, An Tir
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