[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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