SIMPLE
COW'S
MILK
CHEESE
click here to skip the intro and go straight to the recipe
My friends are very crafty when it comes to pushing me onto the next project. “I think you would like this book!”or “You’ll be interested in this”and mostly they are so, so right. The book that has caused me the most pleasure and definitely the most pain in the last six months has been Home Cheese making, recipes for 75 homemade cheeses by Ricki Carroll, published by Storey Publishing about $30.95 click here to read the review [remember this is a very old book and tthere is plenty of terrific information about making cheese on the web. This book covers just about every type of cheese the only problem is the recipes are written in American measures, and whilst there are some brilliant sites with conversion facilities it is quite a bit of extra work.
From this book I have made a blue cheese inoculated with Italian Gorgonzola Piccante that is progressing quite nicely and tried a lot of other recipes with a lot less success. In the absence of a ’cheese cave’ basically a really good damp cellar, an exceptionally cold winter has meant that the entranceway of my home has been a perfect temperature of about 6°-10°C. Several attempts at brie have been less successful, but are close enough, even to the traced mould of recent national award winning cheeses that I haven’t given up on the project. The next experiments will have to wait till next winter when it will again be cold enough to take them one step further.
We have always made simple cheeses started with junket. This time of year it was always very fresh goats’ milk cheese, roasted garlic, blanched and peeled broad beans, salt pepper massed chopped parsley fresh pasta. A few very simple seasonal ingredients and so very delicious. The local cheese industry is needy when it comes to goats’ milk and it has become quite expensive, but it can be ordered from most organic and health stores. A fresh goats’ cheese after just three to four days will have a delicate but interesting flavour and a silken quality that we have found hard to replicate with cows’ milk.
To my surprise Ricki Carroll suggests that any of the cheeses in his book can be made with full cream powdered milk. All of the cheese makers I know personally are obsessed with the quality and freshness of the milk the use and we have learned to distrust those authors who place no similar emphasis on the quality and freshness of the milk that is to be used.
REPUBLISHED FROM GALAXY GUIDES, 1 SEPTEMBER 2022 AO
don't be
AFRAID
makes 12, 5 cm x 6 cm x 2 cm squares
this simple cheese can be made at any time of the year
Please note — we have tried to make this cheese with ordinary milk and the recipe did not work please stick to biodynamic or organic full cream milk, in other words quality full cream milk.
2L Biodynamic or Organic full cream milk heated to 38°
10g vegetable rennet [1]
20g quality fine sea salt
Without frothing or whisking the milk, add the rennet to the warmed milk in an up and down motion. Stand it on a rack and set a timer for 2 hours. When the timer goes, take a long knife and cut the curds into 2 cm squares running the knife backwards and forwards. The more even you can get this the smoother the texture of the cheese seems to be. Set a timer for another hour.
Ten minutes before the timer is due to go wet the muslin and rinse the cheese form and put them in the microwave for 2 minutes on high. Be very careful because the muslin will be boiling. Let it sit for a couple of minutes then put on some food service gloves (cotton gloves inside food service gloves is a good idea). Sit a rack in a deep container, squeeze out the muslin and line the basket with the muslin. Slowly tip the curds into the form and shake them gently to even the depth out and evenly scatter the salt over the top and wearing food service gloved very gently turn the curds over. Fold the muslin back and set a timer for another two hours.
Reserving the whey because you can make ricotta with it (look on line there is plenty of information), drain off the whey, cover the container and refrigerate for 24 hours. Drain the whey, wash the container and return to the fridge. 2-3 days is perfect for this simple crumbed and fried cheese. If you are planning on keeping the cheese longer, remove the muslin or remove from baskets and stand on sushi mats that have been boiled to sterilise them.
The cheese will keep a very sweet fresh undeveloped flavour for three to four days.
We are experimenting with longer maturing including washed rind using less rennet, but given that we have finally felt a couple of rays of sunshine it may be next year when these recipes are completed.
things to be obeyed
Always sterilise your baskets and muslin to prevent unwanted moulds on your cheese. We do this using microwave. Muslin can still be purchases from most large fabric stores.
We do not always line the baskets with muslin, however, it can keep a nicer shape in the first two days of your cheese’s life.
[1] Doesn’t matter where you live there will most likely a seller of cheese cultures and rennet. Often they go hand in hand with home brewing supplies. Our local in Adelaide suburb is Country Brewer, 7/543 Churchill Road, Kilburn, South Australia 5084 – countrybrewer……they have stores all over Australia.
crumbed and fried
To serve the cheese
2 pinches fine sea salt
black pepper freshly ground
2 free range eggs, lightly beaten with the salt and pepper
plain four
Japanese breadcrumbs (sometimes called Panko)
EV olive oil for frying
garnishes
½ lemon per person, quartered, pips removed
accompaniment suggestions
simple salad greens with lots of herbs and a little finely chopped shallot
beetroot, orange, red onion, radicchio….basically whatever you have, but a little bitterness works against the richness of the cheese
fresh chunky style Italian tomato sauce with a little fresh or dried chilli to add some zing
the list is endless depending on the weather
"
winter is the time for
making
cheese
‘New England Cheese Making Supply Co.‘
a very good source of information and recipes.