Friday, May 16, 2008

And yet even more on cheese!

Yes; that's why I've been so busy. Cheesemaking (oh and working on Crown List and refining the menu for Meridian 30 Year Celebration.) So I've done an experiment with cheese, that unfortunately won't be ready to test for another good 3 months or so. I'm using the Home Cheesemaking by Ricki Carroll for my source. I first made the "Stirred Curd Cheddar" (OK, I actually first made the Montery Jack and then I made the Stirred Curd Cheddar, but it is the first of the Cheddars that I made.) It turned out ok and I got the hang of the temperatures and how to keep them where then need to be, etc. I then decided I was able enough to do the Traditional Cheddar. That was time expensive. I was astounded at how much waiting time there is. Bring it up to temperature and then wait an hour. Cut the curd. Wait an hour. Stir the curd and raise the temp. Wait an hour. Drain it. Wait an twenty minutes. Cut the curd. Wait two hours, but flip your curd slices every 15 minutes. Wow! Then the day and a half of pressing. So yesterday I decided that I was going to take another shot at the stirred curd. Having made them just 2 days apart I was better able to gauge the processes in comparison to each other. Amazingly, despite the time involved I think I like the way the Traditional Cheddar turned out. But then we still have to age them to truly tell. I picked up some Lipase powder to try some more harder cheeses. I want to get some Parma going and then I'm going to try my hand at a softer cheese.

OK, off to project night where I get to play with my new Pergamenata papers!