The Magical Stuff that Makes Blue Cheese Blue

(Best fungus ever) 

This is the stuff, baby- Penicillium roqueforti.  It came in the mail yesterday from Leener's and I'm thrilled to my toes.  

When I get back from this weekend's 10th annual Weston A. Price convention (this year in Chicago!), I'm taking the plunge and making Roquefort.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Waxing My Cheese

This is how the cheese looks when it's ready to wax.

This is my pathetic little waxpot- an old cappuccino frother.  I need to get a bigger pot, because dipping cheese in wax rather than painting it on is much preferable. I'm using beeswax, which most cheese makers don't use because it's so expensive, but I love the scent of it.  I get the wax fairly cheap from the honey man at our farmer's market.  The drawback- beeswax is basically the same color as cheese, so I have to inspect the coverage very carefully.

Here it is- the waxed cheese.  Isn't it cute?  It's a cheese wheel made from one gallon of milk.  I date it on the day I wax it.  Now into the cheese cave it goes.

I should have waxed this cheese about 2 days earlier- cheddar should be waxed as soon it's dry to the touch... but it sort of got away from me.  It will be ready to eat in about 2 months, or longer if I can wait that long.  There are 3 other cheddars ahead of it, so I think I can wait.

Stirred-Curd Cheddar, and a Whey Ricotta

I made a cheddar on Sunday from my gallon of raw milk- my fourth cheddar, and second stirred-curd cheddar.  I also made a whey ricotta from the leftover whey- it yielded about a cup of a dry-textured, incredibly delicious ricotta.  I'm using Ricki Carroll's recipes here.

Stirred-curd cheddar is not a true cheddar.  To cook these curds, they are stirred for a half-hour over low heat (100 F). Traditional cheddars require the curds being sliced into strips and air-dried, and I haven't figured out the set-up yet. I'm working my way up to it.

(Sunday's cheddar in its second pressing)

I'm keeping a cheese journal- very important for reproducibility, and to figure out what I did right or wrong when after the cheese is ready to eat, which is usually a couple of months from the make date.  

Here's the blow-by-blow of Sunday's cheese:

Stirred-Curd Cheddar, 11/01/09

11:30- Direct-set mesophilic starter added  @ 96F, not 90F as in recipe.  Pot removed from double boiler and covered.

12:15- Rennet added @ 94F; stirred in up-and-down motion for 4 minutes.

12:50- Curds cut.  Pot covered, placed back on DB.

1:05- Heat turned on to lowest setting.  Curds allowed to rest with lid on; temp slowly raised to 100F.

1:40- Began 30-minute stirring of curds- water in DB is 110F.

2:10- Stop stirring- curds considerably smaller.

2:25- Curds drained, whey retained for ricotta.  1 tbsp kosher salt added to curds.  Pot covered on DB, with heat on low to keep curds at 100F.  Stirred with hands every 5 minutes.  Heat turned on and off with every third stir.

3:25- Curds resemble a very large curd cottage cheese sans cream.  They are pebbly and a little grainy.

3:30- Curds spooned into cheesecloth-lined mold and put under press with 10 lbs.

4:05- Cheese removed from mold, turned over and re-wrapped, returned to mold.  20 lbs.  Cheese was turned about a half-hour later than recipe instructions.

9:15- Cheese removed from mold, re-wrapped and turned a final time, returned to mold.  30 lbs.

After the last pressing, the cheese is removed from the mold in 24 hours, then air-dried for a few days at room temperature.  Then, it gets waxed- in my case, with beeswax.

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(Whey Ricotta)

Whey Ricotta, from a little more than 1/2 gallon of leftover whey-

Brought whey to a near-boil.  Added two glugs of cider vinegar; whey precipitated immediately.  Added a little salt after draining and cooling.  Dry, crumbly texture.

Playing With Cheese

Cheese making. Yes, my friends- cheese making.

(Ricotta salata above, 3 cheddars below)
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I know, I know- I fell into a hole. It was the 'unemployment sucks' hole; the 'crap, I'm turning 40' hole; the 'what am I gonna do with the rest of my life' hole. After I realized that dietetics was decidedly not going to work (higher math, hello) I couldn't see past it. Took months. I was miserable. Summer was awful. I read and I knit, but mostly, I sulked.

To add insult to injury, gardening in Michigan just completely blew this year. Few tomatoes, terrible for hot crops in general. No heat at night makes for miserable little plants.

But then I had a revelation. I made my first raw-milk cheddar.

Now, I've been fiddling around with soft cheeses for a while-- paneer, various spread-type cheeses. And of course, butter and yogurt. But the pressed cheeses felt distant. Then one day, I just did it. Took 7 hours. Pressed cheeses are definitely an all-day event.

But, let me tell you- cheese is magic. I labored for 7 hours and gave birth to a cheddar.

In fact, that first cheese (a little more than a month ago) changed my life. I realized almost immediately that, holy crap, I belong in culinary school, and I am now enrolled in Schoolcraft College in Livonia, MI-- about a half-hour drive from here. I start in January.

So that's where I've been. Off with my cheese.

Haven't cut into the cheddars yet- I have some doubts about the first one; I suspect the curds were too undercooked and it will be bitter because of the high moisture content. But that's the cheese learning curve for you- it's sort of a long haul. Jerry-rigging home equipment on a stupid glass-top stove has proven to be the toughest challenge, but I'm finding ways around it.

I'm going to start posting "A Cheese A week"- I'll go into more detail with individual posts.