(no subject)

[camwyn]

I? have made CHEESE.

And not something that was just 'put vinegar in milk, stir it for a bit, fish out the clumps and spread them on bread', either. Mozzarella. Admittedly a vastly simplified recipe from the usual, involving citric acid as well as rennet and a microwave as well as cooking the curds on top of the stove, but in the end it came down to kneading and stretching the curds until I got shiny resilient balls of cheese. And they are really good.

The milk was from Tonjes Family Dairy's booth at the Union Square Greenmarket. Vat-pasteurized, non-homogenized, whole milk. Got the rennet and the citric acid from Kalustyan's, on Lexington. The salt was Diamond Crystal kosher salt, as it's coarse-flaked and not iodized, and I used bottled water to dissolve the rennet and the citric acid powder as you don't want chlorinated water involved in this, it'll kill the beneficial bacteria in the rennet.

I may take some of it to my parents' today. For now, I'm just pleased. I will try another cheese recipe later this week, I think.

Comments

[mm-spinelstar.livejournal.com]

That sounds really super cool. I've always wondered how cheese is made! I assumed that recipes were involved, but I didn't even know. XD

[camwyn]

Oh, yes, there are recipes. Some cheeses just require adding the right acid to milk and waiting for the solids like butterfat and protein and all that good stuff to curdle, then scooping it out and letting it drain. Some use rennet, which can come from calves or plants or certain kinds of bacteria. Some use specialized cultures of microorganisms. There'susually a phase of cooking the milk to the right temperature and then adding the stuff to make it curdle, then cuttng the curds a bit to let the liquid out so you can press and solidify the cheese later, and some of them have to age... it's all very interesting.

[janewt.livejournal.com]

Dang. Now that's pretty cool!

[camwyn]

At some point I should stop by the local health food store or the Thursday greenmarket in the Port Authority and get some goat milk to try this with. And check the supermarket to see if they carry any milk that's not ultra-pasteurized. The temperatures involved in that (as opposed to vat pasteurizing or other forms of pasteurization) tend to denature milk proteins and make it less useful in cheese making, which is why I went to the Tonjes people firstX to make sure i'd get milk that would work.

[e-mily.livejournal.com]

oooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhh.

>.> Do want.