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I made cheese!; Homemade fresh mozzarella
Topic Started: Jan 11 2009, 01:32 PM (219 Views)
Trialbyfire
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Woohoo! And it's really good! We just sampled it, but the rest is for dinner!

I got my dh a cheesmaking kit for Xmas and it's so easy. It's really hard to believe how easy it is. We got it from www.cheesemaking.com.....got the starter kit & DVD and now we have cheese! :) I went to the farmer's market today getting hydroponic tomatoes & basil to eat with it later! Yes, it's January, but I'm pretending it's August.

Anyone else ever make their own cheese? Hard to believe that it only took 1 gallon of supermarket milk, 1 1/2 tsp citric acid, and 1/4 rennet tablet. And salt to taste. And you can get vegetable rennet (that's what came in the kit) if you're not interested in animal based rennet. Fresh mozzarella is my favorite and we made about a lb. for basically the cost of the milk and 30 minutes of our time.

:cheer: :cheer: :cheer:

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MayaTy02
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Yeah cheese, I'll be over at 6 PM :)
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Buryinghill1
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Yum! <3 I'll be over at 5:45, with more fresh tomatoes, basil and some homemade vinagrete ;)















Now I know what I want for my birthday! A cheesemaking kit <3
Edited by Buryinghill1, Jan 11 2009, 02:14 PM.
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Black Tack
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MMMMmmmmmm.

Actually forget the vinagrette and just go with some REALLY good olive oil.

I am amazed that it was that easy Trial. Very cool :clap:

:cloud9:
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MissBri
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But, I don't care - it's 5:00 somewhere
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OHHHH I love cheese! I'll be right over..... I'll bring some wine (BIG SURPRISE there!)
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elizabeth
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Wow!! I'm really impressed. I sell cheese and other fancy foods but had never heard of that sight. I went to Joe Widmer's this past October and I've been to Fiscalini's. SideHill is literally a few miles from me.

I've made cheese as part of my own hands-on education but only with the big boys. Let me tell you it's hard work. It takes a lot of milk!

I'm going to buy a kit just to try it out. The same trip in October I went to Belgioioso. They make many italian cheeses. Their coagulant for mozz is vinegar.

I can't wait to try this out. Thank you!
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MayaTy02
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Here's a question TBF, did you use organic Milk, whole or reduced or skim??
pretty soon you're not going to need to leave your homestead!
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elizabeth
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Cheese has been around as long as there have been shephards. It was a way to preserve the milk without refridgeration. It is believed that some little guy made a sack from the intestine of a cow, goat or sheep then carried it off somewhere and when he got there it had turned to cheese. Brave person to first taste it.

Cheese was originally the food of the peasants. This is something I tell all my customers, it's really not an a elitest food.

I ordered my kit, I can't wait!
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stephjm
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Yum!! <3 I love fresh mozzarella with tomatos, basil and olive oil or viniagrette. And with a loaf of baguette even better. :teehee: Don't get it that often, but yum.

Enjoy!
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Trialbyfire
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elizabeth
Jan 11 2009, 03:21 PM
Cheese has been around as long as there have been shephards. It was a way to preserve the milk without refridgeration. It is believed that some little guy made a sack from the intestine of a cow, goat or sheep then carried it off somewhere and when he got there it had turned to cheese. Brave person to first taste it.

Cheese was originally the food of the peasants. This is something I tell all my customers, it's really not an a elitest food.

I ordered my kit, I can't wait!
Yes, I read that too! But it makes perfect sense, doesn't it? You can completely imagine how someone would have used the stomach/intestines to store liquid and cheese was born! And as far as peasant food, again - makes sense. How else could you preserve your food w/o refrigeration? Probably long after cheese was an "specialty" food there were average people still making cheese as a way to preserve milk.

As far as the milk, the only milk you can't use is "ultra-pasteurized" which is one way that milk can be shipped long distances. I think that means it's pasteurized at a hotter temperature and/or for longer, but doing this somehow breaks down the milk proteins and you get no curd. In our area, I'm not aware of any organic milk that isn't also ultra-pasteurized - one of my big complaints about organic milk is that you think you're doing a great thing but you're buying milk that was shipped across the country.

There is at least one large farm in my area that has milk commercially available [not organic]; in one grocery store, at a couple of farm stands, and they will deliver too. I'm going to check into it because it might be the cheapest I can get.

Elizabeth, I'll be interested to see what you think! I'm totally excited about making other cheeses, too, but not fancy/hard cheeses yet. I agree that they must take a lot of milk. But I think I can do the creme fraiche and creme type cheeses w/o too much trouble. The mozzarella was awesome. Our only mistake was that we kept it in the cooling water (like you see them packed in the grocery store) and it was a little soggy on the outside. There are a couple of steps where you can affect the texture of the cheese (e.g. if you knead it longer it will become tougher) and we decided to be very gentle with this just as a baseline. So now we know that it is too soft to store in water, at least how we made it. I drained the rest and put back in the fridge....we'll do another taste test tomorrow. :)

Yep, pretty soon I'll be "off the grid." My dh already wants a cow for our 3rd (empty) stall. And a couple of goats as well.
Edited by Trialbyfire, Jan 11 2009, 04:47 PM.
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Copper Leaf
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That is pretty cool... saving that sight in my favorites :)
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elizabeth
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Making cheese is truly an art. Fresh mozz with tomato and fresh basil or basil pesto is my fav.

I've made cheddar in Vermont and I can tell you that is hard physical work. You have to turn big slab that I can only say would be like turning a big greasy heavy tire.

I like to know who makes the cheese I sell and how they make it. Just me.

Joe Widmer makes a brick cheese. The recipe is over 100 years old as well as the bricks he puts on the slabs to squish out the extra moisture. Nice guy, nice family but stinky cheese.

I'm going to play with this a bit and try a combo of cow, goat and sheep's milk and see what happens. Thanks again for the info, I'm really glad yours came out well, I'm inspired!
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Witchy
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TBF that is too cool!!! I'd love to try it. Thank you for the link.

Here's a link to rennet, for those who are wondering what the heck it is like I was.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rennet
Edited by Witchy, Jan 11 2009, 06:00 PM.
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elizabeth
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Trialbyfire: How can we make mascarpone? Then we can make tiramisu...a little cake, a little coffee. a little booze and some really yummee chocolate and we will be rich!! I'll be passed out..
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Trialbyfire
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elizabeth
Jan 11 2009, 05:58 PM
Trialbyfire: How can we make mascarpone? Then we can make tiramisu...a little cake, a little coffee. a little booze and some really yummee chocolate and we will be rich!! I'll be passed out..
She makes it on the video! It looks super easy. If I recall...you heat the milk, add a culture, stir and leave overnight. Voila. :)
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