MAKING CHEESE AT HOME
Making cheese at home is a craft whose time has come. With today's technology, communications and new attitudes about doing things creative, it is about where homebrewing was twenty years ago, viz., about to explode.
The cheese in the photo was my first attempt and the best cheese I ever tasted. While it's easy to forget what great cheeses taste like and easy to glorify one's own efforts, the point is, making cheese at home is just another of life's learning processes.
While not a slapdash project nor immune to disasters, simple cheeses are no more difficult to make than bread. Cottage cheese can be made with equipment and raw materials found in any kitchen. More advanced cheeses require some additional equipment and raw materials but it can all be learned by anyone willing to make the effort. I would put it at about the same level of complexity as making beer or wine at home.
BARE BONES
The following recipe represents the ultimate in simplicity in cheese making. It will produce a delicious cottage cheese that resembles ricotta and is excellent fresh or used in cooking Italian dishes such as lasagna. We recommend that beginners start with a cottage cheese to get the feel for the basics and for the instant gratification of being able to enjoy the product immediately.
Ingredients:
1 gallon 2% milk
1/2 cup vinegar
1 tsp salt
1. Heat the milk to 190F. You will need a thermometer for other cheeses but you can get by here turning off the heat just before the milk begins to boil.
2. Add the vinegar and allow the mixture to cool.
3. When cool, pour the mixture, (which now consists of curds and whey as in Miss Muffet food) into a colander and drain off the whey.
4. Pour the curds into a bowl and sprinkle on the salt and mix well. You may wish to use less salt or more. It is simply a matter of taste which is the next step. You can add a little cream for a silky texture.
COMMENTS:
What we have just made is really cheese but short circuits the process in several ways. The vinegar provides the acid that causes the milk to curdle and produces the acid flavor. The traditional method of producing the acid is to use a culture of acid producing bacteria. This is more complicated and takes longer but as it is alive, the cheese will continue to improve in flavor with age. This is of little consequence in a cheese made for immediate consumption. More on cultures later.
We have also made small curd cottage cheese because we left out another ingredient called rennet. This is an enzyme the produces a harder curd. It was originally made from calf stomachs but is now synthesized and available in liquid or tablet form. I believe the cottage cheese sold in supermarkets as large and small curd is a fiction because the ingredients on the label for the two products are exactly the same. More on rennet later.
Because both the bacteria and rennet can be destroyed by temperature, the traditional process requires several ripening steps at lower temperatures and a curd cooking step at a higher temperature. Because vinegar is inactive, we went immediately to the cooking stage and saved a lot of time.
Finally, the difference between soft cheese and hard cheese is that the latter requires pressing the drained curds in a cheese press, drying the pressed cheese and then aging for several months.
CHEESE MILK
The most important ingredient in cheese, is of course, the milk. Cheese can be made from just about any kind of milk including, cow, goat, sheep, mare and camels. It is the lucky home cheesemaker who even has access to fresh cow's milk, let alone the other exotic types. We will presume that the cheesemaker is limited to what can be purchased in the local supermarket. If fresh milk is available, consider yourself lucky and proceed in the same manner.
There are two characteristics of commercial milk that conspire to make life difficult for the cheesemaker. First of all, it is Pasteurized and the native flora and fauna are killed. This is not necessarily bad but simply puts a limit on the ultimate flavor potential of the cheese. However, this limit we can live with and as mentioned elsewhere, is a good compromise in favor of safety.
The really serious problem with store milk is that it is homogenized. This is a process that breaks up the fat globules to such a small size that they are forever in suspension and never again separate as in fresh milk. The bad news is that it does something else to the fat that interferes with making good quality cheese. The effect is to produce a wax-like texture that sticks to the teeth and hinders flavor development. The fix is to use the lowest fat milk available and replace the needed fat with whipping cream. Although the whipping cream is also homogenized, the fat to casein ratio seems to prevent the fat from producing the texture defect.
I have experimented with various milks and have actually achieved the best results using powdered skim milk combined with whipping cream. Following the directions on the box and adding 1 pint cream per gallon of milk produces a cheese as good or better than by using fresh whole milk. All the procedures which follow can and should be made using this milk. The only cheese that seems to actually perform better with homo milk is Stilton.
For more info and the latest developments in my quest for the perfect CHEESE MILK
CHEESE STARTER
Starter is to cheese what yeast is to wine and beer. It is a living colony of microscopic organisms that give the cheese its characteristic flavor. One basic difference is that yeast is a fungus and cheese starter is usually a bacterium. However, that's not to say that fungi have no place in cheese. The blue stuff in blue cheese, for example, is a fungus.
Fresh whole milk contains the necessary bacteria to produce cheese but for several reasons, it is best to use a prepared starter and not trust to chance. Fresh milk contains lots of other flora and fauna that may or may not be useful to cheese making or even dangerous to life. It is best practice to Pasturize the milk to kill everything and inoculate it with a known culture of the proper organism. When using supermarket milk, we have no choice as it will have been Pasteurized.
Wine makers are in exactly the same position. Every grape comes with the natural yeast to produce the natural wine but rather than risk a batch to whatever else might be lurking on the grape, the must is treated to inhibit all natural organisms and is then inoculated with a yeast culture. Not doing this is precisely why home made wine has such a bad reputation. It's either great or undrinkable.
Many recipes and books suggest using cultured buttermilk as a starter and if one is anxious to get started, it is readily available. However, one can never be sure just what the culture is and a real cheese starter is more likely to produce high quality cheese.
The entry level cheeser should purchase what is known as a mesophilic starter from any supplier of cheese making supplies. A search of the web will provide several sources. This comes as a dried powder in a small packet like yeast. The most convenient form is what is known as DVI or Direct Vat Innoculation. This is added directly to the milk and no pre-culturing is required.
SANITATION
Making cheese at home is a craft whose time has come. With today's technology, communications and new attitudes about doing things creative, it is about where homebrewing was twenty years ago, viz., about to explode.
The cheese in the photo was my first attempt and the best cheese I ever tasted. While it's easy to forget what great cheeses taste like and easy to glorify one's own efforts, the point is, making cheese at home is just another of life's learning processes.
While not a slapdash project nor immune to disasters, simple cheeses are no more difficult to make than bread. Cottage cheese can be made with equipment and raw materials found in any kitchen. More advanced cheeses require some additional equipment and raw materials but it can all be learned by anyone willing to make the effort. I would put it at about the same level of complexity as making beer or wine at home.
BARE BONES
The following recipe represents the ultimate in simplicity in cheese making. It will produce a delicious cottage cheese that resembles ricotta and is excellent fresh or used in cooking Italian dishes such as lasagna. We recommend that beginners start with a cottage cheese to get the feel for the basics and for the instant gratification of being able to enjoy the product immediately.
Ingredients:
1 gallon 2% milk
1/2 cup vinegar
1 tsp salt
1. Heat the milk to 190F. You will need a thermometer for other cheeses but you can get by here turning off the heat just before the milk begins to boil.
2. Add the vinegar and allow the mixture to cool.
3. When cool, pour the mixture, (which now consists of curds and whey as in Miss Muffet food) into a colander and drain off the whey.
4. Pour the curds into a bowl and sprinkle on the salt and mix well. You may wish to use less salt or more. It is simply a matter of taste which is the next step. You can add a little cream for a silky texture.
COMMENTS:
What we have just made is really cheese but short circuits the process in several ways. The vinegar provides the acid that causes the milk to curdle and produces the acid flavor. The traditional method of producing the acid is to use a culture of acid producing bacteria. This is more complicated and takes longer but as it is alive, the cheese will continue to improve in flavor with age. This is of little consequence in a cheese made for immediate consumption. More on cultures later.
We have also made small curd cottage cheese because we left out another ingredient called rennet. This is an enzyme the produces a harder curd. It was originally made from calf stomachs but is now synthesized and available in liquid or tablet form. I believe the cottage cheese sold in supermarkets as large and small curd is a fiction because the ingredients on the label for the two products are exactly the same. More on rennet later.
Because both the bacteria and rennet can be destroyed by temperature, the traditional process requires several ripening steps at lower temperatures and a curd cooking step at a higher temperature. Because vinegar is inactive, we went immediately to the cooking stage and saved a lot of time.
Finally, the difference between soft cheese and hard cheese is that the latter requires pressing the drained curds in a cheese press, drying the pressed cheese and then aging for several months.
CHEESE MILK
The most important ingredient in cheese, is of course, the milk. Cheese can be made from just about any kind of milk including, cow, goat, sheep, mare and camels. It is the lucky home cheesemaker who even has access to fresh cow's milk, let alone the other exotic types. We will presume that the cheesemaker is limited to what can be purchased in the local supermarket. If fresh milk is available, consider yourself lucky and proceed in the same manner.
There are two characteristics of commercial milk that conspire to make life difficult for the cheesemaker. First of all, it is Pasteurized and the native flora and fauna are killed. This is not necessarily bad but simply puts a limit on the ultimate flavor potential of the cheese. However, this limit we can live with and as mentioned elsewhere, is a good compromise in favor of safety.
The really serious problem with store milk is that it is homogenized. This is a process that breaks up the fat globules to such a small size that they are forever in suspension and never again separate as in fresh milk. The bad news is that it does something else to the fat that interferes with making good quality cheese. The effect is to produce a wax-like texture that sticks to the teeth and hinders flavor development. The fix is to use the lowest fat milk available and replace the needed fat with whipping cream. Although the whipping cream is also homogenized, the fat to casein ratio seems to prevent the fat from producing the texture defect.
I have experimented with various milks and have actually achieved the best results using powdered skim milk combined with whipping cream. Following the directions on the box and adding 1 pint cream per gallon of milk produces a cheese as good or better than by using fresh whole milk. All the procedures which follow can and should be made using this milk. The only cheese that seems to actually perform better with homo milk is Stilton.
For more info and the latest developments in my quest for the perfect CHEESE MILK
CHEESE STARTER
Starter is to cheese what yeast is to wine and beer. It is a living colony of microscopic organisms that give the cheese its characteristic flavor. One basic difference is that yeast is a fungus and cheese starter is usually a bacterium. However, that's not to say that fungi have no place in cheese. The blue stuff in blue cheese, for example, is a fungus.
Fresh whole milk contains the necessary bacteria to produce cheese but for several reasons, it is best to use a prepared starter and not trust to chance. Fresh milk contains lots of other flora and fauna that may or may not be useful to cheese making or even dangerous to life. It is best practice to Pasturize the milk to kill everything and inoculate it with a known culture of the proper organism. When using supermarket milk, we have no choice as it will have been Pasteurized.
Wine makers are in exactly the same position. Every grape comes with the natural yeast to produce the natural wine but rather than risk a batch to whatever else might be lurking on the grape, the must is treated to inhibit all natural organisms and is then inoculated with a yeast culture. Not doing this is precisely why home made wine has such a bad reputation. It's either great or undrinkable.
Many recipes and books suggest using cultured buttermilk as a starter and if one is anxious to get started, it is readily available. However, one can never be sure just what the culture is and a real cheese starter is more likely to produce high quality cheese.
The entry level cheeser should purchase what is known as a mesophilic starter from any supplier of cheese making supplies. A search of the web will provide several sources. This comes as a dried powder in a small packet like yeast. The most convenient form is what is known as DVI or Direct Vat Innoculation. This is added directly to the milk and no pre-culturing is required.
SANITATION