Well, the cheesemaking went quite well the first time that I did it: so naturally, I tried it again yesterday: I had thought that I might do a caprese salad (mozzarella, tomatoes and basil) but after the cheesemaking, I had another think coming.
I experimented with adding some chopped fresh basil to the cheese near the final phase, the stretching-like-taffy phase. And I will try this again: the flavour of the cheese was incredible. Unfortunately, the texture was not good. The first batch, the batch that I made on Thursday, the texture was great, the flavour ho-hum. Saturday, the reverse. But I had figured out the reason for the texture, I thought: I had used organic milk, and apparently organic milk is usually ultra-pasteurized, which is apparently really bad for making cheese: the milk proteins have been cooked just a little too much to work their wonders. Still, both batches worked out really well on pizza: melting cured the texture problems of yesterday's batch.
So today, I used the raw milk we'd bought on Thursday at the Farmers' Market in town, and it came together beautifully. It was gorgeous looking: satiny smooth at the finish, and just looked perfect.
Unfortunately, the texture was a little on the rubbery side (not yet sure why) and the flavour? Well, I hadn't added any basil, and I believe as a consequence that it tasted a little under-salted. Just as salt brings out other flavours, a lack of other flavours can make it taste under-seasoned too.
But undeterred, I tore some basil leaves, and sliced some tomatoes, and then LOML drizzled olive oil and balsamic vinegar over them, and I sliced some wafer-thin slices of yesterday's bread: and the results were stunning! The texture problems with the cheese vanished, and the flavours mingled, merged and waltzed in the mouth.
I suspect that cheesemaking is a lot like breadmaking: I can follow the exact same recipe as someone else with less experience, and my bread will be consistently okay: whereas someone with less experience will be unable to unconsciously do the little things which make it work. I may not even be able to identify the little things, but I do them anyway. If cheesemaking is like that, it may be worth trying a few more times to get it right!
Yours, at a stretch,
N.
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7 comments:
I AM impressed. I don't make stuff like that if I can buy it at the market.....LOL
Michele sent me. Hope you hold up in the heat this week!
If I can buy stuff like this at a market, I tend not to try to make it either: so much of my adventurousness in the kitchen has been spurred on by the fact that I can't get what I want in the local stores (or not at a decent price, when I can even get it at all).
We've still not got good bread anywhere within about a 20 minute drive of our house. Well, except for at our house. Which is walking distance from my bedroom:-)
N.
Okay, I'm currious, what recipe are you using?
~a~: I'm using the recipe which came with the cheesemaking kit, which I ordered from www.cheesemaking.com out of new england. It is basically bring milk and citric acid to 88F, stir in rennet disolved in water, stir for half a minute: let set, cut, stir for a couple of minutes, ladle out the curds, knead, drain, heat, drain, knead, drain, heat, drain, stretch. Shape.
The heating is done in the microwave: first heating on high for 1 minute, then the remaining times for 35 seconds.
The recipe, with pictues, is available at their website.
N.
Oh, don't tempt me like this! I went through a bread-making phase to achieve a loaf that tasted like my great-grandmother's. Now I'll have to make cheese for my 'maters! argh!
Sounds delicious N. I'm not surprised that you had problems with the milk though - I read on one website that it's homoginisation that often causes the problem.
We had something similar happen when trying to make our own cottage cheese and paneer cheese. So now we make our own full fat milk from skimmed milk and cream which has acceptable (but not perfect) results.
I'm sure the more experience you get, the better the results.
RT
did you know how cheese was invented? It wasnt necessity, it was an
accident, <'http://www.swissworld.org/en/switzerland/swiss_specials/swiss_cheese/history_of_cheesemaking/'>read
this
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