Cheese making has now joined brewing, mead making, sausage making, bread making, dehydrating, and canning and preserving in my repertoire of food-related craft pursuits. I'm excited about it.
I made some queso blanco last week, and some mozzarella today. I was fairly pleased with the results in both cases considering that it was my first attempts. But I clearly have a lot of room for improvement.
The queso blanco came out a little harder than it should, but it went very well on salads and with scrambled eggs and with greens (turnip, kale, etc). I think I used too much vinegar. I'll use less next time to see if I can keep it a bit softer. The mozzarella I made today seemed bland, but the consistency and texture were pretty good.
I've been researching milk. Getting good milk is going to prove to be a challenge. It seems like most grocery store milk these days, especially the organic milks, are ultra-pasteurized. You can't make cheese from UP milk. It won't set into proper curds.
One problem is that some grocery store milk that is ultra-pasteurized isn't labeled as such. I tried regular whole milk from Costco, and even though it wasn't labeled UP, I am sure that it was. The curds wouldn't form at all. Basically, UP milk is a dead white fluid that resembles real milk in some regards, except that it doesn't taste good and isn't good for you.
Today I used Shepp's milk, which is from a local dairy. It worked fine for a conventionally pasteurized and homogenized cow's milk.
What I really want for my cheese making is raw unpasteurized goat's milk and cow's milk. Licensed raw milk farmers in Texas can sell it to consumers, but the purchase and pickup must be made at the farm where the milk is produced. It can't be sold in stores or anywhere off the farm. Around here raw goat's milk tends to go for about $14 a gallon. I don't know about raw cow's milk, as I'm still looking for a source. The main problem with sourcing it is that all of the producers near here are 50 to 70 miles away, and the ones I called aren't accepting any more customers right now. I'm on a waiting list for March at one of the farms.
If I can solve my milk supply problem, I'll be looking for a wine cooler to convert into a cheese aging fridge.
I made some queso blanco last week, and some mozzarella today. I was fairly pleased with the results in both cases considering that it was my first attempts. But I clearly have a lot of room for improvement.
The queso blanco came out a little harder than it should, but it went very well on salads and with scrambled eggs and with greens (turnip, kale, etc). I think I used too much vinegar. I'll use less next time to see if I can keep it a bit softer. The mozzarella I made today seemed bland, but the consistency and texture were pretty good.
I've been researching milk. Getting good milk is going to prove to be a challenge. It seems like most grocery store milk these days, especially the organic milks, are ultra-pasteurized. You can't make cheese from UP milk. It won't set into proper curds.
One problem is that some grocery store milk that is ultra-pasteurized isn't labeled as such. I tried regular whole milk from Costco, and even though it wasn't labeled UP, I am sure that it was. The curds wouldn't form at all. Basically, UP milk is a dead white fluid that resembles real milk in some regards, except that it doesn't taste good and isn't good for you.
Today I used Shepp's milk, which is from a local dairy. It worked fine for a conventionally pasteurized and homogenized cow's milk.
What I really want for my cheese making is raw unpasteurized goat's milk and cow's milk. Licensed raw milk farmers in Texas can sell it to consumers, but the purchase and pickup must be made at the farm where the milk is produced. It can't be sold in stores or anywhere off the farm. Around here raw goat's milk tends to go for about $14 a gallon. I don't know about raw cow's milk, as I'm still looking for a source. The main problem with sourcing it is that all of the producers near here are 50 to 70 miles away, and the ones I called aren't accepting any more customers right now. I'm on a waiting list for March at one of the farms.
If I can solve my milk supply problem, I'll be looking for a wine cooler to convert into a cheese aging fridge.