Mason Jar Marcellin

[Owly055]

I'm trying my second run at Chevre, and decided to do Ascher's Mason Jar Marcellin. The recipe is about as simple as it gets. Just warm a gallon of milk, and add 1/4 cup of kefir, and 1/16 tablet of Walcoren (dissolved in water). Let it sit for 2 or more days, until the curd drops to the bottom, and geotrichum forms a film on top. Ladle it into a cheese cloth and let hang for 24 hours, then salt and let hang for another two days, after which it is packed into 5 half pint wide mouth mason jars, lightly lidded and refrigerated for a couple of months to grow a layer of mold on top, and ripen. Once fully ripened, he says you can eat it like fondue. It goes from firm and crumbly to liquidy.

I took lazy to the next level.... Instead of heating the milk , I simply dumped my kefir in.....It calls for heating to 90F, but doesn't mention holding it... Instead of using 1/4 cup, I put a full quart in, crushed my walcoren tab using my mortar and pestle, dissolved in warm water, added calcium chloride, and some lipase, and mixed it all together, and set the works on a seedling mat, allowing it to warm slowly, and went off to work. This morning the curd is well set and pulling away, and beginning to settle. You don't cut the curd on this cheese.
How much looser can one get on procedure than that? I suspect that it will work fine, but time will tell.

H.W.

 

[bernardsmith]

I tried this a little while ago but mine did not turn out as indicated. It was certainly edible but not fondue-like.

 

[Owly055]

I tried this a little while ago but mine did not turn out as indicated. It was certainly edible but not fondue-like.

How long did you ripen it?

H.W.

 

[bernardsmith]

A month, six weeks.. I got a lovely surface on the cheese before I transferred it to the mason jars but it did not seem to mature as it was supposed to and I guess I ran out of patience.. Doesn't mean that I am not going to give this cheese a second chance.

 

[Owly055]

Yesterday, about 52 hours into the process, I had geotrichum showing. The curd had not dropped beneath the whey as it was supposed to, but obviously I had not followed procedure, not heating the milk, and adding a full quart of kefir. I ladled the works into a cheese cloth lined colander..... the process took a couple of hours, as the whey didn't flow freely, and the curd mass blocked the cheese cloth. Periodically I used a spatula to scrape the cheese cloth, moving the more solid mass that and built up on the cloth inward, allowing the more watery curd to flow to the cloth and drain. Each time, adding more to the colander, until it was filled. I then covered it, and every hour or so repeated the spatula procedure until it was firm enough and reduced enough to bring the cloth together and tie it and hang it. This evening I will salt the curd, and then allow it another 48 hours to drain and dry as per the directions, before putting it in jars.
The whey from this refused to make ricotta..............

H.W.

 

[Owly055]

I salted my mason jar marcellin a little while ago........ it will hang for another two days, and then go into the jars. Beautiful stuff! I haven't made an ordinary chevre, but if this is what it's going to be like, it's on my list. I may have a source of goat's milk before long......... This stuff is like a rich thick lovely sour cream, but way more interesting and complex than any sour cream I've ever tasted. I was a little reluctant to salt it......... The procedure I used was the ultimate in simplicity. I just pulled the milk out of the fridge and poured it in the stock pot, added a quart of kefir out of the fridge, dissolved 1/16 of a tablet of rennet in a quarter cup of water and added it, then put it in a warm place and left it alone for 2 1/2 days........ no stove top, no thermometers, no curd cutting, stirring, etc..... It doesn't get any easier than that!
H.W.