Wednesday, November 30, 2005

It's Cheese!

I just have to share how my attempt at cheese making turned out! There was some question as to whether or not my Colby was going to be edible. With great encouragement from the Kansas Milkmaid, I waxed the cheese and aged it anyway. Faithfully I turned it each day, praying that it would not be a horrible mess when we broke it open. I decided to cut it for Thanksgiving even though it was a bit early (Ok...I need to work on patience) and we had cheese!! Let me correct that, we had glorious, creamy, taste-bud thrilling, cheese! It looked a bit funny because I did not use the typical food coloring found in cheese - it lacked that orange color. But, I could not believe the difference in taste! It was so much creamier... and the flavor was richer, fuller.....better! So now, I confess....I am hooked and much more of our milk will be diverted to cheese! I envision my little dorm refrigerator (now called the cheese frig) filled with all types of cheeses! After I get several wheels of Colby in there I think I will try Parmesan next (I use a lot of fresh Parmesan in cooking and baking) and then some hot pepper cheeses! Here is a picture of our wonderful cheese....take a quick look because I am sure it will be gone by Christmas. For those of you with a local milk supply, I encourage you to give it a try....it isn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be!

8 comments:

  1. *

    Very Nice! What an inspiration you and KSMM are!

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  2. We started out trying one fridge now we have two used for curing chambers. Well...used to be..that is, we are selling more milk these days so we have just one fridge now.

    I am amazed this doesn't look all that different from the plate of cheese I served Rick Saenz when he visited. I had crackers and slices of apples on a plate just like this. I even served him Colby. Are you my long lost twin? It was a bit green( refering to ripening not color) though. I rushed it in the aging just to share some with him. It was not as good as it could have been. Cheese making is such a wonderful undertaking. It brings a nice supplement to the farm too.

    You go girl!! Keep cutting the curd!!

    So it sounds like your cheese cloth was too hot when you pressed. How awesome!!!

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  3. Wonderful! I grew up on a dairy, and my mom always made butter but never tried to make cheese. Now I wonder why? Anyway, is your recipe secret or could you share it? I would like to try this, just to see if I can.
    My dad talks about how his grandmother made such wonderful cottage cheese and he tried tons of recipes and never got it right. Now he says he thinks hers was better because she made it in an old wood cookstove. He says the same thing about her bread, although I notice he doesn't complain about the bread I make.

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  4. Herrick:
    Thanks for your kind words!!

    KSMM,
    I definitely think there is some type of twin thing going....just gets crazier and crazier - yes I guess the cloth was too hot - I am so thankful that it turned out well! My Josiah had to be threatened to stop him from consuming the whole thing that day!

    Husker...
    The recipe is from the book Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carroll (used to be called Cheese Makiing Made Easy). I'd type it in but it's two pages long and I just don't have the time...sorry! I recommend the book though - it would be a good one to start with.

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  5. Your cheese looks beautiful and delicious!!! I really must try my hand at cheese making! We definitely have a great supply of milk! ;) Hmmm. Now I'm going to have to see where I can get a copy of the book you mentioned!

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  6. Yes, we have the consumption thing going on too. It took us a long time to sell any cheese we made because we devoured a four pound wheel in one day. Gouda was absolutely out of this world.

    Now anytime I open a wheel for a customer the children flock around begging for cheese. We call it doing a cheese dance. Would it surprise you that one of my youngest's first words was "Cheese"

    For those interested in making cheese. Our website has links on the How to Make cheese page. There are sites listed with full color step by step photos and some even have video clips. It is a fascinating process.


    When you are interested, TN I have a neat P. Jack recipe Brian makes. Yummy. I don't think it is listed quite the same way in Carroll's book.

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  7. Thanks for the tip on the book, I'll look for it. And I'm heading over to the Milkmaid's site to check it out. Silly me, I read her blog, but never looked at everything else. :)

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  8. Oh, my............cheese! First tasty bread from Sam, now copious links to cheese. Looks wonderful. Cheese ranks a very close second to my love for Coffee. I think I may have to explore this process.......thank you for posting.

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