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Post by carragheendexters on Jul 20, 2014 19:02:06 GMT -5
I just spent the weekend doing a beginners' cheese making course. Two full days of absolute fun. The course was run by a 4th generation veteran professional cheesemaker, who was just so fantastic and patient with everyone. Pots, pans, ladles, thermometers, milk and water was flying around the kitchen at an incredible pace all weekend. I can't believe that the cheeses all turned out so well knowing what it was like in that kitchen with a bunch of amateurs.
They were all soft cheeses that we made, such as ricotta, labne cheese, fetta, lactic, mozzarella (there were 9 cheeses all up) plus 2 different varieties of yogurt. We had to use pasteurised milk for legal reasons, but he did have unhomogenised milk from the local Jersey dairy for us to use.
I am all motivated now to do the next course, the advanced course, where you make brie, camembert, cheddars, a Monterey jack, plus a few others.
Here are a few of the cheeses we made, just the prettier ones, some didn't look sufficiently ummm, less amateurish to show all. In other words they looked a mess LOL. The tasting was the best part, I was all cheesed out after the weekend and absolutely stuffed. Not a lot of cheese left to take home.
This one is the fetta before salting
This is the lactic cheese  
This is the haloumi being salted I
and this is the queso fresco
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Post by ladena on Jul 21, 2014 7:08:48 GMT -5
Wow, I bet that was fun! The pictures are great. Everything looks so tasty. Why the pattern on the lactic?  |
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zephyrhillsusan
member
Caught Dexteritis in Dec. 2009. Member of this forum since Oct. 2013.
Posts: 1,502 
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Post by zephyrhillsusan on Jul 21, 2014 12:52:42 GMT -5
That's a really pretty mold they used for the lactic; I'm assuming it was pressed? It sounds like a wonderful experience! You're reminding me that I'm hungry!
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Post by carragheendexters on Jul 21, 2014 20:17:29 GMT -5
Well, it wasn't intentional for the lactic cheese to look so pretty, it happened by accident. Our teacher of the course believes in using whatever is at hand, not spending big money for equipment when you can pick up something cheaply at the supermarket that will do the job.
The basket that we used for draining the lactic was one of those vegetable containers that have a little basket in a plastic tub, you know the sort that you can keep beetroot etc in.
Lactic cheese is a drained cheese, where you ladle the curd in layers into the basket and let it sit to drain overnight. It compacts down to about a 3rd of its size. With ours we put a layer of fresh sterilised herbs through the middle of each one. Being winter the herbs were a bit too mild though for a lot of flavour. This was the only one that came out still in one piece, the others broke down and looked a right mess LOL. Still tasted great though.
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Post by wildberryfarm on Jul 21, 2014 22:05:10 GMT -5
This is so cool! I'm going to keep my eye out for a similar workshop in my neighborhood. Thanks Louise. |
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Post by legendrockranch on Jul 21, 2014 22:51:30 GMT -5
Oh YUM! Ship some over to Texas!!!
The basket that you used for the lactic cheese reminds me of the days I used to bake breads in decorative proofing baskets.
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