This might have been asked in the past, but I'll ask again-Has anyone made home-made cheese? If so, how did it turn out? Did you use milk you bought at the grocery store or were you able to get some fresh milk locally? I was re-reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver, and as I read the section about them making cheese, I became interested again. They suggested ordering the rennet, etc. from New England Cheesemaking Supply. If anyone has made it, what kind did you make?

Cindy, I've also been intrigued about cheesemaking since reading the book. I'm game for some kitchen experiments if you are!

Many years ago I made fresh yogurt cheese, following a recipe in Sunset Magazine. As I recall, basically all you did was to put the yogurt in cheesecloth and hang it from the faucet overnight to drain. But there may have been more to it than that. Maybe I even made my own yogurt with a starter. It was pretty good, but not so good that I felt impelled to keep doing it over and over!

This was probably back in the late 70s or early 80s when I used to do some serious cooking. In more recent years, I've gotten a lot lazier! (Also, it's gotten a lot easier to buy good natural foods than it was back then.)

- Roz

Roz-I have done that with yogurt in the past also.

Amy-I think I'd like to try. Have you ordered the book yet? I just looked at their website, and they have a special where you get the book, a DVD, and mozzerella kits(It was a large amt) for $50. Unfortunately, it's $16.95 to ship here. I'll also check Amazon.

This month's Gourmet magazine has carefully detailed instructions for making fresh mozzarella using cow's milk. I'm intrigued but haven't given it a try yet. Last month's Bon Appetit told you how to make fresh ricotta - I'll start with that.

I made the fresh ricotta from November (?) Food and Wine. It's different from the Bon Appetit recipe. The first time I did the process, it really didn't work--I got just a little bit of curds and lots of milk left. so, I did the whole thing again with the remaining milk and it worked like a charm. The resulting ricotta was absolutely fabulous. One thing that made it so rich and wonderful was it was full fat, made from a mixture of whole milk and a little cream.

If you can't get the recipe on line just let me know and I'll post it here. I thought it was great fun.

jan

There is a really good food blog out there (The Paupered Chef) where they really experiment with food. They guys who write it have english lit degrees I think thus the blog is very well written. They did a two part series on making ricotta and mozzarella. The posts are here.

homemade ricotta

The writer of one of the blogs I read made the ricotta from Food and Wine, and I bookmarked it but haven't gotten around to it yet. Great photos of the process (and it doesn't look that hard).

I am also interested in attempting to make cheese. Hmmmm... Sunday Slow Cheesmakers anyone?

quote:

Originally posted by AnnieNC:
homemade ricotta

I've made ricotta using a similar recipe but without the heavy cream. Easy to make and fast results. After making it a few times with cow milk, I switched to goat milk and loved the flavor and the texture. I since make it only with goat milk. I put it on crostini and drizzle a bit of olive oil and top it with basil, or diced tomatoes or bits of bacon.

Thanks for the info everyone. I'm going to have to get out my Food & Wine magazine and try the ricotta. I can't get fresh ricotta here, so it will be interesting to see the difference between it and the store-bought stuff I get.

Shannon-I think we should think about a Sunday Slow Cheesemakers. But I am trying to lose weight, not gain more. How about a once a month thing? I belong to Daring Bakers, and at the beginning of the month the chosen person posts the recipe we are going to make. We can make it anytime during the month, then on the designated day at the end of the month we all post about it on our blogs. I think I could handle making a cheese once a month. Would anyone be interested in that? We could always start out with the easier kinds like ricotta and mozzerella.

I would do that, Cindy! I LOVE cheese!

Nancy

Cindy, that is a great idea. Aging some cheese takes time - this could be an interesting experiment indeed.

I'm in for sure.

Check this out:
http://www.homebeerwinecheese.com/cstart.htm

Shannon-Your link takes you to the books/kits I was looking at. That's who they recommend in "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle".

Nancy-Glad you're also interested.

Let me do a little searching and see what all I come up with. I think it could be really fun to age some cheese also. Maybe we could start out with something easy like the ricotta to get us going, then move to mozzerella, then on to some aged cheeses. I'll get an idea of length of time it take to make, expenses involved, etc. I know that some of the cultures you order come in very large quantities, and we might even want to share some of those. Not so sure I want to make 30 batches of mozzerella!

In the meantime, let me know who is interested, and if there are specific types of cheeses you would be interested in making. This one might have to be a little different than we do the others where one person chooses a recipe, because of the expenses involved with ordering the cultures. I need to look again, but I think they had kits available that had various cultures in them. I will also need to check out a few things like is the goat cheese I can buy ultra-pasturized. That is the one thing I did read-you can use pasturized milk, but not ultra-pasturized. I know here, all of the organic milk for sale is ultra-pasturized. And there's only a couple of dairy farms in the state, and they don't sell to the public.

From this month's Gourmet Magazine fresh mozzarella
Be sure to click on the link to read the story. Looks interesting.

I'm definitely interested in cheese making. My next door neighbor has the book and has been experimenting with the mozzarella and paneer and cheddar. I've actually asked him to write an article about the subject. But maybe I need to get my hands in there and try it too.



-Krista

I just got the book "Home Cheese Making" by Ricki Carroll from Amazon on Friday. I've only quickly skimmed it, and I'm excited to try some. I'll spend some time this week looking through the book for some recipes that we might start out with. I'll also look at the websites to find out about ordering supplies. I'm sure we'll want to start with the soft cheeses that don't need ripening, but I think it could be very interesting to try some that need to be ripened also. But I'll have to see what equipment and area for aging that is needed for those.

Cindy, I am interested to see what you find out. Glad you will do the research and find out what is needed and the cost.

Sounds like fun, and who doesn't love cheese?

I (and my hips) like the monthly idea for this one - this group cooking thing is certainly taking me places I would not have probably ventured before - thanks for doing the research Cindy. Would we start after soups, or sometime sooner?

Okay, I’ve been going though the book and on the website, and think I have come up with the information we need. The book I am using is Home Cheesemaking by Ricki Carroll. It’s available on her website New England Cheesemaking Supply Company for $16.95, or on Amazon for $11.53, or most likely it’s at your neighborhood bookstore. I think you will need to purchase the book, as it has the recipes, plus needed information about types of milk to use, equipment needed, etc. There are a variety of cheeses in the book-soft, Italian, goats, and aged cheeses. While the aged cheeses sound very intriguing, I think we should skip them for now. They need specialized equipment, like a cheese press, which runs from $125-$250. I’m not ready to make that investment right now. Because we will need to order our supplies ahead of time, and will probably want to place fewer orders due to shipment costs, I don’t think we can do this one with having everyone choose a cheese. We could certainly have input if there is a cheese you would like to see included. What I did was look through the book, looking at ingredients needed and any special things that might keep some of us from making a certain cheese(one I wanted to make had to sit for a day or two at a minimum temperature of 72 degrees, and you won’t find that at my house). There are certainly more cheeses in the book that you could make with ingredients you will be ordering, but here’s the list I came up with (with descriptions from the book):
GOATS-MILK CHEESES
Soft Goat Cheese-a delicious soft cheese that’s a very basic goat cheese for beginners.
Feta-one that ages in the refrigerator for 4-5 days.
ITALIAN CHEESES
30 Minute Mozzarella-a quick easy fresh mozzarella that’s ready in 30 minutes
SOFT CHEESES
Mascarpone-can be made in two ways
Whole-milk Ricotta-Uses whole milk from the grocery, not whey which is usually used.
Ricotta Salata-a dry salted cheese that may be eaten at a young age as a sliceable dessert cheese or when mature as a grating cheese. Ages 2-4 weeks.
Lactic Cheese-a delicious, soft, spreadable cheese that’s easy to make and ready to eat in 24 hours. Good flavored with herbs.
Cream Cheese: uncooked-curd method-Easy to make, rich & creamy, very easy to make.

I’ll post another message with the ingredients and cost. Also, if we do this as once a month, I don't think we need to wait until we finish with the soup, since I imagine that group will go on to something else. We could start in a month or so, as soon as everyone has time to order their ingredients. I could post the recipe we are going to use at the beginning of each month, then you would have the entire month to make it, then post on your blog at the end of the month. On this site, you could post as you finish your cheese with any hints, etc. We do Daring Bakers that way-post the recipe at the beginning of the month, make during the month, then all post on our blog on the stated date at the end of the month.

Who's interested?

Here's the list of what we would need if we made the cheeses listed in the previous messages. The website for you to look at this is New England Cheesemaking Supply Company.

Crème fraiche (DS), 5 pack $5.95
Fresh Starter, 1 pack $5.95
Mesophilic starter (DS), 5 pack $5.95
Animal liquid rennet, 2 oz. $6.50 (there’s also a vegetable rennet)
Cheese salt, 8 oz. $2.95
Citric acid, 8 oz $5.95
Calcium chloride, 2 oz. $4.95
Italase lipase powder, 2 oz. $6.95
Tartaric acid, 4 oz. $4.95
Basic kit mold (for soft goat cheese) $5.50
Ricotta Mold $4.50
Or Disposable Ricotta Molds(12) $9.50
Butter Muslin, 2 yards $5.95
Dairy Thermometer, dial $9.95
Or Dairy Thermometer, budtet $15.95

If you need it, there’s a curd knife for 20.00

You can add the items to your shopping cart, then put in your city, state, and zip and it will tell you estimated shipping charges. I didn't include the curd knife, and I think I added the cheve starter also, and the total was around $81.00. My estimated shipping to Alaska was $19.00.

I am cracking myself up think of possible CHEESY names for this group!

Palma-I hope you can come up with a name-I can't think of anything. What do you about the choices of cheese I listed-is that the type you would like? Do you think the costs are reasonable? We can cut down on the varieties, but so many of them use the same ingredients, so I don't know how much it would help.

I think the choices are fine. The only other thing I would love to try would be something bluish, or more ripened, like a robiola. It sounds like a worthwhile investment, especially since we will only make one a month. Some of us may be able to share shipping too.

I will put Brad on the names too.

Palma-I think it would be nice to make a blue or ripened cheese also, but those kind you have to use the cheese press for, and because of the expense I want to wait. If you or anyone else decides to invest in one (or build one yourself, because you can buy plans) then maybe you can make on your own and let us know how they turn out.

I came across this website today and thought this group might be interested:

Cheese making illustrated

There are lots more information at the main cheese page. (note - I'd recommend staying away from the butchering 101 and deer skinning links).

Thanks Marta. I'll spend some time later reading this link. I'm anxious to see how they make their cheese press.

I just tried the home made ricotta from last month's Bon Appetit magazine - super easy and really good! It was done in 15 minutes, start to finish. Had some today for lunch with roasted red peppers and a drizzle of olive oil. I'll be watching you cheese makers now.