Tonight was attempt number 2. Much had changed. Well, at least a little had changed.
I started with 1 gallon of raw Jersey milk, obtained from friends who don't know what to do with all their milk.
I quadrupled the amount of rennet I used ... thanks to Daisy.
And while I followed Rikki's recipe ... pretty much ... some things were different. Instead of 3 to 5 minutes, it took 40 minutes for the milk to coagulate into curds. I was glad that several folks (the Milkmaid and the Settler's wife among them, I believe) had told me to wait, and that eventually the rennet would do its work.
When I finished, I had a round ball of mozzarella cheese. I took off just a little and tasted it. It was wonderful. I think I know what is for lunch tomorrow. A grilled cheese sandwich, made from my home baked whole wheat bread (from freshly ground wheat), my home made mozzarella cheese, and real butter. (Though the butter was obtained at the grocery store. I'm not using any of the cream from the remaining gallon of milk I have to make butter; instead, it will be turned into mozzarella, probably on Thursday night. Gotta make bread again tomorrow night.)
Yum! Yum! This agrarian stuff really works!
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
13 comments:
congrats Jon!! I am so excited for you!!
Well, having in my comments on one post complained about agrarianism, unpasteurized milk, and margarine you would think I would be shy in my congratulation. But I am not!
Congrats! I do know, that the pleasure of eating you have made that is good is not to be under-rated.
"Here is what I have seen: It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him; for it is his heritage."
There! And I was being serious. Humblest apologies if I have disappointed anyone.
Jon, I keep trying to make this comment thing work...
Yummy! I want some, too. So, do you have to use raw milk; or has everyone concluded that it was the rennet problem? Mozzarella is SO expensive in Korea...
What about yogurt? Have you made that yet?
Congratulations, Jon! Mmm, cheese! I'll be right over. ;^D
P.S. I left you a reply on my blog.
What about yogurt? Have you made that yet?
Daisy has, quite a few times. Her yogurt is so much better than the fake stuff you get at the grocery store. In fact, one time it was thicker than the store-bought stuff without adding any thickening agents! Oh, she did use raw-milk (of course)!
A grilled cheese sandwich, made from my home baked whole wheat bread (from freshly ground wheat), my home made mozzarella cheese, and real butter.
What? No home-preserved jam to go on the sandwich?
What? No home-preserved jam to go on the sandwich?
Nope. 'Specially not on the grilled cheese sandwich.
I did have some honey with my homebaked bread (honey from a hive I built; unfortunately, the honey production was very bad this year, and I only got a small sample.)
All my jamming is done with a piano, guitar, bass guitar, or (rarely) trombone, but never with fruit. I actually have some jam in the fridge made by the Knights' mother and sisters. I will make sure to use it on the bread soon.
Milkmaid: Thanks! I'm excited, too. And it was you who pointed me to the recipe!
Sarie: 'Tis true, as The Book says, that it is good and fitting to eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of one's labor. Thank you for your encouragement.
Karen, aka Anonymous: It is not conclusively settled, but that is the working theory at the moment. I received just my real rennet in the mail today, so if that was the problem, it should work consistently now. You will have to try some when you are back in the states for Christmas. And no, I haven't made yogurt yet. But that is on the list.
Emily: Let me know when you are coming so I can make sure some is on hand. And if you are coming all the way from the Northeast, see if you can bring Scott & Leah along, as well as Herrick & Marlene. This could be quite a get-together.
All my jamming is done with a piano, guitar, bass guitar, or (rarely) trombone, but never with fruit.
Aha! And so the truth finally comes out. A trombone. Now we know where all of that strangeness comes from...
Congratulations Jon,
I have been wanting to try this so maybe your success will incite me to give it a go.
Can you tell me how many ounces of cheeze a gallon of milk yields?
Justin,
Thank you!
I am far from the expert ... you could get more details from Christina. However, I was reading last night in Ricki's cheese book (it came in the mail yesterday), and between what it said and what I've otherwise heard, it seems that hard cheeses yield around 1 pound per gallon, soft cheeses up to 2 pounds per gallon, and the easy mozarella yields between 1/2 and 3/4 pound per gallon.
I just got my real rennet in the mail day before yesterday, so I am going to be making cheese again tonight. Hopefully it will work better than the pseudo-rennet from Wal-Mart. Christina tells me that a scant 1/8 teaspoon of the real powdered stuff will set 2 gallons of milk for quick mozzarella. That's concentrated!
I have gotten a little over a pound of the easy mozarella for each gallon of milk.
Post a Comment