Whey Ricotta - first try

While my first attempt at Feta was draining in a colander, I decided to use the fresh whey it produced to try Whey Ricotta. This is a way to use the whey and not be wasteful.

Simply pour the drained whey into a large pot and heat it to 195-200 degrees on the stove. Do not let it boil. As soon as the curds separate, remove it from the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Carefully ladle the curds out of the pot and into a cheese cloth lined strainer and let it drain for 20 minutes. The recipe said to add salt or herbs. I chose to sprinkle in some mixed Greek herbs into the cheese.

Results: The yield was very small, but the recipe said I could have added some milk to the whey to increase the yield. The taste was fantastic. It was a nice dry, crumbly ricotta that I ate on crackers with sun dried tomatos. It tasted heavenly. So far, it was the best tasting cheese I have made.

Feta - first try

The day after Christmas, excited by my new supplies and recipe book that I got as presents, I decided to try making the fresh greek cheese Feta. My new recipe book gave much more detail than the internet recipes I have used so far, so I was very confident.
Because my store bought goats milk was ultra pasturized, I decided to do a mixture of goat milk and cows milk. The recipe said you could use either. I also chose full fat milk, hoping it would somehow be more effective. The recipe book said to add calcium carbonate diluted in 1/4 cup of milk to any milk that was pasturized so I did this first.

Next I added the Mesophilic starter as directed and eventually 1/2 a rennet tablet dissolved in 1/4 cup of water. I will also add that in all cases, I used filtered water as the cook book said that chlorinated water would kill the good bacteria that is in cheese.

I was happy to see improvement in the setting of the cheese. This time it did start to become thicker as expected, but after an hour and a half of keeping the contents at the prescribed temperature, it still hadn't reached the clean break stage where when you cut across the curds, the cut remains and doesn't reseal itself. Eventually, I was tired of waiting and did my "cutting of the curds" even though they seemed a bit too soft.

At that point, the curds and whey are supposed to separate even more and the curds should be in a 1/2 inch dice. My dice was a bit big because I am still not very skilled at this step. Then the next hour was spent slowing raising the temperature to 100 degrees and keeping it at that temperature for about an hour, stirring often.

Again, all seemed to be going well except my curds seemed a bit soft.

Eventually the curds get drained in a cheese-cloth lined colander and allowed to drain for 1 hour. At the end of the hour, you cut it into blocks , drain another 1/2 hour while you sprinkle it with a little cheese salt, and while it is sitting you also mix cheese salt with water to make a brine. The cheese is then packed into containers and surrounded by the brine.

At this point I tasted the cheese and it did taste like Feta! Hurray!! However, it was still softer than the Feta I buy in the store and each day that I ate it (the next 4 days), it got softer and the brine got milkier as the cheese disintigrated.
Review: It tasted like Feta, but was too soft and didn't hold up in the brine. Not a total disaster, but still not what I wanted. It was fun eating it though.

Check out my next blog on Whey Ricotta. It was a by-product of this Feta. The cook book explained how you can use the fresh whey that you drained off to make another cheese and this by-product was a bigger success.

Halloumi Cheese

Ingredients
8 pints fresh milk (a gallon), either goats or ewe or cow
1 Teaspoon Rennet or special cheese rennet
1/4 Teaspoon calcium carbonate
a little salt if desired

Equipments
Pan
2-3 Muslin bags or similar

Instructions

• Bring the milk to room temperature or heat it slightly on the stove. I didn't do this for my first attempt and the curds did not form. I later figured out my milk was too cold.

• Add the calcium carbonate to the milk only if you are using store bought milk. Apparently (I learned this the hard way) this milk has a lot of the calcium removed during processing.

• Next add rennet to the milk and let it set for 30 minutes.

• Break up the curds that form and put them into one or two muslin bags and hang to drain for about 30 minutes. (I didn't have bags, so I used cheese cloth and tied the 4 corners together)

• Take the liquid (whey) that drains and put it into a pot.

• The solids in the muslin will be firmer and oval in shape. Leave them hanging while you continue.

• Bring whey you put in the pot to the boil. If any curds form on the top, use a slotted spoon to remove them. Set these aside for the extra treat described below.

• Once the whey comes to a boil, lower the heat to just a simmer, remove the soft curds from your hanging muslin bags and lower them into the boiling whey. Let them simmer gently until the cheese floats to the top, approximately 20 minutes.

• Remove the cheese and sprinkle it with salt, and fold it in half and wrap it in cheese cloth.
  

• Place a weight on top of it and put it in the fridge for 2 hours.
  

• Save a small amount of the whey left in the pot in a airtight container that will also fit the cheese. After two hours, you can eat the cheese, but any that is left should be stored in the air-tight container with the small amount of whey.

This recipe makes 2 or 3 rounds of cheese.

Results and Taste testing: Well all looked to be going well once I figured out to warm up my milk. When I put the final product in the fridge under the weight, it looked just as expected, a pure cream color.

The next morning, when I checked on it, it had changed color. 80% of the cheese had gone from white to grey/clear. It was not appetizing looking at all!

However, I was determined to taste it. Halloumi's claim to fame is that you can grill it in a pan with no oil and it get browned and soft but doesn't melt away like other cheeses. So I sliced off a few slices and put them in a small pan. To my delight, as it heated, the color changed instantly back to all white and then it began to brown just like Halloumi from the store. I was also delighted to find that it tasted exactly like the cheese from the store too. My only disappointment is that it looks hideous before it is heated.

If anyone knows why this happened I would love to know what I could do differently to prevent this color change from happening the next time. Thanks
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Extra Treats
The curds that you skimmed from the whey and set aside can now be hung in the muslin bag and hung to dry. They will form a hard cheese that can be grated over spaghetti and other foods.

Or, instead of drying it, you can mix in some sugar and cinnamon into the soft curds for sweet snack.

You can use the left over whey that the cheese was simmered in to cook spaghetti noodles.

Chevre (Goat Cheese)

Today is my first attempt at making cheese. Because I am anxious to begin this new hobby, I wanted to start with an fresh cheese that doesn't require months of aging before I can taste it.

This recipe came from a guest on Martha Stewart.

First I need my supplies...

• 1 quart of goats milk
• juice from 2 lemons
• course salt
• chopped herbs - I will use parcel from my herb garden

I will also need...

• a double boiler
• a candy thermometer
• cheese cloth
• a wooden spoon

Step 1:
Heat the milk in a double boiler (don't let the water touch the bottom of the top half)

(my improvised double-boiler)

over simmering water until the thermometer shows it has reached 180 degrees Fahrenheit.


Step 2:
Remove from the heat and stir in the juice from the two lemons. Let it sit until it sets. This is quick - about 15 seconds. Add more lemon juice if it doesn't set right away.

(nothing obvious happened when I added the lemon. I expected curds to appear or at least lumps, but even when I added more lemon, nothing obvious happened, but I continued anyway.)

Step 3:
Line a colander with several layers of cheese cloth and then use a ladle to transfer the set cheese to the colander.

Step 4:
Tie up the 4 corners of the cheese cloth to make a bag and hang this bag from the wooden spoon over a pot. Leave it to drain for 2 hours until it reaches the consistency of cottage cheese.

Step 5:
Open the bag

and transfer the cheese to a small bowl and break it up with a fork or spoon. Mix in the chopped herb and some course salt (to taste).


Step 6:
Enjoy! Spread it on crackers and enjoy your first homemade cheese!

The leftovers can be stored in the fridge in an air-tight container for 1 week.
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Tasting results
I was really pleased with my first effort. The cheese turned out soft, creamy and a bit lemony (I did actually use a lot of lemon juice!). The Parcell herb added a nice touch, but I think dill would be good too. I didn't use much salt, but it was just perfect on a salty trisket.