Grass-Fed Cheese - Available from where?

Liz D · Post by **Liz D** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 4:36 pm

Haha, I'm still using the one I got in Norway 34 years ago! And I don't think it is very commonly used because everyone 'looks' at it until I pick it up and show them the 'puzzle'!

I find that molds, good molds, have been pretty predictable with my cheese. A blue mold, left to mature, will give that brown/grey rind on either of the hard cheeses I make and penicillium cand. (white) will not allow the blue to colonize if it is in proximity but will leave the white in it's place, like the other hard cheese in my picture. I like to mix it, proximity wise, with cheese made with bacterial linnens, red, for both flavour and appearance :;): But any colonization of black mold will throw everything (including me) out of sinc and means a day sterilizing my cheese room! The problems that I have had other than that have come from the introduction of coloforms, by accident, into my cheese. I am making your recipe right now! I will let you know how it worked out with my conversions, not scientific, to my cultures. Liz

Minnie · Post by **Minnie** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 2:10 am

Just a thank you to Anna for her recipe. :D

Vicki

Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 4:17 pm

You said it was easy to make cheese. Well I've just looked on WikiHow and this is how to do a basic cheese apparently. Even I could do it and that's saying something...It can't be this simple, surely?

1. Place two cups of milk in the saucepan, slowly bringing the milk to a boil while stirring constantly. It is very important to constantly stir the milk or it will burn.

2. Turn the burner off once the milk is boiling, but leave the saucepan on the element or gas grate.

3. Add 4 teaspoons vinegar to the boiling milk, at which point the milk should turn into curds and whey.

4. Stir well with spoon and let it sit on the element for 5-10 minutes.

5. Pass the curds and whey through cheesecloth or a handkerchief to separate the curds from the whey.

6. Press the cheese using the cloth to get most of the moisture out.

7. Open the cloth and add a pinch of salt if desired.

8. Mix the cheese and salt and then press again to remove any extra moisture.

9. Put the cheese in a mold or just leave it in a ball type form.

10. Refrigerate for a while before eating.

Edited By Broomcroft on 1255879144

Minnie · Post by **Minnie** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 10:09 pm

Hi Clive,

While there's much more experienced cheesemakers on this forum, who've given me great info, I'll jump in.

This is sort of Ricotta, and while technically cheese, not quite how to do a really 'nice' cheese, IMHO.

I've got a step by step with pics on how to do Camembert if you want to make that, which all things going well this week we'll be doing and then I'll make Anna's (looking forward to that one). www.seco.com.au/homemade_camembert_cheese.php

There's the Rikki Carroll 30 min Mozzarella there as well.

Once you make a successful, good tasting cheese, you just get hooked!
:D
Vicki

Edited By Minnie on 1255900212

Anna · Post by **Anna** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:51 am

I am sure you can make cheese Clive. You just need some good raw milk (store milk works too of course, but is as funny as store meat), a thermometer and a little patience. It is magic to make and eat your own cheese, I would encourage anyone owning a cow to try it. A milking relation with a cow is also kind of magic. Hard sometimes, but very meaningful.

Your recipe looks similar to panir, an Indian fresh cheese. If you like Indian cooking it is very much worth a try. Mater panir and palak panir are my favourite panir dishes. A bad thing with the panir is that the cheese becomes very small. It is normal, so don´t be to sad when 3 litres of milk result in a very small ball of cheese. Use double or triple layers of cheesecloth, it increases the quantity.

The 30 minutes mozarella mentioned by Minnie is easy and funny to make, try that one too.

Ricki Carrolls book is good for both beginners and more experienced: http://www.amazon.com/Home-Ch....0174647

Liz D · Post by **Liz D** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 11:01 pm

I agree Anna, turning milk into cheese is magic! That is exactly how I feel all the time; it fascinates me. The Ricotta /paneer recipe is also called queso blanco in Mexico! I think that if we look at all the cheeses in the world, with the slight exceptions of culture, temperature and handling of the curds, they are about 5 different ways of doing them. This also fascinates me. Clive I would get a hold of some raw milk, 2 liters maybe, warm it to room temperature, 20- 23, add 2.5 ml of mesophilic starter or 100ml of buttermilk, mix well, a couple of drops of cheese rennet diluted in 100ml cool water or the equivalent of junket (maybe somene could help here, I've never used junket) mix into milk, leave at room temperature for 16 hours, when it makes a cake separated from the pan, drain in cheese cloth for another 16 hours, salt to taste, usually 5ml/ 454 grams of cheese. Best cream cheese ever! Add herbs, smoked salmon, maybe anything you want, but make sure you just try it plain first because :p wow it's good!
Liz ps Anna this is week three of your cheese, I'll let you know if I did it right!

Edited By Liz D on 1256076114

Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 1:53 pm

Well I've made the simple cheese that I posted the recipe for on the previous page. It took about 15 mins. Now it's in the fridge. I just used full cream organic supermarket milk as a test, with wine vinegar. It curdled well. I put a pinch a sea salt in.

Do I eat it or leave it mature?

Liz D · Post by **Liz D** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 5:31 pm

Eat it. It is meant to be a fresh cheese. I use it for cooking, lasagna, cannolloni etc and also make great cheesecake from it, both savory and sweet. Enjoy, Clive!

Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 8:03 pm

Well I ate it and it wasn't bad. I could taste the vinegar so today I made another queso blanca cheese, and again took no time at all, but I used cider vinegar, that's all I had, and not so much. I added a bit of salt and black pepper to the curd and mixed it in before squeezing it in the cheese cloth. I've eaten that one now as well, and it was a very nice, simple cheese.

Total cost for a cheese about as big as an orange something like 30 pence, or 40 Euro Cents of you prefer. I like that!

I'm going to try using lemon juice next instead of vinegar.

Minnie · Post by **Minnie** » Sun Oct 25, 2009 11:39 pm

Be careful Clive, this cheesemaking gets you hooked. :;):

Enjoy

Vicki

Anna · Post by **Anna** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 8:30 am

Good to hear about the cheese making progress!

Have you figured out which cow you will turn into a milk cow? Have many is there to choose from? You should know that I am very very envious and would give a lot to be able to pick a milk cow from your herd of Woodmagic relatives.

Broomcroft · Post by **Broomcroft** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 10:33 am

I know what you mean Vicki, it is addictive and I think I will always make our own cheese from now on, but I've got to get the right ingredients. No way we're going to buy stuff. I feel like when my dad bought me a chemistry set. Had a good look around your website, very impressive and informative.

Anna - This is Caenwean (Kin-Wen), hardly Woodmagic material but she is a really nice animal and looks sort of the dairy side of Angus to me, not that I know what I'm looking for. Her udder is not perfect although it is nowhere near as bad as it looks in this photo. She is my number one friendly cow and she would probably love to be milked each day, and she isn't too short either which would help. She's due to calve late Spring.

I've got others that produce so much milk when with calf that it's ridiculous, but they aren't as cooperative.

Edited By Broomcroft on 1256549671

Anna · Post by **Anna** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 12:28 pm

Broomcroft wrote:..it is addictive and I think I will always make our own cheese from now on, but I've got to get the right ingredients. No way we're going to buy stuff.

Minnie · Post by **Minnie** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 3:55 am

Hi Clive,

We've been waiting on the weather to make camembert and it's cooled down a bit (little rain) so tomorrow's the day, need to get the starter going tonight.

Then Anna's cheese probably next week or in a couple more days depending on the weather again.

Last year we made Camembert and the weather turned hot (40 degrees) and the cheese turned black, another person told me the same happened to them a couple of weeks back.

Now I see why so much cheesemaking in Europe prior to refridgeration. :;):

Now for us we need to get milking in the next year, currently we source directly from a neighbouring dairy.

I love pic of the cow...
:D
Vicki

Liz D · Post by **Liz D** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 6:26 pm

Hi Anna, just wanted to report that the cheese tastes great!!! I just opened it today and liked it so much that I am going to share the recipe with the rest of the Canadian Association in the next newsletter (with full credits to you!) Here's a pic

Now do you prefer 'Annaost' or 'Ostanna' ? :D Liz