The Cheese Thread

[Lindsay Dive]

Has anyone made fresh Ricotta?

It's the easiest cheese to make.

Use ten litres of milk and bring it up to 90 - 95 degrees C and then slowly pour in 1/2 cup of White Wine Vinegar whilst stirring. The action is immediate and very impressive.
Pour the result into a cheese cloth lined collander and let drain for a short time. Don't let it sit for too long in the collander or will be too dry.

Regards,
Lindsay.

 

[bottle top]

Could I use a bit of mushed up brie/cam rind as a white mold ionnoculation? Obviously from Andrews first post I can use a bit of blue stuff from a hunk of cheese as a blue mold starter ... I thought maybe the same would work for the white mold.

I was wondering the same thing myself, but I chose the safe option and ordered the spores from cheeselinks. It would be ideal if you could, as this is the most expensive ingredient to purchase (apart from the milk).

Couple of pics of my camemberts as they age:



You can see in the second pic, they now have a fine covering of white mould. Unfortunately I'm going interstate for 2 weeks so I won't be able to wrap them until I get back. Anyone have an opinion on whether I'm better off wrapping now or in 2 weeks time?

 

[sstacey]

Thanks Andrew and Kai, I thought my question got lost and just saw your responses today!
This looks really interesting. I'm going to give it a try.

 

[braufrau]

Could I use a bit of mushed up brie/cam rind as a white mold ionnoculation? Obviously from Andrews first post I can use a bit of blue stuff from a hunk of cheese as a blue mold starter ... I thought maybe the same would work for the white mold.

People on this forum do that all the time.
Keep in mind that you may get other bugs as well that have either been deliberately introduced (e.g. KI black label has b. linens on it as
well as the white mold) or naturally develop. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

 

[braufrau]

Something that I have been wondering... do you have to use non-homogenised milk to make cheese, or will your average supermarket full-cream milk do the job okay?

Unhomogenised milk is really easy to get in Adelaide.
Look for B.D. farms, murray bridge or fleurieu. B.D. farms is stocked by woollies and foodland.
Murray bridge I get from the greengrocers and fleurieu you can get at the wayville farmers makets.

BTW - B.D. farms is delicious

Also you can get the parmalat stuff too. I did the cheese course at the "blessed cheese" and he recommended
the parmalat stuff because its a blend of milk from different dairies and so less prone to regional changes such
as changes in pasture.

 

[braufrau]

Couple of pics of my camemberts as they age:

View attachment 16740View attachment 16739

what's the stuff in the bottom? Bubble wrap??

 

[bottle top]

what's the stuff in the bottom? Bubble wrap??

Hehe, that's some kind of plastic mesh that I found blowing around the garden in my mad search for something on which to rest the cams! Worked quite well, but I left it for two weeks without turning so it required a bit of gentle persuasion and general cheese mauling to separate the cheese from the plastic this arvo.

Pic of one of the cams prior to wrapping:


I guess I'll sample one in a couple days time and report back.

 

[capretta]

well here we are, blue vein take 2, i made these 4 days ago and i just popped them out of the molds when they'd shrunk enough for me to get them out. the two large ones came from small pool chlorine baskets from bunnings ($6 ea) and the flatter one is from the small storage buckets that i used for my first effort. i used a knife and fork drawer basket from bunnings ($5) and cut it to size for my fridge to place the cheeses on and provide good airflow underneath the cheese cause the metal cake cooler i used for the first one developed rust spots cause of the moisture.
i didnt compress these ones under weight and i used a mold culture from the roaring 40s blue from king island dairy, apparently a roquefort strain.
i used 3lx parmalat 7lx dairy farmers and 1lx full cream and the yield was a little higher than i expected, but i think i will get over it!

 

[65bellett]

Lindsay Dive, Cheers for the Ricotta recipe. I just made some out of 1 litre of milk it was lovely.

 

[sinkas]

Is Home made cheese actually economical?
I ask as I woudlnlike to get a kit for my wife, but if there is not some degree of saving to be made, Im not sure she woudl bother.

EG how much cheese do you get form 10L of milk?

Cheers

Case

 

[capretta]

well sinkas, if you see my post i used 10l of milk and 1l of cream. if you make a good blue etc i reckon it would be worth it and it will taste better than a cheapy from the specials rack. plus the pleasure of making it!

 

[Kai]

Is cheese ever economical? Too many hundred-dollar visits to the central markets here.

But seriously, yes it can be good value if you can make good cheese. The trickiest thing you need is a good cellaring/maturation environment and I'm sure you have that already, case. You do need to be able to make good cheese, however. Did I say that already?

 

[Haydo]

Got a kit from cheeselinks for Xmas so have put down a cam and a blue vein batch, found it quite easy, just hanging for a couple of weeks till I get to try the cam.

On the economical front, there are a few sites Ive found on the net that reckon powdered milk with a bit of cream added gives the best results for cheese. Has anybody tried this? Thought I might run a small batch on the side as an experiment next batch I do.

 

[Airgead]

Folks

Made some more lactose free cheese for the missus last weekend. This time I tried some Fetta. 10l of un-homogenised hippy milk from coles ended up making 2.1kg fetta. I also separated the cream which I made into 300g of sour cream then the whey made another 300g of ricotta. The fetta is in the brine and maturing nicely. I think I'll pick up some white mould and try some mould ripened cheese next time.



Cheers
Dave

 

[capretta]

hey all, is it too early in the day for some mould pr0n?

i couldnt wait any longer so i harvested the short cheese in my pile. all up i got just shy of 300g after trimming (which i will use on spagetti or something..) im going to take some (not too much) to the illawarra brewers union meeting this weekend..

they spent 1.5 weeks at high humidity (with standing water) and developed a good mould coat then 1.5 weeks without water which firmed the cheeses up really well. then the last week added more water and i pricked the cheeses to make the veins, but couldnt resist pulling the smallest one out. all kept at 7-12 deg.

MUCH better taste this time.. i am converted! :wub: thanks all!

 

[AndrewQLD]

Well I finally made some Camembert yesterday using Armstrongs nice kit. the process was simple and well explained.

Temperature spot on ................................................................... Good clean break


Molded up .......................................................................Salted and ready for maturing

 

[InCider]

Oh YUM! Love the pics Andrew. Mmmm now I'm hungry...

 

[Tim F]

Has anyone made fresh Ricotta?

It's the easiest cheese to make.

Use ten litres of milk and bring it up to 90 - 95 degrees C and then slowly pour in 1/2 cup of White Wine Vinegar whilst stirring. The action is immediate and very impressive.
Pour the result into a cheese cloth lined collander and let drain for a short time. Don't let it sit for too long in the collander or will be too dry.

Regards,
Lindsay.

I use this same recipe to make the cheese for palak paneer (sp?)
You can substitute lemon juice for the vinegar, I think the flavour is a little less tangy but both work. After draining the curd, wrap it tightly with a cheesecloth overnight. This makes a fairly firm cheese which can then be cut into cubes, and bobs your uncle! I can't find my recipe atm or I'd post it too, but from memory you just chop and fry an onion with garlic, cumin and ginger and add cooked blended spinach and tomato puree. Then brown the cheese cubes in oil in another pan, and gently stir the cubes through the spinach mix and serve with rice. Lovely stuff but yeah maybe google for a proper recipe if you are interested

 

[brendanos]

Is cheese ever economical? Too many hundred-dollar visits to the central markets here.

But seriously, yes it can be good value if you can make good cheese. The trickiest thing you need is a good cellaring/maturation environment and I'm sure you have that already, case. You do need to be able to make good cheese, however. Did I say that already?

I'm hearing that! I just spent $30 on less than half a kilo of cheese. At least I don't live up the road from Richmond Hill Larder anymore, that place sent me broke a little too often.

Keep the photo's coming guys, they're fantastic!

 

[Linz]

On the economical front, there are a few sites Ive found on the net that reckon powdered milk with a bit of cream added gives the best results for cheese. Has anybody tried this?

Yup.....Little Squares did for the 3 MONSTER cams. Still a couple of weeks of maturing before gorging ourselves on them....one at a time of course...