We recently purchased the book Home Cheese Making. Today I tried my first recipe out of it, Lemon Cheese (page 79). It seemed a good choice because it doesn't require anything fancy, just milk, lemons, heat, and salt. I was thinking ahead yesterday and purchased some lemons. I juiced two on the glass juicer I got from my grandmother's estate.
I poured half a gallon of whole milk into a large pot and heated it to about 185F, stirring frequently with a whisk.
Then I turned off the heat and poured in 1/3 cup of the lemon juice. Immediately the curds began to separate from the whey:
The lid goes on so it can rest for 15 minutes, then I poured it through cloth in a colander:
Once the whey had poured through (just a few minutes), I tied the cloth into a bag to apply a bit of pressure to it and let it sit for a couple hours draining through the colander on the counter. By then the bread was done and I was getting hungry to try out this cheese, but it needed a bit of salt--I put in 1.5 teaspoons, 1/2 teaspoon at a time and tasting in between.
A little bit of a crumbly texture, but oh-so-delicious on fresh bread. And no, it doesn't taste the teensiest bit of lemon juice!
Looks yummy! Ricki Carroll is the lady who made the cheese kit I bought. We had a discussion about her, didn't we? When I was trying to figure out if vinegar could be used? Looks like a book I need to look for.
ReplyDeleteWe'll be buying a cheese kit soon, but from someone a little closer to home. As for the book, we took a bunch out of the library and decided this was the one that we needed to purchase. Don't know about vinegar, but bottled lemon juice would probably work as well as fresh squeezed!
ReplyDeleteYes, vinegar works - I used cider vinegar for one I made about a year ago, in an SCA cheesemaking class. Fresh cheese is fun, but I want to get into the pressed cheeses...I've ordered some rennet and cheese cultures (from Ricki Carroll), and when they come I'm going to try some mozzarella and ricotta from the whey. But I should make some fresh cheeses like these first to get back into practice... (that's why you're ahead, Val, you're in current practice).
ReplyDeleteYay, Jenn! Share with me what you do, and I'll keep posted here whatever we try!
ReplyDeleteHah! That's what I suspected! Jenn, how much vinegar did you use? I've made ricotta, and it was yummy, but I'm 0 for 2 on the mozzarella. It hasn't separated like it should. I'm going to try again at some point using whole milk, maybe with a little cream mixed in.
ReplyDeleteSo it's that simple, eh? I'll have to give it a try.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it really is that simple. I did it while the bread was rising and the pace was comfortable. Walked the pup while it drained. :P
ReplyDelete