Cheesy Times Part 2

Well, we will have home made cheese, at some point.  But what we ended up with is great flavors anyway!  So here is how it went.

We decided to try cottage cheese.  Pretty easy, many people make it all the time.  Well, apparently not that easy!  Did you know that if the milk happens to be pasteurized too long, stayed in the fridge too long (even with good dates), or the cow that you got that milk from happen to be later in her lactation (milking cycle), then your cheese wont turn out?  Yeah, I didn't know that either.  Since our milk is coming from our own cow and we pasteurize on the stove, there could have been a few things that goes wrong with the milk.  Long before we even start to make the cheese!  Well, our cow is later in lactation.  Not having known how this would affect the cheese, I dove right in.  I had so much milk that I had tried two batches at once.

I took my milk (home pasteurized)  up to the temp for the culture.  I added the culture and then the rennet per the recipe.  Ok, it is looking good so far!  Now the wait.  I swear this is the hardest part of making cheese.  Waiting.  And waiting.  And waiting.  Oh yeah, and waiting some more.  5 hours later we check it. Curds sort of formed, but not ready for cutting and not like it should be, they are extremely soft.  So I wait and check about every hour.  Finally around 8 hours later I check and it still is very soft.  The first of the two I decide to finish off and the other to let it sit.  So, not wanting it to be a total waste, I cut the curds like you are supposed to (well, as close as I could for my first attempt) and start my cooking process.  It cooks, but because the curds never got as strong (is that even the right word) as they are supposed to be it doesn't hold up great.  It is ok for cottage cheese though.  So, I start my rinsing process.  Once it is done I put it in the fridge.  Later, I go taste it.  The flavor is wonderful.  A bit soft, but not bad.

The second one I had let sit longer while I did this one.  The second one was even softer (having let it sit) and I decided to still finish it off too.  Well, I cut and cooked the curd.  It seemed to fall apart in front of my eyes.  All that work was gone.  Not to mention my idealistic self esteem I was gaining from the first batch tasting so good.  I cooked it to the length it required.  I also added about half an hour extra as it said if the curds were soft that you can cook it longer.  Well, that didn't work.  It was like a mix of cream of wheat and oatmeal.  I try to drain it.  Not working.  It wont drain.  The curds are so small and soft that it just wont do anything but get caught up in the butter muslin I was using.  I figured, it is already ruined, to not make a bigger mess, I will squeeze it to drain the whey.  I started that and remembered, we have a small cheese press.  So I put it in at 30 lbs.  I let it sit like that for about an hour.  Took it out and it made a nice little clump of cheese.  It smelled great and even tasted great.  So, got my wheels working and figured, why not add some spice to it and make it a spreadable cottage cheese flavored thing?  Added garlic and parsley.  Was wishing I had chives (next thing I need to grow).  Spread it on some veggie flavored crackers and just melted.  It was so good!  So, I may not have ended up with cottage cheese on this try, I still got a great spread!

To sum it up, no cheese is easy til you get it right!  The most stressful thing of is getting the curd right.  The best part of cheese is when it tastes right.  I would say that means you need to get it right.  Yet, I think it is fun to just try and have FUN doing it.