Bestyet Simple Cheese

[bestyet]

Bestyet Simple Cheese

4/30/18

I was always afraid to make cheese, intimidated by how complicated it sounded and all the specialized equipment, until a friend shared with me step-by-step how she was making cheese.

I have since reworked the method a bit to something that turns out for me every single time. I’m going to try to write it down for you now. I am including a couple of questions that some of you more experienced cheesemakers may have answers for. I would love to hear others’ variations on simple cheese—always something new to learn!

I bring milk to the house in the milker pail and pour it straight into a 2-gallon pot on the stove.
Stir in 3 tablespoons of my “drinkable” homemade yogurt. (Which I make with 2 gallons milk for 1 packet Sweet Yogurt [Y5] culture from cheesemaking.com, then subsequent batches using just a bit of my yogurt for several batches.)
Let sit for 50 minutes.
Stir in ¼ teaspoon animal rennet from cheesemaking.com. I do not mix the rennet with water first. I just get the pot swirling with my long wooden spoon, then add the rennet and keep stirring for at least 30 seconds.
Let sit for 45-50 minutes. By then it should be set like jello.
Cut curds in a grid pattern about ½” apart, then diagonally several ways all the way to the bottom, stirring up gently from the bottom just a bit and cutting any long strands.
Let sit 20 minutes.
(While waiting, I press about 1 bulb of garlic through the garlic press and mix with 2 teaspoons salt and a shaking of red pepper.)
Stir curds and whey gently, again pulling up from the bottom to make sure all curds are uniformly cut.
Now I turn my electric burner to between “Lo” and “1”, and stir at least every 10 minutes, gently and up from the bottom, to uniformly distribute the heat and continue “drying out” the curds.
(I have done this stirring portion without any heat at all, and after an hour or so end up with a cheese almost like cream cheese. Since we prefer something that will slice and grate, we heat to firm it up.)
After several stirring cycles, maybe an hour or so, I check the temp of the curds and whey in the pot, and usually stop at about 140 F by which time the blob as I stir it (I try to encourage it to stay in kind of a blob) is a bit stretchy.
Then I drain into a stainless steel colander lined with cheese cloth. I let it drain for maybe 20-30 minutes, turning occasionally. Then I knead it and press it with my hands to force more whey out. At this point, the whey being forced out is mostly cream, so I save it.
I have sometimes gone to 160 F for a real string cheese. I find then that even more cream is forced out and cheese yield is less. Does anyone know what causes this or how to avoid it?
Once I’ve pushed out as much whey as I can, I work in the garlic/salt mixture as thoroughly as I can. Anyone have tricks for working the salt in? For curds, I just pull chunks out to save for “bumpy cheese” as my grandkids call it. Then I put the rest in a cheesecloth-lined press a friend made with parts from the hardware store—basically a cylinder with one end closed with holes drilled in, the other end open. A screw fits through the middle hole up through the cheese, then a stainless steel plate with central hole fits in and is pressed down by screwing a wingnut down. It’s hard to get it super tight, but works ok. Then I put this in a bowl, cover, and refrigerate till the next day to set. I save any more of the creamy whey that is forced out at pressing and mix with the other I saved. This is great for serving with soup, as a base for creamed vegetables or a casserole, or whatever.

We eat this cheese fresh and it keeps fine for at least a week. For longer storage, I grate and freeze it.

[elnini]

Like you I found that cheese making and beer brewing both sounded very intimidating until I'd done it a couple of times and you figure out what the really important bits are :-)

With really creamy milk the whey coming out of mozz is worth drinking. I haven't figured out a method to keep that cream in the mozz yet either, so I'd be interested.

[kim'scows]

I think cheese is amazing, and it's so neat to see how different people make it. I've never tried making mozz with yogurt culture--does that give it a nice flavor? The garlic and red pepper sound yummy too.

For easier salting, you could try making a saturated salt brine and soak your finished cheeses in that for 1-2 hours, then pat dry and refrigerate overnight before using the cheese. The salt works its way through the cheese very nicely that way. Also, since you don't have to work the curds as much with your hands to get the salt in, more of the cream stays in. I imagine you could add the garlic and red pepper to the warm milk before you add the rennet.

To make a saturated salt brine, just dissolve 1 lb of kosher or cheese salt in 1/2 gallon of cool water. After you soak your cheeses, you can boil the brine briefly, add a couple tablespoons more salt, strain it and then store it in the refrigerator until you make your next batch of cheese. No need to throw it out every time and waste salt.

[rosalind]

To prevent fat loss to the whey:
- Put the proper amount of rennet in the milk (a bit too much rather than too little, and maybe try diluting in water for better distribution throughout the milk)
- Allow curds to heal for 5-10 minutes after initially being cut
- Follow proper timing and temperature for cooking/heating process of curds
- If stretching cheese, like mozzarella, be careful not to get the stretching water over 170F