A couple of days ago, I received an email from David, my cheese making buddy over in Manitoba, Canada. He writes;
Hi Gavin
As one of your YouTube students I thought you might like to see the product of my efforts from yesterday.
I always make a double batch – i.e. two pots at the same time, each with 8+ litres of milk. I set the pots one in each side of my double kitchen sink which I fill with hot water from the tap to raise the temperature of the milk, both for the initial temp for adding the starter and then to raise again to cooking temp.
I made 2 presses and two moulds, the moulds being jugs with the top & bottom cut off, and drilled with lots of holes.
Each batch is usually a 50/50 mixture of 3.25% homogenised milk from the store and fresh unpasteurised farm milk, to which I add ¼ tsp of Calcium Chloride.
This time I used a starter called Kazu which contains Lactococcus Lactis, Cremoris, diacetylactis and Bulgaricus, though whether it will make any difference in the flavour time will tell.
With much appreciation for all your tutorials
David Dawson
Great email David, but there is just one thing that I am in the dark about. What type of cheese is it?
Keep up the great work. Now if anyone else has had success with any of the recipes that I have posted, I would love to hear about them. Send them through via the contact page.
Until next time.
I think that is the best result from making cheese at home. Try tweaking your recipe, I have used Gavin's Caerphilly directions several times and love it. I now have developed my own based on his and a few other sources too. If it is edible then I consider any cheese a make a success, except when my mozzarella makes go south then I just bin it.
Gavin – you ask what kind of cheese it is. Well, I have followed many recipes but the end product is always a bit of a surprise. My cheddar for example never comes out like store-bought cheddar, mine always being crumbly, and it's much the same with others I try. So I make 'cheese' and although I follow a recipe I usually have a pleasant surprise when I eventually taste it. Cheese is after all only a way of preserving milk and the final taste is merely a reflection of the type of bacteria that was traditionally found in a particular cheese making area. Except for one batch that went rotten in summer, all mine have been delicious. I follow recipes fastidiously, keep notes fastidiously and love experimenting to try to get a perfect result, but so far that perfect repeatable result has eluded me.
David
I’d love to contact David and ask him if I can buy a cheese harp from him. I really like the design of the one he made for Gavin
Hi Robin, he has told me in the past that this was a once off only. You can find the full instructions here; https://www.littlegreencheese.com/2013/02/making-your-own-curd-cutter.html