Little Green Cheese

Cheese making at home with Gavin Webber the Cheeseman

Making Larger Batches of Cheese

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Did you know that it takes the same amount of time to make larger batches of cheese as it does a smaller one?  The process is exactly the same, except that you double the ingredients and add some more equipment.  Just like baking a cake, really.  I’ve even talked to home cheese makers who make very large batches in their sanitised bath tub!

Want proof?  Well over the weekend I doubled my Caerphilly recipe and made twice as much in the same amount of time.  You can find my Caerphilly recipe here.

I used my 15 litre stock pot and filled it with 14.5 litres of full cream milk.  Heating the milk can take a little while longer, but it doesn’t extend the cheese making process too much.

Cutting the curd was no different, I just needed a longer knife and curd cutter.

Cheddaring was just as easy.  The slabs were just longer.  Milling was a cinch in the larger pot.  The only difference as was that I had to use two moulds, two cheese cloths, and two cheese presses.  If I had a larger mould, I could have fit all the curds into just one.

You may need a little more space during pressing, but my kitchen sink was sufficient.

And here are the two wheels of Caerphilly, air drying before I put them into the cheese fridge.  Each day I will wipe them over with a brine solution to help form the rind and to inhibit any mould development.

I am looking forward to when they mature in three weeks time.  This cheese is so moreish!  Did I ever mention that it’s one of my favourite cheeses to make at home?

So there you have it.  Doubling your batches at home is easy as buying a little more equipment.  The time taken is the same.

Who else makes larger batches in this manner?

Raw Milk Food Standards Australia

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 As I mentioned yesterday, I did a bit of research on the ASNZ Food Standards website, and there has been a recent amendment to using raw milk food standards in cheese making.  Here is the regulation.
Standard 4.2.4 – Primary Production and Processing Standard for Dairy Products
16           Processing of dairy
products to make cheese and cheese products
Milk or dairy products used to make cheese or
cheese products must be processed –
(a)          in accordance with subclause
15(1); or
(b)          by being held at a temperature
of no less than 62°C for a period of no less than 15 seconds, and the cheese or
cheese product stored at a temperature of no less than 2°C for a period of 90
days from the date of processing; or
(c)          such that –
(i)            the curd is heated to a
temperature of no less than 48°C; and

 

(ii)           the cheese or cheese
product has a moisture content of less than 36%, after being stored at a
temperature of no less than 10°C for a period of no less than 6 months from the
date of processing; or
(d)          in accordance with clause 1 of
Standard 4.2.4A.

So I have two choices.  Pasteurize the milk, as per the instructions in (b) and then make cheese with it, or follow clause (c).

So that means that I can make Romano, Parmesan, and Gruyère with raw milk as long as I follow these rules.  Luckily all these cheese recipes comply or can be adapted to follow the rules.  With the cheese being at a lower temperature of 10°C vice the normal 13°C it will take a bit longer to mature anyway and loose a fair bit of moisture.  So will the rest of the cheese in the cheese fridge, but just for the taste it is a sacrifice that I am willing to take!

Here is to more raw milk cheese making!

The Great Cheese Rescue

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Back in the very early days of my cheese making journey, and a little less knowledgeable about the cheese making process, I attempted to use Ultra High Temperature (UHT) milk to make a hard cheese.  I thought I would try my hand at making a Wensleydale cheese infused with sage leaves in the middle.  I had just purchased a cheese press during the week before hand and I was all set to give it a try.

Cheesepress

Well that was the plan anyway.  It all started out well.  I used the UHT full cream milk which I thought was apparently okay to use in cheese making.  I added the right amount of Calcium Chloride to de-homogenise the milk (make the fat globules bigger), then added the starter culture, and waited for the prescribed 45 minutes.  So far so good.  I kept the temperature at 32°C for the entire time, and then when time was up I added the rennet and waited another 45 minutes for the curds to set.

I checked the milk and expected to see a nicely set curd, but it was not to be.  It was still milk!  That was disappointing, so I added another lot of rennet and waited another 45 minutes.  To my surprise it was still bloody milk!  No curds had set.

I thought back to the cheese making class, and I remembered that one of the ladies mentioned that if the curds doesn’t set after a second go, never throw out the milk because you can always make Ricotta Cheese out of it.

So, out with the cheese making book and off I went.  Brought the milk to 90-95°C stirring all the time to ensure that the milk didn’t burn, and then added half a cup of white vinegar.  This is meant to separate the milk into a basic curds and whey.  Guess what.  Nothing happened.

This was the most stubborn milk I had ever come across.  So in a panic, I threw in another half a cup of vinegar. It finally worked.  The whey was visible and the curds were so tiny that you could just see them.  I strained the curds and whey through cheesecloth in a colander and waited for 5 minutes.  The cheese was still very hot so I had to be careful not to burn myself.

After a bit of mucking around, I ended up with two containers full of creamy Ricotta.  I added half a teaspoon of salt to each container and stirred well.  This is what the final product ended up like.

Ricotta 001

Here is a close up.

Ricotta

This type of Ricotta is great used in Lasagna or any other pasta dish for that matter!  It tastes very nice indeed and much better than the store bought muck even when made with UHT milk.

The moral of this great cheese rescue is two fold.  Firstly, do not use UHT milk to make a hard cheese as you cannot get the rennet to coagulate, and secondly, UHT does make a nice Ricotta.You live and learn and since then I have found that fresh milk is always the best!

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