Flowers and Cheddars

[mightyjesse]

sirzig brought me flowers on Friday. Purple tulips. How pretty!


They're sitting in my kitchen window, and they make me smile every time I look at them. I have spent a fair amount of time looking at them over the weekend, because of my new obsession with cheese making. On which note, I have some cheese-porn for you...


Here are the cheddar and the monterey jack I made last week. They're in the drying phase and almost ready to be waxed and aged. You can really see the difference in how tightly the curds got pressed. Both cheeses started out with roughly the same amount of curds, but the cheddar was pressed with 50 lbs and the monterey jack only got pressed with 8. Thus the jack is much "fluffier."


Hopefully my fancy black cheese wax gets here soon so I can carry out my plan to make goth cheeses... (The pun continues to grow: "My cheeses are clearly goth because after they are de-pressed, I paint them black and put them in my dank basement where they will hang out and try to be cool.") Someone also mentioned the idea of smoking, and while I think smoking my cheeses might be a fine idea, I haven't figured out how to work that into the extended pun.

The mozzarella and ginger ale I took to May Day seemed to go over rather well. This week, I'd like to make another cheddar - this time with craisins pressed in the curds. With Crown coming at me like a freight train, though, I'm not sure if I'll have the time.

Comments

[world-rim-walke.livejournal.com]

Goth cheese... I like it.

The ginger ale was good. Could I get the recipe?

[mightyjesse.livejournal.com]

It's here (http://biology.clc.uc.edu/fankhauser/Cheese/Ginger_Ale_Ag0.htm).

[world-rim-walke.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[spot1111.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recipe. What about making this in a regular carboy with the gas-release on top to prevent explosions, then decanting it into pitchers for serving? The carboy could be even set up in a cooler, and then iced down to stop that fermentation and cool it down. I'm assuming they do something like that when they make poor mead or beer at events. I've heard of that being done, just never taken part in it. Does anyone here have experience?

[fencert.livejournal.com]

Cheese skillz and string to boot. You are the most fabulous person in the history of peeples!

[othelianna.livejournal.com]

Can I see a picture of your cheese press? I'm curious.

Cheese Press

[mightyjesse.livejournal.com]

and



In that picture you can see the top of the press where I stack all of sirzig's weights to squeeze all the whey out of the curds. I can get away with using a full gallon jug of water for a Monterey Jack which only requires 8 lbs of pressure, but a cheddar uses nearly all the barbell plates we have upstairs... (50 lbs)

Re: Cheese Press

[othelianna.livejournal.com]

So the plank on top slides down and compresses the cylinder?

And what kind of starter culture do you use? (And where do you get it? I can't seem to find the stuff in my city.)

I still haven't done anything with my cheesemaking. MY work has swallowed me up. :(

Re: Cheese Press

[mightyjesse.livejournal.com]

Depending on the kind of cheese you're making, you would use either a mesophilic (4 oz buttermilk/gallon) or a thermophilic (4 oz yogurt/gallon) starter culture. Fresh buttermilk or yogurt with live cultures work as your starter culture, or you can order them from cheesemaking.com or some other online supply place if you're really picky about *which* specific cultures you want.

I've been using buttermilk.

Re: Cheese Press

[mightyjesse.livejournal.com]

Oh, also, the plank on top bears the weights... otherwise I'd just be stacking them on the cheese "plunger" which is just too small...

I realized there's a part in the press you can't see in the picture. Inside the PVC pipe, unter the iced tea jar, there is a "follower" which is a piece of nylon cutting board cut with a jig saw into a perfect circle that tightly fits down the PVC pipe... If I just used the tea jar, it's not a tight enough fit to keep the curds from squirting up the pipe and out the top under pressure.

Re: Cheese Press

[othelianna.livejournal.com]

Cool! I think I may just try to make me a cheese press, too.

Heh. I was looking at your cheese entries when my stage manager walked by. She just had to stop and ask, and now she's all excited and babbling about cheese presses and cheese wax and, and, and. :P

from Sol

[(Anonymous)]

What are you using as the cheese molds?

Re: from Sol

[mightyjesse.livejournal.com]

I made one myself that you can see in pictures in the comments section... It's 4" pvc pipe.

Re: from Sol

[(Anonymous)]

I took a brie workshop with Steve Shapson back in 2005? and he recommended white PVC. I just haven't gotten around to doing anything, but you are quite inspiring.