12 May
Today we tried English muffins out. They are pretty easy and were only made difficult by the fact that we didn’t have 3″ metal rings. I fashioned rings out of newspaper and aluminum foil. Fresh English muffins are far tangier and moist than their store bought cousins. Well worth the hour of time that went in to them!
So, of course we made these:
But the best eats: grilled and buttered.
8 May
New cheeses are under way here. This weekend’s creation was a pressed goat cheese soaked in red wine.
Most cheeses are made in shockingly similar ways with the same ingredients. Minor variations in time and temperature make a world of difference.
To start off, heat the milk and add cultures, any additives, and rennet.
Once the curds begin to firm up, cut and stir them to separate curd from whey.
Drain off the whey leaving only the curd, add salt.
Press the cheese (usually overnight), then remove.
Now the goat gets drunk in a bottle of red wine.
The cheese will now age for six weeks. Cross your fingers and plan to visit!
In other news, I will be heading up to Vermont for a three day advanced cheese making course. Updates to follow!
22 Apr
My first foray into cheese making was mozzarella. I follow Ricki Carroll’s 30 minute mozzarella recipe; the only difference being that I fold in 1 teaspoon of kosher salt in the last round of kneading. My daughter, Aliza, helped me with the final stages. She watched me knead, stretch, shape, cut and taste it. She refused to try a bite. And then she asked for a cheese stick. Sigh.
Post script
Then we made these:
7 Apr
My mom sent me this recipe and a jar of ginger in syrup (found at Asian markets and sometimes Whole Foods). It’s one of our new favorites.
29 Mar
My boss has been asking me to bring in some cheese. I see him rarely, but meet with him tomorrow. To prepare, I opened up some cheeses.
In the past few months, my mold ripened cheeses tasted off. I thought I’d lost my moldy touch, but it just turns out my wine fridge I age them in died a slow death and took many cheeses with it.
But I had a few cheeses on the brink of readiness. I opened one Brie which was thankfully good. I also opened a Caerphilly.
Caerphilly is a Welch cheese I’ve never made before. It has a natural rind, meaning it has no mold cover, wax or other sealing method. To age this cheese, it must be kept at a moderate humidity level and cleaned of any other molds it catches naturally through its aging process (I simply wipe it down with salt water and vinegar if it starts to look funky).
I probably would have let this age a few weeks longer if not for the crushing pressure of my boss’ relentless demands (are you reading Brit?), but I bowed and cracked it open.
The results were promising. The cheese is mild and light. It will probably peak in three weeks, but will do for my meeting tomorrow.
25 Mar
My friend, Carrie, recently posted about making cheese-its. I just tried a cheddar I’m currently aging (I posted about it in January). It’s coming along nicely, but needs to develop more sharpness over a few more months.
While my cheese isn’t quite ready, I used a nice cheddar and Landaff cheese for the crackers. They are amazing – I was surprised by how tasty they are.
Aliza declared I can eat no more. The rest are hers.
13 Feb
After taking a class with one of my favorite crafty-mamas, I’m rocking it granny style with a sewing machine. What to sew next?
5 Feb
This caramel & peanut popcorn is a family favorite. I substitute dark brown sugar and air pop the corn. It takes 15 minutes to make and gets eaten more quickly than I like to admit.
17 Jan
This weekend yielded two other cheeses:
Cheddar
I can’t seem to get my hard cheeses quite right. After some reading some Q&A from fellow cheesemakers at cheeseforum.org, I tried cheddar again and added more salt. The cheese is definitely drier. We will see how it turns out in three months! This 2lb round of cheese got two coats of racy red wax and is now aging at 52F. I age my cheeses in two small wine fridges I got off of Craigslist. I need two to process different cheeses: one for moldy cheese (brie, blue), one for non-moldy cheese (cheddar, gouda, provolone, etc).
Castle Blue
We are almost out of our blue cheese supply. I made three small rounds of rich, delicious Castle Blue which tastes like a mild blue, but is creamy like Brie.
If all goes well, these little friends will look like this in six weeks:
15 Jan
Ricotta, literally translated from Italian, means recooked. While making some cheddar tonight, I saved the whey and turned it into ricotta.
Ricotta is the simplest cheese to make. You can skip the whole whey part and make it out of milk in roughly the same manner:
Heat the whey to 200 degrees, add vinegar or lemon juice.
Strain through butter muslin, stir in some salt and you have ricotta.
This stuff is not like what you’ll find in the store. I’m not really a fan of ricotta from a plastic container. But the homemade stuff – drizzle a bit of honey over it and you’ve got a rich, salty, sweet dessert.
