Makin' Cheese in the Kitchen

Photo: Sarah cuts the curd.



Got a call from some friends that are building a dairy and creamery about 15 miles away. They had 10 gallons of goat milk that they couldn't use and were offering it to me. It thought about it for three seconds. Long enough to take inventory of our spare fridge. Do I have room for ten gallons of milk? You bet! Woo hoo! I jumped on the chance to grab some milk and make cheese.

I had to get my cultures, too. Luckily, there is a place on the way that sells cheese cultures as well as raw milk, eggs, and chicken. Kookoolan Farms is a great resource. They built their own chicken processing plant so that they could ensure that their chickens were treated humanely from hatching to slaughter. They are big cheerleaders for the consumption of raw milk. To make it easy, they provide the cheesemaking supplies to encourage folks to make cheese at home. Nice folks! I also mail ordered other cultures from the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company. I also like to stock up on stuff from Glengarry Cheesemaking from Canada.

Jim and I drove to Scott and Summer's place. In the fridge was the milk that they had promised. Two gallon milk cans and a bunch of half gallon jars filled with the goat's efforts. They milk 16 Nigerian Dwarf goats. I've never worked with the milk from this type of goat so this will be good experience for me. The goats are much smaller than the standard dairy breeds, about a third of the size. The give less milk but the milk is much richer. It is higher in butterfat as well as in yield (more solids held in suspension) as I soon found out.

We packed the milk in our coolers and rushed home to start the cheesemaking process. As we drove I was running over my recipes in my head. What to make? I want to make chevre so I can make a big batch of my chocolate chevre truffles. They freeze nicely so I can have them ready to give away for the holidays. I also want to make some raw milk, aged cheeses. Hmmmm.

We got home and transfered the milk into fridge in the garage. I pulled out my recipes and decided to go with the semi-firm aged goat cheese from Ticklemore. The first time I made it I dubbed it Sarahmore. This one will be different because I'm using fresh, raw milk from Nigerian Dwarf goats. Plus I don't have the same culture I used before. Kookoolan didn't have it, so I'm trying a different one and we'll see what happens.

Photo: Freshly hooped curd starting to knit into cheese in my fancy cheese molds.


Massive clean up of the kitchen took a while, so I didn't get the milk on the stove until 4:00. I use the double boiler method to heat three gallons of milk so I can ensure even heating and less chance of scorching. Gently heating means better cheese. Goat milk is very fragile. The more it is handled the more likely it will break down and add off flavors. Milk can get bruised! If it gets jostled around too much, the structure of the milk gets bruised and you get off flavors. Be nice to your milk and it will reward you in the end.

Slow heating means lots of time to get the molds cleaned, the sink scrubbed and everything sterilized. Gotta have a clean environment to make cheese. Lessens the chances of bad microorganisms entering the cheese. I want good food, not toxic sludge.

The milk heated to my target temperature and I added the culture. The ripening culture is freeze dried. When added to milk, the culture "wakes up" and begins to eat all of that tasty sugar a.k.a. lactose and makes the milk more acidic. A cheesemaker selects certain cultures for certain cheeses. If you want to make Monterey Jack, you want a culture that gives you a nice even texture without any eyes or holes. If you want to make something like an Havarti the cheesemaker will select a culture that produces a bit of gas and leaves small eyes in the cheese. Ecoli makes eyes that look weepy. Those weeping eyes must be crying because they can make you die. These are bacteria that have been selected by The Culture Houses of Europe because they produce consistent end results. These strains have been around for many years. It is only in the past century that these cultures have been isolated and replicated.

Some folks create their own starter with the naturally occurring strains in their milk and environment. Traditional English Farmstead Cheddar makers use their own starters to keep their cheddars tasting so good. Some have used the same mother culture for generations. If you ever eat sourdough bread from San Francisco you've experienced the same thing. A small amount of sourdough is held back after each batch to start the next day's bread. Remember kids, this stuff is alive!

Photo: Draining fresh goat cheese.


Got another pot on the stove with two more gallons of milk. This other vessel of milk will be pasteurized so I can make chevre. The pasteurized milk will be cultured and left to sit overnight in a warm room. In the morning, the milk is transformed into a solid curd mass that looks like two gallons of tofu. When I think it is firm enough, I gently ladle the curd into a cheesecloth lined colander. The ends of the cheesecloth are tied together and I hang it up to drain for several hours. When the cheese is drained and as dry as I like it, I'll take it down, add salt and enjoy my fresh chevre.

Back to the other pot. The culture is acidifying the milk and the rennet is added to firm things up. More waiting. My molds are clean and sterilized. My knife is ready to cut the curd. I keep checking the texture, looking for a clean break. This is the point at which the curds hold their shape, and a small puddle of greenish whey is released from the cut surface. It is ready. I take my knife and I begin cutting the curds. I use a firm, assertive motion, trying to keep my cuts straight. I cut one direction and then rotate the pot and cut in the other direction, at a angle. The objective is to cut cubes or diamond shaped blocks of curd of a similar size. Large cubes = soft cheese, small cube = firm cheese. I finish cutting and wait again. This is the healing time. The cut surfaces are all releasing whey and contracting. Waiting allows the surfaces to literally heal so that when I begin to stir, they will maintain integrity as well as continue to release whey. We want the whey to go away, but at a controlled rate.

Time to stir. I stir slowly at the beginning. The curds are very fragile at this point. I want them to gently bump into each other, but not clump together. Stirring will go on and on. I pull of part of the whey and continue to stir. I add fresh water back in to wash the curds. Washing the curds removes some of the lactose, and will make a chewier and sweeter cheese when the cheese is ripe in a few months. You gotta put a lot of investment in the beginning and won't know the results for months. This is why keeping good records is critical. If the cheese turns out really well, I want to be able to repeat what I did. If something goes wrong, I want to know why.

I can see that the milk from Nigerian Dwarf goats doesn't need as much rennet as "regular" goat milk. This batch is a bit firmer than I would like. Better reduce the rennet for the next batch. The milk is thicker, almost like sheep's milk. Higher yield, too. Amazing stuff.


Photo: New cheese after the third flip.

The curds have shrunk and are ready to go. Time to hoop! I've got my colanders ready to go, sitting on a cookie sheet over the sink. As fast as I can, I scoop all of the curds out and it the plastic forms. The curds are eager to mat. They're bonding to each other. They liquid that held them in suspension has now been removed and all they want to do is bind together. Putting them into a form like a colander or a traditional cheese mold helps give them a shape but also controls how quickly moisture is lost. In my case it seems to be losing moisture pretty fast. If I use a different form with different perforations, I'll get a different cheese because the moisture loss will change. Every little variable will make a big difference in the end result. This is one of my countless reasons cheesemaking fascinates me.

As soon as my colanders are filled, I flip them. The newly formed cheese needs to drain evenly, so flipping is essential. What was once in the bottom side of the cheese is now the top. A few minutes later I flip the cheese again. This process will be repeated over the course of a few hours. In the morning I'll flip them again and then I'll turn the cheeses ever day until they're ripe.

In order to free up my kitchen, I turned our laundry room into our curing room. The cheeses are set on racks over a clean and sanitized sink to drain and dry. The light is kept on so the room stays warm. This will encourage draining, too. My chevre bags are draining into the sink as well. I like this set up.

Photo: An aging wheel of cheese, two weeks old.


I repeated the process two days later, but this time all of my milk was pasteurized. We'll see how this will affect the aged cheeses. I don't know.

Now the wait. I made cheese on October 31st and November 2nd. They might be ready in January. I'm thinking February will be a better bet. The first batch of cheese is looking good, but a bit dry. Hmmmm. The second batch looks amazing. Funny, the better looking batch is made with pasteurized milk. We'll see what happens in a couple of months.

This cheese needs a name.

Make more friends, serve more cheese

Help! I need to impress my friends and look like I know something about cheese! What should I put on a cheese plate?

Not to worry, my dear. Putting out a good cheese plate is easy. Let me be of service and help demystify at trip to the cheese counter, or (heaven forbid) a trip to the specialty cheese case in the grocery store.

First, shop around. Every cheese counter and grocery store will have a different selection of cheese. Some will be better than others. Locally owned stores might have a few more locally produced products. I always start looking there. Don't be shy about asking for help. See if the person in charge of the cheese counter is available. I love asking for help. I want to know what's in peak form today. If everything is in shrink wrap, I want to see what's freshly cut. Cheese is a living food! It begins to break down and lose flavor the moment it is cut. If it has been enveloped in plastic for a month, even breathable plastic, it won't be very tasty. When I prepare to serve a cheese, I like to take a knife or a cheese plane and scrape the cut surface of the cheese. This takes away the dead, plastic-y taste and gives you a fresh surface to enjoy.

See if the store will cut you a fresh piece of cheese. Or see it they’ll open a package so you can taste the cheese. Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco is happy to let you try before you buy. That way you'll know how a cheese tastes. If you buy an artisan cheese regularly, you might begin to taste the seasonal variations. There is a huge difference between Cowgirl Creamery's Mt. Tam made in the winter and a Mt. Tam produced in the summer. Eat more cheese and see for yourself!

How much to serve? It depends. Is this an appetizer course? Are other dishes being served? I figure an ounce of each cheese per person. Two ounces if it is the only thing being served.

Always serve aged cheeses at room temperature and each cheese should have its own knife or cheese plane.

When selecting cheeses for a party, I usually go for three or four cheeses. As a general rule of thumb, vary the milks and mix up the texures. Sometimes I'll go with a theme, like all cow's milk cheeses, or cheeses from Spain. But my favorite plate usually consists of a cow's milk cheese, a goat's milk cheese, and a sheep's milk cheese. If I'm feeling sporty, the fourth cheese will be either be a cheddar or a blue cheese.

For example, I might take a piece of Garrotxa, a Spanish goat cheese with a semi-soft, slightly chewy texture, match it with a buttery, French Triple Crème like Brillat-Savarin, and pick a sheep's milk cheese like Pecorino Foglie di Noce with walnut overtones. If I want to have the slam dunk crowd pleaser, I'd throw in a piece of Montgomery's Cheddar from Somerset, England. With this, I'd serve a full flavored honey; my favorite being a locally produced blackberry honey. A great cherry jam would work wonders, as well as some dried apricots and cranberries. Apple slices would be nice, too. I would serve everything with thin slices of a crusty, sweet, baguette and I'd call it complete.

Photo: Ticklemore Goat, aging to perfection.

Other suggestions: A cheese plate of the British Isles, a.k.a. the Neal's Yard Dairy cheese plate. Cow's milk: Trethowan's Gorwydd Caerphilly, from Wales. Bright lemony flavors and beautiful layers as it ages. Goat's milk: Ticklemore Goat. Why? Because I worked there! And the semi-soft texture with the slightly salty, mushroomy bloomy rind is sublime. For a sheep's milk cheese, go for Berkswell. It can have toasted nutty notes with hints of pineapple. Then grab a piece of Harbourne Blue, a goat's milk blue and you've got a party.

Photo: Sierra Mountain Tomme from La Clarine Farm, Somerset, CA.

How about Spain? Go for Mahón (cow), Ibores (goat), Zamorano (sheep), and Valdeon (blue). I like Spanish cheeses, so here's another one for you, all goat: Nevat (semi-soft, bloomy rind with a light, creamy, and tangy), Pata Cabra (washed rind with a chewy open texture, can have green apple, fruity overtones), and Pau Sant Mateu (wash rind with a smooth paste that can be slightly strong and full flavored.)

American Artisan Plate sampler to die for: Mt. Tam (cow,) Humboldt Fog (goat,) and Nancy's Camembert (sheep.) All bloomy rinds, all creamy, all luscious, and all the trifecta of milks.

The California Plate: Harley Farm's Van Goat – fresh goat cheese with edible flowers or Elk Creamery's Goat Milk Camembert de Chevre, Rinconada Dairy's Pozo Tomme - a semi-firm sheep cheese from San Luis Obispo County, and Vella's Mezzo Secco or Cowgirl's St. Pat, finish with Pt. Reyes Original Blue.

Oregon Cheese Plate: Willamette Valley Cheese Company's Brindisi (cow), Rivers' Edge Chevre's St. Olga (washed rind goat), Ancient Heritage's Hannah Bridge (sheep), and Rogue Creamery's Echo Mountain (cow/goat blend blue).

Photo: A cheese plate from the Cheese School of San Francisco

If you're wonderinig about the cheeses that I'd always bring home without hesitation, here are a few--

Sarah's Personal Cheeseplate for Today: Cypress Grove's Midnight Moon (Goat Gouda), Cowgirl Creamery's Sir Francis Drake (cow, washed rind, triple crème), Jasper Hill Farm's Constant Bliss (cow, bloomy rind), La Clarine Farm's Sierra Mountain Tomme (goat), Abbaye de Belloc (sheep, French-Basque), Cabot Clothbound Cheddar (cow).

My absolute favorites will change every day, depending on my mood and the condition of the cheese at my local cheese counter. I might go in with a list, but I'll make substitutions if I have to.

There are no hard and fast rules, if you like one cheese, serve a big piece of it on a nice cheeseboard, and have a big knife next to it so that others can enjoy, too.

Now you will make friends at every party if you just grab a few well selected cheeses and a fresh baguette and share with your friends.

Spring means fresh cheese! How about some ricotta?

Photo: my breakfast this morning. Fresh ricotta with strawberries and honey.

Happy Vernal Equinox. Ok, it was yesterday, but I'm still feeling it in my bones. What effect does that have on me? It means I've got to get my creative cooking juices going.

The San Francisco Chronicle ran an article about cooking with ricotta on Wednesday. It had some nice recipes, but what it failed to mention was how easy it is to make your own ricotta. Inspired, I made my own ricotta.

While I was heating the milk, Paul our real estate agent called to go over some things on the inspection. I had to tell him to hang on for a second while I switched phones, as I had to go back to the kitchen and watch a my milk heat. "I'm making ricotta," in informed him. "You're making cheese?" Paul asked. "Uh, I guess I am. I'm making ricotta. It's a fresh cheese. It's dead easy to make." Paul was surprised to hear that I was making it at home. He's really excited and eager for us making cheese in Yamhill County. "I've been telling everyone about you!" he said. I like having support like this. It reassures me as I take a huge leap of faith and move to a new home, a new state, and a new life.

There are lots of different methods for making ricotta. Traditionally ricotta is made from whey expelled during the making of hard cheeses. The whey is heated (recooked=ricotta,) an acid is added and the milk solids that are still lingering in the whey are extracted. I'm using a whole milk recipe, since I don't have any fresh whey today.

How I did it:

Ingredients:
Milk
white vinegar, cider vinegar, or lemon juice (an acidifier)
salt

Tools:
stainless steel or enamal pot (non-reactive)
stainless steel slotted spoon or ladle
stainless steel colander/strainer
cheesecloth, enough to line the colander

I bought a gallon of the freshest milk I could find. I'm only using 1/2 of it, I might make more ricotta tomorrow. I went to Parkside Produce on Taraval at 15th Avenue to get it. They carry Clover Milk from Sonoma County at a good price. Clover is usually very fresh and doesn't have to travel far to get to The City. I avoid buying UHT-ultrapasteurised milk because it has a funky flavor, all of the good stuff has been cooked out of the milk, and it has a super-long shelf life. Who knows how fresh UHT milk really is?

Back in my kitchen, I cleaned an enamel pot, an instant read thermometer/dairy thermometer, stainless steel colander, and a stainless steel slotted spoon. When you make cheese everything must be spotless! I also grabbed a piece of cheesecloth, big enough to line the colander. If I only have the loosely woven cheesecloth from the grocery store, I use twice as much and fold it in half so I have a double layer to line the colander. I'll use it to drain the ricotta.

I pour 1/2 gallon of milk into the pot and began heating over a low heat. I want the temperature of the milk to rise slowly and gently to 180-185 degrees - just before boiling on the thermometer. It should take about 35-45 minutes. Sometimes I heat the milk in a double-boiler, it is my preferred method. Today I'm being lazy, so I heat it directly on the stove. I try not to stir the milk too much, so heating it slowly will keep it from scorching on the bottom.

When the milk is hot, I remove it from the heat. I quickly add 5 tablespoons of white vinegar and give it one quick stir to integrate. The transformation from milk to ricotta happens almost immediately. I don't want to stir too much because it will break up the curds that form.

I leave the pot for about 15 - 20 minutes, allowing time for the curds to really separate and settle.

While the ricotta curds are resting, I place the colander in my CLEAN sink, wet the cheesecloth and line the colander. I'm now ready to drain the ricotta.

After the resting period, I take the pot over to the sink and gently ladle the ricotta curds into the cheesecloth-lined colander. I then let the ricotta drain for 15 minutes - 1 hour. The longer it drains the more dry the curds.

Finally, I add a bit of salt to taste. If I'm using the ricotta for breakfast with some fresh berries (like today,) I don't add much salt, just a few shakes. I then serve it up or store it in some tupperware and refrigerate it.

Now I have about 9-10 ounces of fresh ricotta to enjoy. I try to eat it within a day or two.

If you want to see another version, try the recipe on the blog, Becks & Posh. Sam uses buttermilk as the acidifier. I think I might try that next. Enjoy!

On my bookshelf

It is no secret that I love books. I have a house full of them. Every room has shelves overflowing with collections of nature essays, travel guides, bird identification guides, photographic studies of trains, kids books, science fiction and fantasy (I never said I wasn't a geek!), and of course cookbooks.

Everything is organized by category and in the case of large collections (like sci-fi & fantasy) it is alphabetized. Cookbooks are arranged by subject: light fare, international, baking, down-home, and the "go-to" books for general cooking like Joy of Cooking. I have three copies of the Joy of Cooking. Jim has his old copy 1974© stuffed full of recipes, I have my old copy 1974© stuffed full of recipes and with plenty of notes written all over it. The new edition is located on the bookshelf closest to the stove where I can grab it in a hurry if I need to looks something up.

Other "go-to" books on my bookshelf: The Settlement Cookbook. This is the cookbook that my mom always used when she wasn't using Joy. The cover of my edition has a picture of a heart with pairs of young women in long skirts, aprons and chef's hats reading cookbooks, walking into the heart. The cover reads: The way to a man's heart The Settlement Cook Book. I inherited my copy from my Grandma Edith. I get misty eyed looking at the recipes for Ragalach a la "Hennie" and Taglach a la "Hennie" written in her distinctive penmanship on green pages of the inside front cover. Settlement was originally published at the dawn of the 20th century in Milwaukee. It was intended as a tool to help new immigrant women learn how to cook like an American. But the cookbook didn't limit the recipes to things like ambrosia salad or fried chicken. It included recipes from the European immigrant community of Milwaukee, many of whom were Jewish. Mrs. Kander, the head of the original editor saw fit to include recipes for Challah, gefilte fish, and jellied veal loaf (sulz.) There are etiquette lessons, guides for feeding invalids (sic.), recipes for diets low in sugar, starch, or free of wheat, eggs, or milk. Amazingly enlightened for my 1945© edition. I also have revised edition from 1991. I used both of them frequently.

The bookshelf with the fastest growing collection are my cheese books. I've been seeking out plenty of reference books as I've been learning all about cheese. My favorites are the guide books to cheese are by Max McCalman's Cheese, Steven Jenkins' Cheese Primer, Laura Werlin's two books, New American Cheese and All American Cheese and Wine Book. For a how to make cheese at home I love Ricki Carroll's Home Cheese Making. My favorite text book on the science of cheesemaking is by Paul Kindstedt's American Farmstead Cheese. It is the most critical book on my shelf. It answers the questions that I have about why milk reacts the way it does under specific conditions. Very useful.

Q&A time: So what's in that cheese, anyway?

It is time for another episode of "Ask Sarah." Today we look at cheesemaking from another angle.

I received the following email recently:

I am interested in learning how to make cheese, but the “kits” I have seen in my limited research all have additives I don’t want to use. Any advice on where to get recipes of how to make it like they did way back when, before additives? We have lots of farms around and I get my milk from a small Jersey operation.

You're lucky to be able to buy milk directly from a farm. And Jersey milk, too. Try making clotted cream. Jersey and Guernsey milk works best for clotted cream. Try the recipe on Dr. Fankhauser's website (see below) or try this one: http://drinc.ucdavis.edu/hman2.htm

A great place to get cheesemaking info is from www.cheesemaking.com , http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Fankhauser/Cheese/Cheese.html, and www.smalldairy.com . They all have good resource pages as well as recipes.

One of my favorite books is by Ricki Carroll, "Home Cheese Making." She runs The New England Cheesemaking Supply Company as well as the website cheesemaking.com. She's been doing it for years and is a great teacher. She even tells you how to make your own rennet.

I agree, I don't want to put additives or dyes in my cheese and I want to honor traditional ways of cheesemaking. The additives in the kits are not strange substances but usually include some form of acid like citric acid or tartaric acid. Citric acid is used as a substitute for lemon juice. The acidity in lemons can vary a lot, so using something with a consistant level of acidity can be easier when you're making cheese. You can make ricotta with either lemon juice or citric acid, or you can even use vinegar. It is the addition of acid that gets the milk to separate into curds and whey when making soft cheeses.

Most cheese is made by taking milk, heating it, culturing it, adding rennet, cutting the curds (if called for), draining the whey, pressing the curds if needed, and then aging the cheese in a humid environment.

Pasturized and homogenized milk has been cooked and beaten up in transit. It gets a bit of help by adding calcium choride in order for the curds to set properly.

Cultures and molds are selected strains of beneficial bacteria that produce and regulate acidity and give milk a nudge in the right direction for the style of cheese that you want to make. If you have access to raw milk and you want to find out what the flora is like, don't add the starter culture and just add rennet and see how it turns out. If you're lucky, it just might be something that tastes good.

That being said, if you want to make certain style of cheese, like a brie, you've got to innoculate your milk with P. candidum in order to get the fluffy, white mold to grow. The mold gives it the flavor of brie and helps the enzymes break down the curds and make it soft. Many European cheesemaker make their own cultures such as traditional cheddar makers in England. They've been using the same culture for generations. It is like sourdough bread starter. It is a critical part of the flavor of cheese and they take great care to keep their starter strain alive. Don't be afraid to give cheesemaking a try. It is a slow process, but the results are so tasty and gratifying.