Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
container and set it on an unused burner on the stove. Check
the temperature once in a while and if it seems to be going too
low, just set it back in the outer container for a few minutes,
and take it back out once the temperature is in the proper
range. Because the amount of milk and water involved has a
substantial thermal mass, usually this need not be done more
than once for a particular waiting period.
Experiment and Keep a Log
A lot of times people want to make cheeses like those that
they buy at the store. If you want to do that, there are a host of
sites on the Internet that give specific recipes. But what I
recommend instead, is that you experiment and keep a log. I
have covered all the fundamental principles you need to know
in order to make your own unique cheeses. Fresh cheeses
have to be refrigerated to be safe and should be used in less
than a week. Cheeses made from raw milk have to be aged for
at least two months to be safe. Hard cheeses need to be
pressed with increasing amounts of weight. But now, from
just the four cheeses I have given in this chapter, you can
think about the variations.
The Queso Blanco recipe was a direct acidification cheese
made with vinegar. What would happen if, instead of adding
vinegar, you added a mesophilic starter and held it at 88
degrees for an hour before pouring into the cheesecloth? It
would certainly taste different!
The soft Farmer's Cheese described earlier used a yogurt
(thermophilic) starter culture. What if you used the same
technique, but instead used a buttermilk (mesophilic) starter
and varied the temperature accordingly?
