Monday 12 September 2016

Cheesemaking

Having received a cheesemaking kit quite a while ago, I finally got around to using it with 2 months to go to its expiry date. That isn't as drastic as it sounds as only the rennet tablets might be out of date by then.

It is a kit for making Scottish Crowdie cheese. Herewith the photographs for a half batch using 4 pints of whole milk. It has had its initial heating to 90F and the citric acid has been added before leaving it to sit for 30 minutes:
Then the rennet was added and the temperature raised to 105F - very fiddly - for 3 minutes. The recipe didn't say whether to keep stirring or not so after I felt the rennet was stirred through, I stopped:
Straining through a 4 fold cheese cloth:
Whey left after straining:
2 dessertspoons of double cream and some black pepper added to one half:
2 dessertspoons of double cream and diced chilli to the other half:
Verdict - yummy!The whey has been frozen in 4 batches for use later on.

5 comments:

  1. This looks yummy and very interesting. What do you use the Whey for please?

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    Replies
    1. The cheese element is around 10% so there is a lot of whey. It can be reheated to make a small amount of ricotta, or used fresh or defrosted as the liquid part of bread, scones, cakes, ice cream etc. Loads of recipes on the internet.

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  2. That looks impressive, I love the idea of making my own cheese. Is it cost effective?

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    Replies
    1. Maybe not for cream cheese although I did get the equivalent of two tubs worth, but you can't buy whey here so that is cost effective.

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