Trouble with cheese

The trouble with cheese, is the lack of people willing to show you the basics... You are relying on what you can read and what you can figure out through trial and error.

Or my first attempt I used a farmhouse culture and commercial rennet and followed every instruction I could find, only problem being the cheese hoop I bought wasn't deep enough, so when it drained and was ready to age it was so thin that it dried out and was more like Parmesan rind then a simple cheddar. Next I tried a recipe from a well known tassie trio who have made farming cool again, and I used natural yoghurt as a starter and followed the recipe to the letter, I even drained the Chesse for longer then I needed to, but as soon as it went into the brine it fell to pieces... Fail Mach II.

Luckily I did have the whey left from the second cheese so I decided to start probably where I should shave to begin with, a simple ricotta. Texture and flavour were great and it was so simple that you would actually o through and make either it or paneer over and over again. If you want to give this a shot try this recipe out.

 

Ingredients

4 ltrs whey ( if you don't have whey, just use non homogenised milk and make paneer)

1 tbsp salt

200 mls of white vinegar

 

Heat you milk or whey to 60 degrees c slowly over a low flame, add your slat and stir to combine.

Continue to heat to 92 degrees c and add vinegar

Take off heat and allow to sit for 1 minute, the curds will float to the top, if you are using whey use a slotted spoon and put the curds into muslin cloth ( or a new chux is also good) if you are using just milk drain through a muslin cloth and allow to drain and cool.

 

This ricotta will last a couple of days in the fridge but I guarantee it won't last that long.

 

 

Let me know if you try this out and how it goes!

Posted with Blogsy