Making soft cheese

[Camile]

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to make some cheese with some lovely jersey milk ...

I have warm the milk to 30 degrees (was pasterized allready) ... then added 3 drops of rennet ... and it's now more than 27h in the airing cupboard and seems almost good but leaves a milk mark on my finger ..

is it normal that it takes that much time to curd ?


I now have some freeze dried cheese culture that I incubated and froze .. so will try tomorrow morning another recipe with some ...

thanks for your help on that ...
Camile

[ina]

At that temperature it should take quite some time. When I was making cheese on a farm in France, we always left our milk overnight - sometimes, if the temperatures were a bit lower, even two nights.

[Camile]

thanks for that,

it didn't leave any stains of milk later on this morning (36 hours after starting) ...so it's now dripping and looks like soft cheese ..

but the thing is that I tried it and think that it has a strong taste ... but ok ... but then again I'm french and would eat any cheeses ..

but the girlfriend says it tastes like vomit .. so should I be worried ?

or can I still eat it and see what happens ? is there much risks as such ?

or can I do something to it to turn it into something eatable ? or pressed ?

But thinking about it, I had skimmed some of the cream from the milk ... and didn't use any culture ... and there was 3 drops of rennet in .. for 2 litres of milk ...

I have another batch on the go, but following exactly word for word from the book, and it's setting much quicker ....

thanks again and in advance ...
Camile

[farmerdrea]

The longer you leave cultured milk at room temp, the stronger will be the taste of the cheese.

When we do soft cheese, I only use the milk at blood temp, straight out of the cow or goat (I don't pasteurise my milk), add the culture, cover and let sit for 1-2 days (it's usually ready to drain by the next morning. Our house is at a temp of about 20C during the winter and slightly warmer in summer. Is it overly draughty in your airing cupboard? That may account for the length of time it's taking your curd to form.

Good luck!
Andrea
NZ

[mauzi]

Hi, I just put up my recipe for soft cheese (goats, but could be used with other milks I am guessing) on a thread in Tips, Hints and Problems if anyone is interested.[/b]

[Camile]

Hi there,

Thanks for everything ..

the first 2 batches were a miserable failure .. as the first one did set and drain .. but the taste is really weird ...


and the second one didn't set .. so maybe I'm not using enough rennet or something ... because I had used some starter culture for the second batch ...

and the airing cupboard is not draughty, and the temp is at around 25 degrees ... so maybe it's too high ...

would you mind posting a detailed reccipe of yours ?

and maybe it was the fact that the milk was a few days old when I made the cheese ...

the yoghurts took well though ...

I'll check that new recipe and will get some more milk this week ... but froom Fresian cow this time .. because maybe Jersey milk is no good for soft cheese ?

Thanks again, I won't stand defeated as I want some cheese !

Camile

[farmerdrea]

This is the very basic Lactic Cheese recipe I've been using for years:

1 gallon milk, either whole or skim
1/2 tsp mesophilic starter culture
20 drops liquid rennet, or 30 is using goats' milk (this is junket rennet I use. If you're using cheesemaking rennet, only use 3-5 drops) diluted in 1/3 cup cool, unchlorinated water


Heat the milk to 30C, and the starter and mix thoroughly.

Add 1 tsp of the dilute rennet mixture and stir gently with an up-and-down motion. Cover and let set at a room temp of at least 22C for 12 hours, or until a solid curd forms. The curd will look like yoghurt.

Pour or ladle the curd into a muslin-lined colander or strainer of some kind. Tie and hang to drain for 6-12 hours, again at the same room temp.

Put the curds in a bowl and season as you wish. Our favourite is to add some lovely coriander pesto, or just plain salt and pepper.

Will store for up to 2 weeks.

Cheers
Andrea
NZ