Friday, February 26, 2010

DIY Cheese Molds

Yesterday, Ivy and I started making French Chevre goat cheese. It's a several day process. On the first day, we heated the milk, then added buttermilk (for cultures) and rennet, then let it sit overnight. This morning, we scooped the curds into cheese molds. Here I ran into a slight snag because I only had two molds and far more curds than molds. I temporarily put the extra cheese curds into a colander lined with cheesecloth until I could get to the store. At Walmart, I found some Rubbermaid to-go containers that looked roughly the same capacity as my cheese molds. When I got home with the containers, I heated up a screw using one of the gas burners on my stove. Then I melted oodles of small holes into the container from the very bottom up to the top. I spooned the curds from the colander into my two new "molds," and the whey started weeping out the holes immediately. Success!


And the best part? It cost barely over $2 for both of my two new molds, compared to over $5/each plus shipping if I ordered them online. Plus they have lids to stick over the top so I don't have to drape them with foil while they drain.

The cheese has to drain another day, but I had a little nibble already and it's pretty tasty! You can see how much has already drained by comparing the top and bottom pictures. The square containers were heaped over the top when I first scooped the curds into them.


1 comments:

brokenteepee February 26, 2010 at 11:08 PM  

Jenny, I just hang mine in cheesecloth overnight. I have never used a mold for chevre.

Then I take some and add in some fresh garlic, olive oil and parsley or basil. yum on a cracker.

About This Blogger

I am a thirty-something mother of two girls and a boy ranging from preschool to middle school. My husband and I keep working and reworking on our goal of raising our family healthier. Our house is a constant work under construction--adding on and remodeling. We're happy to have bought our property a few years ago, but as any homeowners know, owning a home just adds to your list of projects and chores because there's always improvements to be made and maintenance to be done. On our burgeoning homestead, we have chickens, guineas, a few goats, and our most recent additions-rabbits.
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I picked the name Petalz and Finz a couple years ago when I decided to try Etsy out. I wanted to custom make some baby related items and have things for girls and boys. I felt the name incorporated both my kids (at the time) into it--petalz for Ivy and finz for Finn.

I haven't had time to do much of anything with my Etsy for a while, but it's still my in my long term goals. In the mean time, I'm having fun with this blog thing. I've found some creative inspiration through my own posting, but also through many other wonderful blogs out there.
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