Unmolding the Cheese

Yesterday the cheese was ready to come out of the molds. Originally heaped over the top of the molds, it had settled down to about half the mold. It came out of the chevre molds in a little white pyramid. Unseasoned, it was very plain in taste with just a bit of tang. So I took the first cheese and mixed some Italian herb mix, salt, pepper and a clove of crushed garlic into the cheese. It turned out quite tasty. For the past two mornings, I have enjoyed one of our farm fresh eggs, scrambled with about a tablespoon of the herb cheese mixed in after the egg is cooked. Yummy!

I split the next cheese into two portions, each about eight ounces. Into the first, I mixed two packets of cheese powder from boxed mac and cheese and 4 tablespoons of grated horseradish. I shaped the cheese into a log and rolled it in parsley. It was pretty soft at room temperature, but after being refrigerated, it is a pretty firm little log and can be easily slice. This cheese is very good as well. I sliced a piece of it last night and enjoyed it broiled on top of a turkey burger. Yum again!

The last part of the cheese that I seasoned yesterday, I decided to try as a pineapple walnut cheese. The recipe called for crushed pineapple, chopped walnuts, and salt. I wondered about the salt but didn't question it enough. This one turned out predictably salty which seemed odd for the flavors of the cheese. I think a teaspoon of sugar would have been a better addition than the salt. It reminds me of a flavored cream cheese; I'm just sorry it's salty because it seems like it should have been sweet.

I put some aside for the next baking for my HBin5 group assignment which includes a foccacia with goat cheese and froze the rest for using another time. According to the cheese making book, it will keep for six months in the freezer. There's a taco cheese recipe that looks good to me, but Ivy has claimed the right to pick the flavor of one. So I guess we'll have to see what she thinks sounds tasty.

What's next in our cheese-making adventure? Hard cheeses! I placed an order from New England Cheesemaking for the several things I would need to proceed with making some hard cheeses. I showed Paul several plans online for making your own cheese press, and this morning, he presented me with my very own cheese press at a fraction of the price of anything we could have bought. It cost us $6 for the dowels, and everything else we already had around. We will use bricks for the weights to press the cheese. I'm going to start with a farmhouse cheese. I ordered Ricki's Cheesemaking 101 video for a steal of only $2 because they are clearing out the VHS tapes in favor of DVD's. (The DVD runs $24.95.) It's a very informative video that takes you through several different kinds of cheese. I learned quite a bit from watching it once and plan to watch it again very soon. I would recommend it for anyone interested in learning to make cheese. Every cheese she makes in the video, she just uses regular store bought milk. Of course, you can use whatever you have available, but she does that to show that anyone can make cheese. As long as you still have a VCR, you just can't beat that price. And I have only good things to say about the New England Cheesemaking company. They had the best prices I found and customer service was friendly and very quick to respond to and rectify a problem with the order.