Sheep cheese

Hello again. It has been a while since I last talked to you.  I've been absent because I found the pressure of getting out posts each week was getting to me. I needed a break.  Even after this, my 'sabbatical,' I think I need to reconsider how often to post from now on.  Maybe I'll get back into the weekly habit, but probably not.  I've done 658 of them after all.  

I'm 73 now, and live in a retirement village. I'm not exploring the Auckland area as much anymore, so it's harder to come up with topics.  You might find that I will start doing more of 'domestic' sorts of posts. I guess we'll both have to wait and see.  

My topic today, as you can surmise from my title, is about cheese making.  However, I know of at least one of you out there who will, if I dive right into my latest experience in manipulating casein, will say, "Hey wait a minute! In your last post, you said you had more pictures from Kaitarakihi Beach to show us. What about that, huh?"   

And I'd admit you are right. I did say that. So, to keep my word, I'll start today with two last shots from our Christmas Day adventure.  

I do love its rocky outcroppings. I wish the sun had been out.    

But now, to cheese. I've made cow's milk cheese several times from both regular Holstein milk and more recently from the richer Jersey milk.  I had intended to make some goat cheese this time, but when I arrived in the dairy section of our supermarket, I discovered they had only sheep's milk. Wow, even better. I've tasted both goat's milk and the cheese made from it, but never tried sheep milk. 

You may notice in the picture that the right hand bottle shows evidence of sampling. Jeanne and I just had to taste-test it first of course, and found it very rich indeed. Even more so than Jersey milk. This stuff should give me a very good yield.    

To this batch of cheese, I'll add salt and some chives from Jeanne's garden.  I grind regular table salt in a mortar and pestle until it is even finer than pop-corn salt. I want to mix uniformly with the cheese.  

I'll also need a thermometer and some white vinegar to power the reaction.  

It's so easy to make cheese.  I think everyone should try it. Not only do you get a good tasting product, but you get to watch a cool chemical reaction.  When you add the vinegar, an acid, you lower the pH of the hot milk and set in motion a number of changes which are visible and highly satisfying.  

You simply heat whatever milk you choose to just below boiling. I generally go to about 185 F. with mine. Stir the milk often as you heat it.  

This milk is at temperature and I've just poured in the white vinegar. Almost instantly you see an effect.

I stirred the milk so I'd distribute the vinegar and this is result just seconds later. The curds and whey are separating.  

Wahoo!  I got a great yield.  I continued to stir the pot for a minute or so, but gently, and then let it sit for about 5 minutes.  I've also turned off the heat.  Here's my first spoonful.

You can either spoon it out of the pot like I'm doing here, or pour the curds and whey through the cloth and colander and into another big pot. There is a lot of steam doing it that way and I prefer this safer method.   

I first pressed the curds in the cloth/colander from above with the wide spoon, to drive out the whey, and then I gathered up the corners of the cloth, made a ball of the curds, and used the spoon to continue to press my 'cheese ball' until almost no more whey was coming out.

I then dumped the ball of curds into a large mixing bowl, sprinkled salt and chives all over it, and gave it a good mixing.  It was still quite hot at this point.  

I put it into a bowl and pressed it down firmly all around. This is my result.  The small bowl is for sampling. 

I returned the whey to the bottles as another sort of yield measurement.  

I put a plate over the cheese and a bottle of something on top of the plate for additional weight. I cooled it in the fridge for about 5 hours and then turned the cheese out onto the plate.  It's very good. Just salty enough and the flavor of the chives comes through. Sheep's milk cheese seems to have a little more tangy flavor than cow's milk cheese does.  

If you'd like to make some cheese, I'd suggest you go to YouTube and watch some of the many videos there. 

You may find some of them suggesting a lower milk temperature. A woman said she used 162 F.  I once did a batch at a lower heat and got only a modest yield. Disappointed, I turned the heat up on the remaining whey and vinegar and as the heat rose, more curds formed.  I was delighted, and a bit smug. A real lesson in how temperature affects a chemical reaction. 

If you watch enough of them, you'll learn that you can use lemon juice, chemicals, and either animal or vegetable rennet to curdle your milk. I tried lemon juice once but prefer vinegar. I've never tried the others. They're more expensive.   

You may still think that the process is complicated and you may even find it so your first time.  After that though, you'll realize how easy homemade cheese really is.  

One tip.  If you do make some cheese, take your milk out of the fridge early and let it warm to room temperature before pouring it into the pan. No, this makes no difference whatsoever in the yield or quality of your cheese, but saves the electricity and time you'd have used to warm the milk from cold.

Anybody know where I can get some yak milk?  

-djf