Cheese 2: Change One Variable, Try Again:

Same recipe as yesterday, (Cheese 1,) but it is just a test.

Again - no guarantees are implied by any of this ;) - I really am making this up as an average of all the other cheese recipes on the internet.

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The Recipe 
Ingredients:

• Milk: Whole - 2 Pints
  

• Live Yogurt: Yeo Valey - 2 Tablespoons
  
• Rennet: Vegeren - 20 Drops
  
• Salt - 1/4 teaspoon

Equipment:

• Pan - To warm milk.
• Pan lid - to keep flies out of warm milk.
• Thermometer - that does blood temperature (100F / 32C).
  
• Muslin - Two wrap cheese in when draining and squeezing.
• String - To hang wrapped cheese.
• A cheese press - Details to follow.

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Stage 1. Assemble the goodies - and get the Yogurt going.
As Before

1. Warm 2 pints of milk to blood temperature
2. Add two big spoonfuls of live yogurt (Yeo Valley )
3. Leave for 45 Minutes.

During this time, I build my new press specifically for this cheese using a couple of pasta pots and a G clamp

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Stage 2: Rennet, Curds and Whey.

Unlike last time, I mixed the rennet (20 drops of Vegeren) with a few teaspoons of warm water.
I figure that this would make it easier to mix in, as before, the time difference between the first and the last drop hitting the milk was around a minute. Who knows what was going on with those enzyme droplets during that time?

Here is the cup of Vegeren and warm water




I tipped this into the warm milk / yogurt stuff, and stirred it for ten seconds,  (all the while keeping it at 100F). Popped the lid on, left the pan on the kitchen counter for 45 minutes again.

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Stage 3: Cutting the Curds
Here is what I came back to after 45 minutes:


It had turned into what seemed like a very very soft set yogurt.
The hole in the yogurt is where I left the thermometer in for a little while (not more than 5 mins at the beginning) so that gives you an indication of how long it took to set.


So then I sliced it. You really don't need a sharp knife for this.

You might just be able to see the slice marks.

After a bit of diagonal cutting, it became this:

A mess, it seems. But - the curds were separating, but not quickly though. The sloppy cubes would remain just that, until i mushed them a bit.

Putting the pan back on the heat, and bringing it up to 105F I stirred it until it really broke down into the thick and thin of Curds and Whey.

Strangely, the curds sank this time.

Stage 4: Straining and Hanging
As with the previous technique

1. Put a colander in a pan
2. Put the Muslin in the colander so you can pour both the curds and whey through it
3. Curds stay in muslin
4. Whey goes in pan
5. Stick Whey down the drain.
6. Keep the curds in the muslin
7. Pull the four corners of the muslin together and tie a bit of string around it and hang it for 45 mins to let it drip dry

Feel free to re-hang it a couple of times.

Stage 5: Pressing


Firstly add the salt to the cheese curds. (1 gram.)


When unwrapping it from hanging, I get this:

The curds are in the bowl, the red string is tied to a chopstick that supported it above a bowl to let it drip under gravity.

I put the curds into a bowl, then sprinkle 1 gram of salt over them, then mush it all in with a spoon for a few minutes.

This is actually quite tasty, its starting to become something!


So finally, to the new press:



I popped the cheese curds into the muslin, dropped that into my press, put the top on, and put the clamp across it. 
Almost instantly, more whey started to seep out.
Then unfortunately, little worms of curds started to follow, so i had to ease the pressure.
So, into the fridge with it. And I'll see what awaits me tomorrow.