More cheese please....

It is 9:48pm. I am not a night person. I like to be in bed by 9 reading a book and falling asleep by 9:30pm.

Why am I not in bed? Why am I blogging at this "late" hour throwing off my circadian rhythms?

Sigh.

I decided to make parmesean cheese tonight. Good grief. I am my own worst enemy!

It rained all weekend and it's still too wet outside to do much else. I had a gallon of milk from "the girls" and I bought a gallon of 2% cows milk (cuz that is what the recipie calls fer) this weekend to make parmesean for the first time. Figured I'd be inside a lot with the rain and cheese making would give me something to do.

Well, our weekend got busy. We ran errands most of the day Saturday and went to dinner with our fabulous friends who will accompany us to Sonoma/Napa in only TWO WEEKS! Have I mentioned that vacation? Furry Husband has set us UP in wine country. VIP tours, complimentary guest accomodations at wineries, free fancy pants wine lunches. We are all super excited to go!

Sunday we had breakfast with the divine Ms. K cuz she is leaving for Laramie, WY to get her PhD in molecular sciences. Can you say -- brainiac? She is very smart and we are happy for her but we will miss her cheerful smile and who else is crazy enough to come running when we call to say goat babies are imminent?

Then we had lunch with my Ma and Step-Pa and right after that, off I went to a bridal shower! So yeah - the weekend sorta got away from us when it was supposed to be long, lazy and indoors, listening to the rain.

Anyway. I have this milk in my fridge with parmesean written all over it and I had plans to make cheese. I'm nothing if not stubborn and I started it tonight thinking I'd be done by 9pm.

Next time Furry Husband is doin' the time calc-u-la-men-ta-tion cuz I is NOT math oriented.

A lot of people ask me what makes cheddar cheese, cheddar vs. colby vs. brick vs. whatever kind of cheese. I don't really know the answer to that. I know it is all science and someone could break it all out for you but to me it's like what makes a brownie a brownie vs. a cookie vs. a cake. It's all in the way you stir it and cook it and the ingredients you use when you follow the recipie.

Here's what I'm doing to make parmesean tonight (grumble, grumble - I'm sleepy - grumble)

Heated the milk to 90 degrees F, let it rest for 30 minutes, added lipase powder, stirred for 2 minutes, added the rennet, let it rest for 30 minutes. Cut the curd and let it rest for 5 minutes. Heated the curds to 100. Continually stirred slowly and VERY slowly kept on heating until the curd reached 120F. (this is where I am overly optimistic about how quick it will go...you heat cheese curds slowly... did I say slow? cuz I mean S-L-O-W, SLOW and about this time I start to realize what time I'll be going to bed. My mood begins headin' South)

Stirred for 25 MORE minutes. Drained the curd for 20 minutes in a colander. (now I'm gettin' downright snippy and Furry Husband quietly avoids me) Put curd in cheese press for 10 minutes at 5lbs pressure. Turned it over and pressed again for 10 min at 5lbs pressure. (I am cursing under my breath) Turned cheese over and pressed for an hour at 15lbs pressure. (YOU are here)

In a few minutes I will repeat and then finally I will turn the damn cheese over yet again and press for 12 - 15 hrs at whatever amt of pressure - I forget cuz I'm only on the first damn hour and my instructions are in the kitchen.

I'm tired and cranky.

During the latest turn and press, Furry Husband says, "huh. so this is why cheese is so expensive." Yeah. Not to mention the parmesean will age for 10 months. So if I've done something wrong tonight, August 18 2008, I won't know until June of 2009 when we taste it. How is that for delayed gratification?

The types of cheese I've been making - cheddar, colby and now parmesean have not been exactly hard to make but they are time consuming. And when you've reached this point - you've put so much time into whatever god forsaken cheese you are making - you don't want to scrap it and wait for the weekend to start over.

So I'm up. And I will be up until 11pm and hell if I'm gonna make cheese on a "school night" again any time soon!