Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Mystery cheese....

I read somewhere that no matter what your cheese turns out like... it's still cheese.  Maybe not exactly the cheese you were trying to make, still a cheese of some sort.

We had some birthday parties for friends coming up and I wanted to have some soft chevre to give... I tried to make a chevre from buttermilk and rennet vs. the direct set starter packet I buy from New England Cheesemaking Supply.

I opened up Mary Jane Toth's book, Goat's Produce Too!, and found her recipe for chevre.  It called for cultured buttermilk from the store to ripen the cheese and rennet to curdle the cheese... I think my milk amounts and rennet amounts were off.

I got the curds as usual...  all looks well so far!

I put the curds in butter muslin to drain the whey.... and when I pulled them out to mix them with some sea salt... the texture was weird.

Really weird.

It was like working with a sticky bread dough....

Too much rennet? 

It's in the fridge aging and cooling... I ended up not giving it to anyone for birthdays because I'm not sure it's gonna taste good or have a pleasant mouth feel... who eats raw bread dough?   I made more from direct set culture because I didn't have time to mess around with getting my rennet to milk ratios figured out...

Gonna have to give that one another try... wonder if it'll taste good or change in texture with some age in our "cheese cave"??

3 comments:

Melinda said...

Boy I dont know a thing about making cheese...But I bet it might change up some as it ages?

Tonia said...

Try pressing it?? I havent ever made Chevre with buttermilk. To much rennet would have made it firmer wouldnt it? We have dough eater in our family.. Lol Cookie, bread, whatever it is they steal bites of it! Weird I know...

Shanster said...

Melinda - maybe! I'll have to see what happens to it!

Tonia - that's why I think I used too much rennet... was so sticky and dough like. Odd for a cheese! I love cookie dough... but don't eat the unsweet, rising sort. grin.