Cheese, finally

Ramont has been milking our cow, Susie, for 15 months now and we are just now getting around to making one of the most obvious products from it: cheese. I've looked through the books and websites and, to be totally honest, have been a bit put off by the complexity, the required equipment, the additives, the cleanliness, etc. (fresh cheeses? no problem) I like to do things quickly, efficiently, with give-or-take measurements, and with minimal mess. What this means simply is that I've been too intimidated to try the real thing.

But real, homemade cheese is so good. My second cousin, Nathan, and his wife Loida have been making cheeses for the last year and graciously agreed to bring their stuff over and walk us through it the first time (Loida is visiting Bolivia at the moment, but Nathan walked the six miles out to our place, with all the supplies on his back).

Nathan took us through each slow, meditated, (complicated,) precisely-measured step required for good cheese. Here he demonstrates (to Anna's hands, evidently) what a clean break through the curd looks like.

And then I cut the batch into curds. At this point we were about 1/3 of the way through the many-hours-long process.

And here Ramont gently, gently stirs the curds (for 20 minutes! or was it 45?) to get them to release the whey. It probably didn't seem long to him since Nathan and he are clearly discussing their dreams for the future.

Many hours later, we packed the curds into the cheesecloth-lined mold and got ready to put it under the press. Jonathan was mesmerized by the press (it's a machine, after all). He was also very, very concerned that Ramont would forget to show Nathan all of Uncle Stanley's tractors in the machine shed, which kept getting pushed later and later (they did finally go, in his pjs).

Aaaaand, under the press it goes!

We made a gouda-style cheese that day, which required brining it in salt water the next day. I didn't have enough salt on hand, so it ended up a bit flavorless at first. Of course it would also have been helped by aging, but who has patience for that?

Nathan generously left his equipment for us to experiment with for a few weeks, so yesterday I finally had enough milk saved together to try another batch. This time I tried a "short-cut" variety of chedder and tossed in a few of my own (very mild) shortcuts. It should be dried on the counter for 1-2 days, then dipped in wax and aged for at least 60 days.

It made it to the counter to dry, but my goodness, two days? And then two more months??

The kids and I gave it about two hours and then couldn't help but try it.

It is good! The texture is awesome, the flavor is very mild but fresh and just the right amount of salty, and well, we'll have to wait a number of rounds before we'll have the patience to age it.

And as long as we eat it rather fresh, I think I can get by with my shortcuts and make some nice cheese for our own consumption.