Cotijo fail and a chicken brine

I sort of ruined the surprise there for how today's cheese-making, didn't I. So let me tell you all about what I did, and where (I think?) it maybe went down the tubes.

I went to a local Seattle home brew store where I was able to procure not only rennet (if you don't know what rennet is, because I sure didn't, watch this at minute 3:00, although I recommend the whole episode because it's fun), but both of the cultures I needed to make my Cotijo and the required calcium chloride.  Huzzah! 

I bought the required 2 gallons of whole milk at Central Market, since it was close to the home brew store, and toddled off home, ready to begin the process. 

 Here are all my ingredients.  While I bought 2 gallons, I ended up only using 1 gallon.  First smart decision I made all day. The jugs you see there are each a half gallon of whole milk from Twin Brook Creamery, here in WA. They vat pasteurize, so I know that's not where my problem arose. 

Because sanitation is important, boys and girls, I washed all my gear again. So that wasn't it, either.
Pictured is my trusty stock pot, a metal whisk, a "nonreactive" strainer, a plastic spatula for cutting the curds, a thermometer,and my 1/2tsp measure.

Not a bad way to start.  Famous last musings. 

I hooked my thermometer onto the side of the pot and poured in my two jugs of milk.  Whisking the whole while so as not to scorch the milk (which I did last time -- cleaning the pot was a pain) I heated the milk to 100 degrees F as my book called for.  So far, so good.  In went the meso culture and the thermo culture.  I whisked them in the "up and down" motion recommended for better incorporation to all levels of the milk, rather than just the top.  Ok, good to go.
 

Then the milk was supposed to sit at 100 degrees F for 30 minutes to ripen the cultures.  Ok, cool.  No problem. 

 OR SO I THOUGHT... I leave the milk on the low-medium heat that had only just barely raised it to 100 degrees in the half hour I stood there whisking it.  Come back 15 minutes later... and it's up to 135 or so.  Crap.  Maybe that's not a problem?  Maybe making cheese is more like cooking than it is baking.  I mean, back in 1640 they didn't have thermometers, and they were able to make cheese just fine, right? I crank the heat back to low, add my calcium chloride and my rennet, set the timer for 1.5 hours and let it sit.

Apparently, making cheese is more like baking than cooking.  After 1.5 hours of sitting, by which time the rennet should definitely have been causing some major coagulation, I come back and find....

 NO CHEESE CURDS AT ALL.  NOT EVEN TINY ONES.  


Well crap.

I add more rennet, thinking maybe that's the problem.

Nope. 

While I am not sure, since I've made a lot more yogurt than cheese and this is a learning process, I don't really know what went wrong.  This is the first time I've tried making cheese with rennet.  Maybe the heat was too much for the rennet. Or maybe the rennet was no bueno to begin with.  Or maybe the cultures didn't approve of the extra 35 degrees of heat (WHICH WOULD NOT GO AWAY) and somehow inhibited the coagulation of the milk.  Here we are, 3+ hours later, and still no curds.

Apparently, those British archeologists 1) are better dairy maids than I, or 2) had a few goes at it that were left out of the final cut.  I'm glad that I didn't use both gallons of milk.  I may try again tomorrow.  We'll see how I feel after work.

To bolster my spirits after such a colossal fail, I made some brine for the chicken I plan to roast for dinner tomorrow. It smells delicious, and looks fancy.  Thank you for the recipe, Thomas Keller.  And here's to hoping I don't muck that up, or I'll be sad and have to order take out.

Stay tuned for Cotijo attempt #2.

Queso Blanco: my first attempt at homemade cheese

A blog that may not be updated with any sort of regularity, but here we go at learning to make cheese.  Should be full of pitfalls everyone can enjoy, and maybe have a tasty outcome.

Today I decided to try my hand at making some cheese.  Utilizing the only resource book I currently have (Artisan Cheese Making at Home), I chose Queso Blanco. 

For those of you who, like me, are not in the know, Queso Blanco is not the same thing as Queso Fresco.  They're related, but I'm not sure what that means yet.  My best guess is something along the following lines: 1) They're both Hispanic cheeses. 2) They don't take long to age, so they're considered "fresh" cheese. 3) They're both white cheeses. 4) They can both be made with cow milk (although you can also make them with goat milk, according to my sources.  All one of them.).

For my first batch of cheese, I opted to use a 1/2 gallon rather than the called for full gallon.  This is partially because I do a lot of cooking for one.  I don't know if I could eat a whole pound of this cheese before it went south, and even if I could I am not sure I should. Pesky Coast Guard weigh-ins are coming up in a few months.  There is nothing quite like the diet of "ritualistic humiliation in front of your peers" to get you to eat right. Or, at the very least, to get you thinking maybe you should eat right.

Ok, back to the cheese.

The ingredients were simple:
Milk- 1 gallon.
Apple cider vinegar -1/4 cup.
Salt- 1tsp.

Phew.  That's a rough recipe.

I started out with a half gallon of whole organic pasteurized cow milk from Whole Foods.  I don't remember the brand and I have already tossed the carton.  While I could go dig through my apartment's dumpster, I don't really care enough about the details for that to be practical or sanitary. 

I heated the milk to 195 degrees F, which took longer than the book said it would.  Also, hot milk smells gross.  Maybe it's the lactose inefficient person in me, but I just don't like the smell of milk.  Ever.  And hot milk is even worse.  The smell of cheese is fine.  Smell of yogurt is fine.  Plain-ol'-run-of-the-mill-milk?  No. In any case, I was worried about scorching the milk, and had my electric stove set to low-medium.  When the milk had sat at 155 degrees for about ten minutes, I started boosting the heat.  I was up to medium-high before the milk would rise to the required 195 degrees.  As soon as it did, I popped in the vinegar.

Cutting the apple cider vinegar in half was a little more tricky, as the recipe called for 1/3c of cider per gallon of milk.  Not having a 1/6c wet cup measure, I eyeballed it.  Seemed to work alright; as soon as I whisked it in, the curds began to form.  I placed a lid on top of my pot and let it sit for ten minutes.  During this time, the curds and the whey separated out. For some dumb reason I had expected the curds to float.  I'm not sure why I thought they would; I've been making yogurt for years, and the whey is on top when you finish making yogurt, just as it was when the curds had sat for the required amount of time. 

Not having the muslin the author recommends, I used regular old cheesecloth, dampened and placed over a metal mesh strainer to separate out the curds from the whey.  The whey drained into an old Pyrex mixing bowl that I've had forever.

I let it drain for five minutes, and added the salt.  This was strange.  The book said to not break the curds up while salting, but they'd formed a sort of half-dome, so I had to break them up.  Ah well.  I then tied the whole mess up into a rather lumpy looking package in the cheesecloth.  The cheesecloth was then tied to the faucet of my kitchen sink.  It looked pretty odd, with random drips of greenish whey falling into my garbage disposal.  Honestly, I wasn't sure what to do with the whey.  I hate wasting things, but it went down the drain.  I was in a bit of a rush, towards the end, as I had a hair cut appointment to get to.

On the bright side, when I came home I had delicious (if lumpy) Queso Blanco to add to the chili I made today.  Not a bad meal, if I must say so myself.  :)

Overall, this was a lot of fun.  I'm planning to try another cheese this weekend, if I can procure all the supplies.  One that requires the use of rennet rather than vinegar as the coagulant.  Stay tuned, folks.