Cottage cheese

I modified the cottage cheese recipe that I used the other day. I know at least one person asked for it (Hi Renee!), so in the interest of spreading knowledge, here it is. If something seems less than obvious, it probably is, so feel free to point it out in the comments :)

First, the normal caveats for making cheese and yogurt:
Use clean utensils (because cottage cheese isn't aged, you don't need to bleach them).
Don't ever use aluminum; use stainless steel whenever possible, although enamelware works, too.

You will need:
8 quart or larger pot
thermometer that reads 75-125º F (I use a digital thermometer)
long stainless steel knife to cut the curds
whisk
butter muslin
colander (stainless steel)
large mixing bowl
1 gallon milk
¼ rennet tablet
ladle
non-iodized salt

There are three ways to heat the milk:
1.Double boiler
2.Via a hot water bath in the sink
3.Directly over the burner—this is only practical on gas stoves, as you will need to quickly adjust the heat up and down, even shutting it off at times. I prefer this method after experimenting with all three methods.

If you are using raw milk, strain the cream off into a pint jar and set aside.

Dissolve ¼ rennet tablet in two tablespoons of water. Set aside.

Pour 1 gallon milk into pot. Heat the milk to 80º F, being careful not to scorch the milk if you are using the direct heating method. Add the rennet solution, stirring well. Cover and let the solution sit for about ½ hour, or until the curd separates cleanly when cut by the knife (sort of like a putting a knife in a cake to check for doneness. Some day I'll post a picture...).

Cut the curd. Take the knife and cut into ½ inch squares, keeping the knife as vertical as possible Then, angle your knife and cut it again both ways; you are cutting the curds into ½ inch cubes. Let the curds rest for 10 minutes, then gently stir with your hands. The whey will have begun to separate from the curds.

Raise the temperature slowly to 100º F at the rate of 1º every 2 minutes, stirring gently every few minutes to keep the curd from sticking together. If you raise the temperature too quickly, the curd will toughen and not taste good.

Raise the temperature to 115º F at the rate of 1º every minute., stirring frequently. The curds will shrink dramatically and the greenish looking whey will be about ¾ of the mixture.

Ladle the whey into 3-one quart jars until most of it is off the curds. You can put a piece of butter muslin over the jar to preserve the curds that get into the ladle. We use the whey for soup base, in bread instead of water, and feed it to the cats; some people pour it on their garden. Of course, some people just let it go down the drain. I haven't tried it yet, but you can make ricotta cheese out of the whey...

Line the colander with the butter muslin and pour the curds into the colander and allow to drain for a minute or two. If you let them drain too long, they will stick together.

Gather the corners of the butter muslin and dip the curds into very cold water several times. Return the muslin to the colander and rinse with very cold water until the water runs clean. Gather the corners of the muslin again and allow the water to drain out; you can squeeze gently. When water no longer drains out, it is done.

Dump the curds into a mixing bowl. Add about 1 tsp of non-iodized salt (most recipes call for 2 tsp, but we have found that to be too salty) and mix well with your hands. Add about 2/3-3/4 (1-1.5 cups) of the cream back in and mix well. You can add half-and-half or regular milk instead, if you want a lower fat cottage cheese or if you are using homogenized milk.

Store the cottage cheese in 2 wide mouth pint jars in the refrigerator for up to about 5 days.

The whole process takes about one-and-a-half to two hours from start to finish. Most of the time is just waiting time, though.

Miscellany

Over the weekend I made cottage cheese. I was surprised at how easy it is to make. I haven't made cheese for quite a while now—for two reasons: 1. my starter is all old and I keep forgetting to buy new; and 2. we have a cow share for 4 gallons a week which doesn't usually leave enough extra for cheese (yes, the two of us do use that much).

But, Debbie was in Minnesota for a few weeks which allowed a surplus to build up, so I took a gallon and made cottage cheese. I have about 4 different recipes, but only one of them allows me to make it without any starter; it just called for a 1/4 tablet of rennet and a 1/2 hour of resting. First, I skimmed most of the cream off and saved it for later. This was the first time I had used raw milk, too; every other time it had been homogenized milk, which doesn't make as nice a curd. The curd set up very nicely and as I cooked the curd, oh so slowly, the curds shrank just as they should. I ladled the whey into quart jars to use later and then washed the curds in cold water, broke them up with my hand, added salt and then poured back about 1/2 the cream.

Wow! It was the best cottage cheese I have ever had. The curd was so fresh it squeaked and talk about tender. I gave some to Debbie to taste, the ultimate test :) She declared that from now on we make all our own cottage cheese.

I took a quart of the whey and made a pot of sauerkraut soup. Hey, it sounded interesting. I won't make again, though. It was edible, but not a keeper; Debbie said I could finish the rest of it, so you know it wasn't very good—and we both really like sauerkraut.

In other news, I transplanted my broccoli plants last night. They are doing very well and the roots were beginning to intermingle. I think in the future I will transplant directly into discrete pots. But, now you won't have to make my mistake :) I'm going to transplant the Roma tomatoes tonight as they are having the same issue.

I had to reseed all my pepper plants. The seed I used was 4 years old, so it isn't surprising. Last year I got about a 50% germination rate, so I figured it was worth a try. This year I got 0% germination. That puts the peppers behind about 4 weeks, but because I'm putting them in the hoop house, it won't matter.

Speaking of the hoop house, we had a very windy week here. I'm not sure how hard the wind was blowing, but it would have taken the hoop house down if I hadn't used the new metal clips. So, that was win. And, the radishes and lettuce are up, too. Apparently the -10º F weather we had 2 Wednesdays ago didn't hurt them. Right now I'm just picking spinach, but it looks like the diet will be more varied real soon now.

Oh, I ran across this today:

When we look at the controversy of gender-inclusive language and the use of plurals; the above principles come into play, as does the historical-grammatical approach, which means that God personally chose the time, the place, the language, and the culture into which his Word should be penned. Who are we to disrespect that because we wish to appease the modern man or woman, who may be offended? Their offense is nothing more than self-centeredness, refusing to wrap their mind around the idea that the Creator of all things chose the setting, the language and time in which his Word was to be introduced to man.

<idle musing>
Where to start! You can't leave a comment without logging in and I don't have an account, or I would put this little note here.

If he is that adamant about the setting and language, why do we translate at all? If we do translate, then we need to make it relevant to the target language, which, at least in 21st century North America, means gender-inclusive language. Or, to put it another way, God speaks to all his people, both male and female; I believe Paul said something to that effect about 2,000 years ago...what do you think?
</idle musing>

You've got to be kidding

No, they aren't!

As you know, I do a bit of cheese making. Consequently, one of the RSS feeds I subscribe to is a cheese making supply house. They post different recipes periodically. Today, they posted a recipe for—hold onto your hats—Velveeta™! Is nothing sacred? They don't even try to defend it:

Are you serious?

We are. Our official policy is that there is no law against consenting adults making Velveeta in the privacy of their own homes.

Yes, it's embarrassing, but the truth is that sometimes you want macaroni made with Velveeta, the way your mother made it. You're not alone and we're here to help you.

<idle musing>
Don't expect me to be making it any time soon!
</idle musing>

Summer!

Yes, I know, I'm a month late. But, to me, the first tomato is the sign of real summer. All week long we have been picking a tomato, as in one, each day. On Monday it was a Roma; can you imagine us splitting it 3 ways? But, we did, Joshua, Debbie, and I each received about one bite from it :) Each day since then we have had a tomato. Last night, we picked three!

I received some flak when I commented on my first tomato sandwich two years ago. But, this year, I can assure you, the sandwich was from home made wheat bread, home grown Romaine lettuce (the last of it), home grown tomatoes, home grown bunching onions, home made pickle relish, and home made sharp cheddar cheese. But, no mayonnaise.

That's right, I finally opened the last 1/2 pound of cheddar that I made back in March. It is now almost 5 months old. It isn't as sharp as I thought it would be, but it is still good. I didn't have any home made mayonnaise, and having just returned from a 36-plus mile bike ride, didn't want to wait to make it, so I just went without. Ah, the trial of it all :)

Musings

Debbie left on Sunday to take Madelynn back; the house seems empty without them. I talked to her last night after she got to Ryan's (our son) in Minneapolis. Today she leaves for Grand Marais and delivers Madelynn to her parents, who are pining away, missing her :)

But, I have plenty to do. I need to get the tree house painted before Debbie brings Joshua back. I finished the body of it last night. I still have to paint the trim and railings; they will be a gloss white. What do you think of it so far?



In other news, I canned 8.5 quarts of bread and butter pickles and 2 quarts of beet pickles over the weekend. The green beans are about done with their first crop, except for the pole beans that are about to get started. So, I froze what we had picked.

The Japanese beetles have been a problem this year. The trap isn't drawing them as well as it did last year. I even put an extra pheromone patch on it. I don't know if you can see it in this picture, but they have made lace work of my rhubarb.


I mentioned a while ago that my brick cheese didn't seem to have turned out. I made two pounds and ate one two weeks later. The other one has been aging until yesterday. I opened it up and took a taste. It no longer looks or tastes like Brie! In fact, it tastes (and smells) like a mild Limburger. Good thing Debbie's gone :) Brick cheese is just a non-aged Limburger, so no surprise. I had some on a baked potato; it was good—I do like Limburger, by the way. But, don't go sending me any for Christmas; I don't like it that well!

I still have a 1/2 pound of cheddar that is aging. I made it on March 10, so it is now over 4 months old. I think I will open it up this week. I'll let you know how it tastes—unless it kills me! :)

Varia

Just a collection of various things found on my wanderings around the web...

Lawson Stone is blogging again. Here's a portion of today's thoughts:

I always think it’s a little sad when Christian institutions get so confused about their identity and mission that they actually start framing their curriculum and programs based on focus groups and market research, reverently termed “empirical data,” rather than first and primarily consulting their own deepest awareness of God’s call and working in their midst.

The ever prolific Jim West weighs in on the current state of Biblical Studies:

Biblical studies, as we know it, needs to end. But [Hector] Avalos is wrong concerning the reason because biblical studies isn’t at all primarily a religionist and apologetic enterprise in the academy, it is thoroughly “a-theistic’” (in the sense of the alpha privative prefix in Greek) in its approach and goals in the academy. Only a person who has never bothered to attend a meeting of the SBL or read the Journal of Biblical Literature or visited a Department of Religion (at, say, the University of North Carolina where Bart Ehrman teaches) could say without their tongue being firmly planted in their cheek that biblical studies is dominated by some sort of faith perspective. Indeed, I would submit for your consideration that in Colleges and Universities across the United States where Departments of Religion exist, that the preponderance of work is purely “a-theistic.”

The Book Bench bemoans the loss of personal selling in books, sometimes called "hand selling:"

There are also algorithms and Web sites intended to provide this sort of service [recommending books], but I find them unreliable and broad. The suggestions on Amazon, for instance, are limited—they tend to pound me over the head with new releases, analogizing books based primarily on sales rankings—and often odd (this morning, in a rise-and-shinish sort of mood, my Amazon site recommended that I might like pancake mix).

Jim Martin talks about a valuable gift:

For a few minutes, he gave us his undivided attention.

I never forgot that moment.

This is where I learned the value of giving another person one’s undivided attention.

Far too often, what people receive instead is our divided attention.

He goes on to talk about the draw of the cell phone, the text message, etc.

Joel and Renee have a nice little announcement:

...we are expecting Baby #5 at the end of January. That makes me about 7 weeks along. So come along Bean Sprout, go easy on your momma, and we look forward to meeting you around January 22!

So, we're going to be grandparents again!

On other notes:
Over the weekend, a raccoon got in the barn. I have chicken wire along the eaves to keep birds out, but coons go through that like a hot knife through warm butter. The neighbor gave us an assist and the coon is resting comfortably under a foot of earth now.

I haven't had any success in finding used parts for the Cub Cadet, so tonight we look at different lawn tractors. There were just too many things going wrong with the thing to be reliable.

On the cheese making front, we tried the brick cheese last night. It seems to have been a failure. It has the consistency of a Brie and tastes like it, too. The center of the block was more solid and tasted "brickish" but the rest didn't. Maybe I'll try again later, but at least I like Brie!

Also this weekend, I picked 45 pounds of strawberries. For the second or third year in a row, as I was finishing up picking, it started to sprinkle. By the time I had carried all 4 flats to the weighing station, it was pouring. As usual, I got drenched! But, I also ended up with 57 pints of strawberry jam. That should last for the year :)

Finally, last night as we were on our walk—a bit after midnight—we heard a plaintive meow a little over 1/4 mile from home. Looking around, we saw a tiny little kitten, probably 6-weeks old, along the side of the road. Being the sensitive sorts we are, we picked it up and brought it home. So, that makes at least 9 kittens 2 months old or less right now, 3 of them orphans. If the ratio holds to normal, by the end of the summer only about 1/3 of them will be alive. Right now we have 5 cats, none of them older than 13 months.

Timberrrr!

I came outside Saturday after a very windy Friday night and looked around, expecting to see some tree limbs down. There was only one, relatively small one in our yard, but our neighbor lost a 2-3 inch in diameter sapling; it was sheared off about a foot above the base. Yikes! We didn't get off without damaged, though—look at this:



Yikes! My hoop house bit the dust. It wasn't as bad as it looked, though. The only thing I lost were some small pepper plants; I am restarting those from seed, but it will put the harvest behind a bit :( When we built the hoop house, the instructions said that if you are subject to high winds, you should glue the joints. A trip to the hardware store, a bit of dismantling, and 4 hours later, better than new:



Another, maybe better, view:



While I was playing around, I expanded the asparagus bed and added a few plants:



I also planted 4 blueberry bushes and 25 strawberry plants. You can see the strawberries in the foreground of the second picture.

What else can you see? The white row cover is over the potatoes, which have started putting out leaves. It froze last night, so the row cover was nice to have, plus it keeps the straw on in high winds, which we have had quite a few of lately. The plants you see in the collapsed green house are bush beans; they are doing well for only being 2 weeks old! The hoop house makes a big difference. On Saturday, it was only 50 F, but inside the hoop house (once I rebuilt it!), it was about 80 F. Nice and cozy :)

On other fronts, the brick cheese seems to have turned out. It is 2 weeks old and finally, on Friday, developed the red bacteria linens that they talked about. It also started smelling like brick cheese. Tonight I will wax it and let it age in the refrigerator for a bit. I think I will take a break from cheese making for the summer; I have more than enough to keep me busy without it!

Cheese making tip of the week: When they say that the starter only keeps a month in the freezer once you have started it, they mean it...

Signs of Spring

Most would say that the blooms and blossoms are signs of spring. I have different take; here's a picture of our canning shelf.


So many empty jars means spring is here!

While I'm at it, I made brick cheese over the weekend. We'll see it it took in about 2 weeks. Meantime, it is (hopefully) incubating in this makeshift humidity box (bottom shelf on the left):



Every day I have to wipe it down with a brine mixture to keep the bad bacteria from growing. And, we opened the next 1/2 pound of cheddar yesterday; it was even better after another week of aging.

Cheese making tip of the week: Always clean up with cold water. Hot water sets the curd and makes it virtually impossible to get out! You heard it here :)

This week

has been a blur. Last weekend, Jim Baad and I started building the hoop house. We got the frame together and up, but no plastic on it Friday. Saturday, I got 4 pickup loads of compost, and one of wood chips, and bought the plastic. That about filled the day. Sunday, I started filling the boxes that were left to fill. And that about took Sunday.

Monday evening, with Debbie's help, I put half the plastic on the hoop house. Tuesday, I finished the plastic, including a door on the west end. Wednesday it was windy and it showed me that I really wasn't done—the wind managed to loosen some of the plastic on the ends and sides. So, Wednesday evening I tightened up the structure.

Finally, last night, I was able to plant stuff. I planted the potatoes and piled 6 inches of straw over them. To keep the wind from stealing the straw, I put row cover over the bed. Most of an 18 foot bed is filled with potatoes. Then I planted about 1.5 pounds of onion sets and some more spinach, radishes, rutabaga, and maché. I also planted some cucumbers, wax beans, 2 kinds of green beans, and kohlrabi in the hoop house.

The stuff I planted in the cold frames is doing well. The spinach is almost ready to cut; the radishes are developing nicely, the beets look good. The peas are almost too tall to shut the door at night and should start blossoming soon. The onions are looking very good; they are almost too tall for the frame, too.

With all this gardening, I haven't had time to make more cheese, but I'm hoping to make some brick tomorrow. The cheddar is now 6 weeks old. We tried some last Friday night; it is quite sharp and has a good flavor—at least that's what Debbie, Jim, and Shannon told me :) It is a bit dry; I think I pressed it to long, or maybe it got too hot. I still have 1.5 pounds aging in the basement.

We experimented with yogurt this week. Debbie was wanting thicker yogurt for something she was doing, so we made a quart with Half & Half™. It was just like sour cream, but sweeter. Wow! Get all of your daily fat and calorie needs in one small tablespoon full!

Here's two pictures of the hoop house:


Looking from the south. There are two 16 x 3 beds inside.


Looking from the west. In the foreground are the peas and onions in their cold frames

Cheese update

Well, we tried the Colby this weekend. I took a half-pound of it with me when I went to get Debbie. I think it aged at too warm a temperature, or for too long. It tastes good, but it doesn't taste mellow like Colby usually does. It has a bit of a bite to it, which I like. I was pleasantly surprised that everyone else thought it was good, too. We made short work of that half-pound.

It is somewhat difficult to get the paraffin off, though. It cracks and comes off in small pieces. I suspect that is why they use a special cheese wax, but I didn't want to spend too much money until I decided if it was worth the effort. I've decided it is :) So, I will probably be getting some nice red cheese wax some time soon.

The mozzarella that I made last Tuesday and turned into mozzarella sticks went over well, too. It isn't supposed to stay good for more than a few days, but I tried wrapping it in wax paper and then putting it in a Ziplock™ bag. It kept the cheese moist and good tasting. Debbie's eating the last one today, a week later. Not too bad...

So, on the whole, the cheese making experiment has been a success. I think I might try brick next. We can't buy it locally, but I snagged a pound of it in Wisconsin this weekend—actually Debbie's sister gave it to us. The recipe I found says to rub some existing brick cheese around the block of new cheese to transfer the bacteria linens to it. This is the bacteria that gives brick (and Limburger) its distinctive taste.

Promised pictures

OK, I've been promising pictures of a few things lately, so here we go...

My $5.00 cheese press (actually, it might be about $8.00). Note that it is all wood, no metal for the salt to corrode.

Fully assembled. Note the black markers to line up which is front. The original design only had two dowels, but that proved too unstable, so I went with four.


The circle of wood is called a follower; it goes between the 2x3 boards and the cheese cloth. All the wood is birch, so that it doesn't add any flavor to the cheese. The mold is cut from a gallon vinegar container.


The two 2x3s act as a plunger, pushing the follower down with all the weight that is stacked on the top board. I usually put a 40 pound bag of water softener salt on top for the weight.


Here's the compost bin; not a whole lot to say about :)


And, with Jim Baad's help last night, carrying them up from the basement, here are the cold frames. They are about 2' by 4' in size. Once it warms up, I will take the lids off.




My hope is to set up a hoop house and garden year round with the double protection of cold frame and hoop house keeping things warm enough to stay above freezing. I'll keep you posted on that...

That took way too long!

I made cheddar cheese on Friday night—actually into Saturday morning. I didn't realize it would take as long as it did. I estimated 5 hours, but it was 7 hours! Granted, most of that time was waiting, but you have to be there at the right times. I don't think I'll do that recipe again! I saw one that was supposed to take less time; I'll have to dig it out.

Once the making part was done, it had to press for 12 hours at 40 pounds, and then another 24 hours at 50 pounds. That's why I started it on Friday night. 36 hours of pressing time is hard to time correctly so I am home. But, it came out nicely formed. I made 2 pounds and cut it into four 1/2 pound sections to dry for a few days. After they dry, I will wax them and age them for different lengths of time. I love extra-sharp, so we'll see if I have the patience to wait a year :)

On the cheese-making front, the colby will be ready to try next weekend, but I will be gone, picking up Debbie from her parents. She is staying with her sister for another few days and then going to her parents until the weekend. So, once we get back, we'll try the cheese on Monday. I can't wait to see how it turned out. If it is good, I suspect we will make it more often—definitely more often than cheddar!

Meanwhile, I made a 3-bay compost bin and put it in the backyard. We had an ugly pile there before; this will make things look better. Plus, because it has air holes, the compost should rot faster.

I also made four cold frames this weekend. I hope to take pictures of them tonight and post them tomorrow. I got the windows last summer from work when we were cleaning out the garage. The garage had never been gone through since Eisenbrauns bought the shipping building almost 10 years ago. The windows were from when the building was originally built, about 25+ years ago. They are double paned and weigh a lot. I'll be putting them in the garden tonight; it was raining and cold yesterday when I finished them.

Maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to plant some radishes, spinach, and peas yet this week under the cold frames. That would give us radishes and spinach before tax day, and peas by May 15. I could handle that :)

Weekend doings

I waxed the cheese on Friday. It is looking more and more like a longhorn of colby, but it still needs to age for 3 weeks. I'm getting a bit anxious to try it :)

I read last spring in Mother Earth News that you can core tomatoes and then freeze them until you have time to make tomato sauce. Well, I froze about 10 pounds of them last summer—nice looking, bright red romas. They have been waiting patiently all winter for me to get to them. About a month or so ago, I came across a good tomato sauce recipe and tried 3 pounds of them with it. It was excellent, but needed a bit of modification. Sunday was the day for it.

I cooked up the remaining 7 pounds or so and canned them. It made a dozen 12 ounce jelly jars worth. We use about 10 ounces of tomato sauce on our pizza, which is too much for a half-pint, but we would have some left over with a pint jar. The 12 ounce jelly jar is about perfect, after you allow for headspace. It was fun pulling the jars out of the water and hearing them pop as they sealed. The level of water on the lid of each jar made each of them give off a different note as they sealed. I couldn't believe how fast they sealed; all of them were sealed in about 45 seconds, not the normal 5-10 minutes that you get in the summer.

From that same cookbook, I made something called Snow Pudding yesterday. It is supposed to look totally white, but when you only have unrefined sugar, that is pretty difficult :) Debbie didn't think it would be very good, but I thought it might be, so I made it. Basically, it is just lemon gelatin with egg white folded in served with a light vanilla custard over the top. It turned out very well. I think I'll make it again, but add more lemon juice next time.

I was hoping to get the compost bin built, but the weather didn't cooperate with me. Maybe later...

Cheese update

On Saturday morning, I made yogurt, as usual. But, I also started some colby; the process from start to the beginning of pressing took about 3.5 hours, maybe a bit more. My press is a home made one that cost about $5.00 to make, maybe a bit less. I'll try to remember to get a picture of it posted. Without a picture it is difficult to picture the problems I had, but I'll try...

You are supposed to press the cheese for 20 minutes at 20 pounds of pressure. If you have a fancy $250 + press, that is easy. My $5.00 one relies on me adding weight to the top. Well, I know that a gallon of water weighs about 7 pounds, so that means 3 gallons of water. I proceeded to balance 3 gallons of water on a 2 x 4 on top of a 10 x 12 frame on top of a 2 x 4 placed vertically. It worked! After that, you flip the cheese and increase the weight to 40 pounds. That was easy; I just put a 40 pound salt bag on top. Well, it didn't quite work out so nice; the bag tipped and one side of the cheese had more pressure than the other. After an hour, you flip again and add 50 pounds. That took some figuring, but I finally came up with a criss-cross of 2 x 4s that allowed me to put 7 gallons of water on it. But, it fell over after about an hour :( I finally put the 40 pound salt bag back on and just added 2 hours to the time. The cheese came out looking beautiful.

I put it on a mat to dry in my study. It needs to dry for a few days before waxing and then aging for about a month. About halfway through Sunday, my curiosity got the better of me so I cut it in half and sliced off a nice chunk to try. Hmmm, not bad. It tastes like colby, but milder. I think it might be OK after aging a bit.

On the mozzarella front, Jim and Shannon came over Saturday evening and we made another batch. Delicious, the best batch so far. I think mozzarella sticks are going to be a staple around here! So much fresher—and they even squeak as you eat them. That's the real test of freshness!

Cheese making

is a lot of work. I made two batches of mozzarella over the weekend and got the starter going for cheddar, colby, etc. The first batch of mozzarella didn't turn out very well; I got too anxious and didn't let the curd set long enough. It looked ok, but the flavor was weak. The second batch turned out much better—good flavor, with a good texture to the curds. We saved some of the curds out on the second batch to eat as curds; they were nice and squeaky.

My favorite part was cutting the curd and watching what looked like a solid mass begin to lose its liquid and shrink by about 80%. Debbie's favorite part was stretching the mozzarella; it's sort of like pulling taffy. Fun stuff! But, time consuming...