Cheese!
I made a quick American style mozzarella cheese yesterday. Wow! It even tastes like cheese. It could use a little more salt, but otherwise, I think it’s great.
I even had a minor catastrophe while making it. I have (had) one of those fancy digital thermometers that have the probe at the end of a long wire. It gave up the ghost in the middle of my heating the milk to 90 degrees. After it sat at 82 degrees for like 15 minutes I realized something must be wrong. Got out another thermometer that starts it’s markings at 100 degrees. 105. Damn. But it was forming curds and whey so I continued on and low and behold! I’ve got cheese.
The thermometer dying might have had something to do with the fact that is was MELTED because my husband used it to monitor tempuratures while heat treating metal in a toaster oven. I found the thermometer on top of the oven in the basement. I assume that he left it on top of the toaster while cooking his metal things (custom knives) … (yes, we’re both crafty). He’s out of town this weekend so I couldn’t ask about it. Or make him fix it.
Today I tried making Monterey Jack. One mis-step this time and it was trashed. You have to add calcium chloride to store bought milk in order for the rennet to work well and it must be added before the rennet. Oops. After a long time of it not solidifying I gave up and fed it to the hens. The hens you ask? We got 25 laying hens this summer. Yeah, that’s a lot.
