Large Scale Central

Making cheese (and yes you cut it also)

So I decided to make my own cheese. My first attempt is white cheddar. Its white because I forgot to buy annatto which is the colorant that gives cheddar the orange color. But since it does not add any flavor I am running with it. So I made my own dutch style cheese press for pressing it. The picture of the cheese is after the first pressing which is 10# for 15 minutes. The next two pressings should really give it the compact block form (I hope). The second pressing is 40# for 12 hours and the third pressing is 50# for 24 hours. Then you air dry it for a couple days and then wax it and age it for 4-6 months (or longer) depending on how sharp you like it. Longer it ages the sharper it gets. I will set this aside for 6 months and then see what I get. Adjust for future batches.

As a byproduct of the process you produce a lot of whey. I ended up with 1 1/2 gallons of the stuff. Well I googled uses for it and one of the uses is making caramel. Thats one of my favorite things and I have made it with milk. But wasn’t sure about whey. Its better than milk. It has an awesome flavor. 2 Qts of whey makes a little over a pint of caramel sauce.

Very good Devon! We raise dairy goats and have made many different cheeses as well as Dulce de leche (carmel sauce) and even paint! Another cheese have made from whey is Gjetost. It’s a Norse cheese that has a peanut buttery carmel taste. Also, we use whey instead of water to boil pasta. The whey sticks to the spaghetti and gives it more “grip” to hold the sauce!

-Dan

I want to play with goats milk. We had dairy goats as a kid. I grew up on goats milk and for the longest time had a hard time drinking cows milk, seemed weird and foreign. I know there are some very good goat cheeses.

I heard about cooking pasta with whey. Seemed odd but glad you reported on it. Might have to give it a try. And I just looked up the recipe for Gjetost. I will give that a try also. I see ricotta is a whey cheese too.

I have to say it has been really kinda rewarding seeing all the stuff I can make with milk. I mean I knew this stuff was made with milk but I am getting it all at once, which is great. Out of three gallons of raw milk I have made about a pound of butter, got about a gallon of buttermilk (which I have used to make biscuits from scratch and country gravy, added it to mash potatoes so far), I got about a pound of cheese, and 1 1/2 gallons of whey which has so far made the caramel sauce. And I still have lots of buttermilk and whey to go. So I am getting a lot of mileage out of 3 gallons of milk.

That’s awesome Devon! Nice to hear you can get raw milk. We raise miniature Nubians and are best goat gives us 1 gallon a day. It’s illegal here in RI to sell raw milk unless you say it’s for making soap. We just give ours away to family, friends and fellow employees. Actually, we have so much that I end up pouring it on stumps (Calcium is an active ingredient in some of those stump rotting products).

Next level - CREAM SEPARATOR!

I am making my own cream separate. Nothing more than a plastic jug with a tap on the very bottom. I did this with a iced tea jug thingy and worked great but the tap is too far off the bottom. So I am going to make my spigot on the very bottom. That way I should be able to get all the milk off leaving the cream.

The raw milk ibam getting is from a certified dairy. My sister works at a feed mill and the dairy is a customer. Not sure what they have to go through to get certified but its 100% organic and raw. And is certified “clean” disease and pathogen free. In idaho at least it is available, we can even get it in the supermarket.