Monday, July 6, 2009

Day two of Rennet Cheese #2: so far, so curd!

So around 10 this morning I tested our rennet cheese #2, a mixture of heated milk, live yogurt and rennet, which had been sitting overnight. I could really feel the curd; it kind of had the consistency of yogurt pie, the kind you add gelatin to. I was able to slice it, but the curds kind of fell apart. Then I was supposed to mix it by hand for 15 minutes, and by the end of that the curds were really small, like when I make ricotta (well, at least when I make ricotta; some stuff I've read indicates I should get larger curds).In the top-left picture, you can see some curds left in the pot. It kind of looks like thick yogurt right now. I actually ended up twice-draining the whey; in these photos you can see how milky the whey is, but once I re-strained the whey itself it looks like we're getting a good clear liquid. From which I'll make ricotta! So excited!
But first I need to let the cheese drain for a couple more hours before I can put it into the cheese-molds. We'll certainly get plenty of product; the bottom-right photo shows the mock-colander (actually the potato ricer) I had to fashion because my other colander wouldn't hold all the cheese!

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