Tuesday, April 14, 2020

That’s mature


If I asked you to guess something personal about me I can virtually guarantee that no one would predict what I'm about to tell you - I make my own cheese. I've been doing it for a few years now - not overly regularly but one thing I do when I'm bored is learn something new. And a few years ago I learned how to make cheese. I've had a few hits (mozzarella, cheddar) and a few misses (a Brie which ended up harder than a hockey puck and one which I left in the garage to age but forgot about and by the time I found it had produced a swarm of flies and maggots of biblical plague proportions) over the years.

Last week I went to the supermarket for the weekly shop (just to get essentials and with no thoughts of buying 30 pints of milk) and they had an absolute fridge-load of full cream, non-homogenised (that's important - you can't make cheese with homogenised milk as the fat globules are too small) milk so I decided to pick some up and make some cheese as I've got quite a bit of time on my hands at the moment.

So when the cost centres went home after the weekend I told Mrs AC that we were gong to spend the day making cheese - stilton in this case. She initially thought this was hilarious and that I was joking - nope. You get to be the cheese maker's assistant I told her - chief job being timing and pouring the wine. The wine having no relevance to the cheese making process other than making it more fun!

We ended up making these 2 beauties - unfortunately I didn't have any different culture so had to make 2 Stilton rather than waste the milk.



So now the waiting begins - the book says to let them mature for 6 to 8 weeks but given the current situation I think we’ll still be in lockdown by the time they are ready.

What’s the weirdest activity that you’ve been doing whilst in lockdown?
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3 comments:

  1. AceMay 14, 2021 at 7:33 PM

    Hadn't seen this post until now, very interesting stuff. I eat plenty of cheese but haven't tried making any. Here is one for you to try and make from my neck of the woods (warning it smells!). On the bright side, if you forget it for a month or two, no big deal!
    https://www.fondazioneslowfood.com/en/slow-food-presidia/cheese-in-a-sack/

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    Replies
    1. AyeCarambaPokerMay 14, 2021 at 11:46 PM

      It’s actually quite easy to make but the toughest part is ageing it at the right temperature - fridges are too cold and stop the good bacteria from doing its job.

      Thanks for the link - I can’t imagine making one that’s 30kg though as you need 10 times that amount of milk. I can’t imagine Mrs AC would be too pleased if she came home and found 300 litres of milk in the kitchen and a sheep in the garden to make the sack

      I love hearing about regional specialties and will always eat local foods on my travels - although there’s an Italian cheese that actually has live maggots in it which I’d rather avoid! https://youtu.be/DPzWZzwdaoM

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    2. AceMay 17, 2021 at 7:27 AM

      300L would be quiet a sight haha. You could phone your favorite houseguest from Scotland to secure a sheepskin sack up there...just kidding. Live maggot cheese, no thanks!

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