Author Topic: Hi every one  (Read 2765 times)

Vanknife

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Hi every one
« on: October 18, 2012, 06:00:30 AM »
Good day To all fellow Cheese lovers and makers. My name is Van, My real name are very long Dutch origin. I am born and raised in South Africa and are fortunate to have a job that has taken me to places in the world that I would never have gone to. That said I am currently working in Saudi Arabia in the middle of the desert. We have built a very big Power station and are nearing the end of the project. So in a few months time I will be leaving for my next destiny India.

O yes Cheese, I have always been a big cheese eater and said many a time if some one wants’ to catch me in a trap cheese would the bait to use.

I have started making cheese about 3 months ago making the soft spreadable cream cheese, yogurt cheese, Feta cheese and queso blanco.  Then came the time for trying the harder stuff. It was a battle to get the rennet into this country, now that may sound odd but believe me they are very strict and if the guy at customs have any doubt he will just take the stuff and you will never see it again. Argue and you just make trouble for your self. (Drug trafficking penalty by death)

I got my rennet and has made 5 semi hard/hard cheeses, (Basic hard cheese recipe from Mr. Fankhauser store bought whole milk).one every weekend. The first was a no no just because I did not now what to expect as far as the coagulation process is going, the Curd just pulverized when I started to stir it and was  very fine. None the less I wanted to go through with the whole process to get to know what to expect in the future and to test my home built cheese press. Me and my wife had tested it after it came out of the press (One solid block but very brittle to the cut)  we decided to mature it for a few weeks but it just crumbled away every time I handled it. Cheeses 2;3&4 came out quite good looking and are now in the maturing stage 21 October the first will be a month old and of course then it is testing time. I have managed to lay my hands on Camel milk (Store bought) 4 Dollars a liter, That was a fail and did not coagulate in 4 hrs. Why I don’t know because I followed the recipe as I did with the Cow milk and fresh yogurt as a starter culture, Well the good news is I now know when a cheese is not going to happen. This weekend I will be doing one more same recipe but want to add a handful of dried cranberries to the curd just for a little variation as I don’t have any fancy starter culture’s to try something different.

I think that is enough for a introduction.

PS. Because of the no alcohol laws in this country and being here for the last +5 Years I am making my own beer, wine and Sadiqu (local moonshine) Sadiqu is Arabic word for friend. Ha ha 

beechercreature

  • Guest
Re: Hi every one
« Reply #1 on: October 18, 2012, 02:13:10 PM »
welcome to the site! If you're having trouble with coagulation, feel free to post a thread about it. There are a bunch of friendly, helpful people here that can steer you in the right direction.

Vanknife

  • Guest
Re: Hi every one
« Reply #2 on: October 20, 2012, 06:19:31 AM »
Thanks beechercreature I will keep making cheese and will definately asked Questions as I wonder through the trails of Cheese making.

Regards

VAN

hoeklijn

  • Guest
Re: Hi every one
« Reply #3 on: October 21, 2012, 08:11:21 AM »
And also a warm welcome from a Dutch guy, from the neighorhood of the famous city of Gouda. About coagulation, there are a lot of threads about that subject on the site,so read a lot and don't be afraid to ask. There are some professional cheesemakers on this site as well so a lot of help on every level is available  ;D

Vanknife

  • Guest
Re: Hi every one
« Reply #4 on: October 21, 2012, 11:46:37 AM »
Thanks for the warm welcome, Hoeklijn "Dankie vir die warem verwelkoming."

Regards

VAN

leboy001

  • Guest
Re: Hi every one
« Reply #5 on: December 12, 2012, 03:46:53 AM »
Hi Van

Weirdly enough there was an article in my local paper today (in New Zealand) about Donkey milk cheese which got me wondering about other types of animal cheeses. Apparently there are a few out there, Reindeer, Moose, and Camel. that i have come across so far

What i did read about the camel milk (on wikipedia) is that you cant use calf rennet. It has to be a camel or vegetable rennet. Apparently a danish company has developed a specialised enzyme for the production of camel cheese. Hope that helps

Offline Tiarella

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Re: Hi every one
« Reply #6 on: December 12, 2012, 04:29:48 AM »
A friend of mine had an elderly woman as a seat mate on a long flight and she shared that her family had been in some famine (don't remember when, which country) and that they had no protein sources for their diet except for the cheese this woman made from her breast milk.  Hard to imagine she could produce much on a limited diet but I suppose.....maternal instincts are powerful!