My first Montasio

[dthelmers]

I just opened my first Montasio, recipe form 200 Easy Cheese Recipes, with 1 gallon of goats milk to 3 gallons of cows milk. I made it in September last year. Tasted great, here's a photo, along with photos of frico that we made from it. I think that the frico tastes much better than the cheese, which tastes pretty good; but the frico really brings out the flavor. This will be gone by Christmas day. Wish I'd made more.

[Tobiasrer]

Way to go! Looks like a great wheel of cheese!
If your afraid you will eat it all you could just send the rest my way! I will stop you from consuming it all! Though cant promise IT wont be gone by Christmas!   A) >:D A)

[JeffHamm]

Nice one Dave!  A cheese to you.

I made 3 Montasios (10 L makes) just over a year ago.  I added 1/4 tsp of calf lipase to the milk as I didn't have any goats milk.  Anyway, we grate it over spagetti, etc and it is really good that way.  Of the 3 wheels, we've only used just under 1/4 of the first wheel (don't have spagetti often enough if you ask me).  So, I won't have to make more in a long time.  I might make one using much less lipase (maybe 1/16th) and go for a table cheese next time.

- Jeff

[H-K-J]

nice cheese dt, another cheese ;D for you,
I have a question, If I can get goats milk for a recipe calls for lipase and don't have it will the goats milk make  a good substitute?
as in maybe feta? :-\

[Al Lewis]

Looks awesome.  I have some friends that just started raising goats so I'm hoping to get my hands on some fresh goats milk in the new year.  Hopefully I'll be able to do something that nice with it. :D

[Montie Derby]

Looks great!   How did you age it -- natural rind, I assume (no bag or wax)?

[H-K-J]

Is that a vacuum bag in the back ground :o

[dthelmers]

JeffHamm: if I were just using this as a grating cheese, it would last us a very long time; but discovering frico changes everything. I learned about it at www.montasiocheese.com.
They are so easy to make and so tasty, that I think this cheese will all turn into frico crackers and bowls. I could go through a lot of this cheese this way. It's a great cracker for those on a low or no carb diet, too, and for those who can't tolerate gluten.
I recommend trying yourself, as you have such a nice stock of Montasio. Even a very sharp hard cheese makes a superb cracker this way. Had the ones pictured with my daughter to accompany her homemade chicken soup. A winning combo!

H-K-J: I think the goats milk comes out better, particularly for feta. The calf lipase can be pretty sharp, the goat milk more mellow.

Montie Derby: I aged it to a natural rind over a three month period in my cheese cave, 55° f and 85% humidity. I brushed it down with a soft brush anytime it got a spot of mold. After three months I vacuum bagged it for the remainder of the aging.

H-K-J: yep, that's the vacuum bag in the back ground. The three month aging gave it a good rind, and further aging in the vacuum bag meant that I could forget about it and pay attention to the newer cheeses.

[Tomer1]

Is it a really low moisture cheese or it managed to dry up before you vac baged it?

[JeffHamm]

Oooo, frico looks good! 

- Jeff

[bbracken677]

Frico Bandito!

[H-K-J]

dt, one more question,
If I am going to use 5 gallons of milk, can I use like 1 gallon of goat and 4 gallons of cow, will that give enough of the flavor that the  the lipase gives to the cheese or a different combination of the two, trying to keep my cost down and not order the extra ingredient at this time of year